332.—If any passenger, whether a cabin or a steerage passenger, is either taken off any ship which is carrying any steerage passenger on a voyage from any part of Her Majesty’s dominions and is damaged, wrecked, sunk, or otherwise destroyed, or if any such passenger is picked up at sea from any boat, raft, or otherwise, it shall be lawful—

(a) if the port to which such passenger (in this Act referred to as a “wrecked passenger”) is conveyed is in the United Kingdom, for a Secretary of State; and

(b) if the port is in a British possession for the governor of that possession, or any person authorised by him for the purpose; and

(c) if the port is elsewhere, for the British consular officer there;

to defray all or any part of the expenses thereby incurred.