458.—(1) In every contract of service, express or implied, between the owner of a ship and the master or any seaman thereof, and in every instrument of apprenticeship whereby any person is bound to serve as an apprentice on board any ship, there shall be implied, notwithstanding any agreement to the contrary, an obligation on the owner of the ship, that the owner of the ship, and the master, and every agent charged with the loading of the ship, or the preparing of the ship for sea, or the sending of the ship to sea, shall use all reasonable means to insure the seaworthiness of the ship for the voyage at the time when the voyage commences, and to keep her in a seaworthy condition for the voyage during the voyage.

(2) Nothing in this section—

(a) shall subject the owner of a ship to any liability by reason of the ship being sent to sea in an unsea-worthy state where, owing to special circumstances, the sending of the ship to sea in such a state was reasonable and justifiable; or

(b) shall apply to any ship employed exclusively in trading or going from place to place in any river or inland water of which the whole or part is in any British possession.