108.—(1) Every indenture of apprenticeship to the sea service shall be executed in duplicate and shall be exempt from stamp duty.

(2) Every indenture of apprenticeship to the sea service, made in the United Kingdom, and every assignment or cancellation thereof, and, where the apprentice bound dies or deserts, the fact of the death or desertion, shall be recorded.

(3) For the purpose of the record—

(a) a person to whom an apprentice to the sea service is bound shall within seven days of the execution of the indenture take or transmit to the Registrar-General of Shipping and Seamen, or to a superintendent, the indenture executed in duplicate, and the Registrar-General or superintendent shall keep and record the one indenture and endorse on the other the fact that it has been recorded and re-deliver it to the master of the apprentice;

(b) the master shall notify any assignment or cancellation of the indenture, or the death or desertion of the apprentice, to the Registrar-General of Shipping and Seamen, or to a superintendent, within seven days of the occurrence, if it occurs within the United Kingdom; or, as soon as circumstances permit, if it occurs elsewhere.

(4) If any person fails to comply with any requirement of this section, he shall for each offence be liable to a fine not exceeding ten pounds.