345. (1) The Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, make rules hereinafter referred to as “the deck cargo rules” prescribing requirements to be complied with where cargo is carried in any uncovered space on the deck of a Bangladesh ship or any other ship within any port or place in Bangladesh; and different requirements may be so prescribed in relation to different descriptions of ships, different descriptions of cargo, different voyages or classes of voyages, different seasons of the year or any other different circumstances. (2) If the load line rules provide, either generally or in particular cases or classes of cases, for assigning special free boards to ships which are to have effect only where a cargo of timber is so carried, then, without prejudice to the generality of the preceding sub section, the deck cargo rules may prescribe special requirements to be complied with in circumstances where any such special free board has effect. (3) If any provision of the deck cargo rules are contravened-(a) in the case of a Bangladesh ship, or(b) in the case of any other ship while the ship is within any port or at any place in Bangladesh,the master or owner of the ship shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding ten thousand Taka. (4) Where a person is charged with an offence under the last preceding sub section, it shall be a defence to prove that the contravention was due solely to deviation or delay and that the deviation or delay was caused solely by stress of weather or other circumstances which neither the master nor the owner nor the charterer, if any, could have prevented or forestalled. (5) For the purpose of securing compliance with the deck cargo rules, any Surveyor authorised in that behalf by the Government may inspect any ship which is carrying cargo in any uncovered space on her deck.