232.—(1) Where any wages or effects are under this Act forfeited for desertion from a ship, those effects may be converted into money, and those wages and effects, or the money arising from the conversion of the effects, shall be applied towards reimbursing the expenses caused by the desertion to the master or owner of the ship, and subject to that reimbursement shall be paid into the Exchequer, and carried to the Consolidated Fund.

(2) For the purpose of such reimbursement, the master or the owner, or his agent may, if the wages are earned subsequently to the desertion, recover them in the same manner as the deserter could have recovered them if not forfeited; and the court in any legal proceeding relating to such wages may order them to be paid accordingly.

(3) Where wages are forfeited under the foregoing provisions of this Act in any case other than for desertion, the forfeiture shall, in the absence of any specific provision to the contrary, be for the benefit of the master or owner by whom the wages are payable.