When a ship has sustained or caused any accident occasioning loss of life or any serious injury to any person or has received any material damage affecting her seaworthiness or her efficiency either in her hull or is so altered in any part of her machinery as not to correspond with the particulars contained in any of the certificates issued under this Act in respect of the ship, the owner or master shall, within twenty-four hours after the happening of the accident or damage or as soon thereafter as possible, transmit to the Central Government or the nearest principal officer a report of the accident or damage and of the probable cause thereof stating the name of the ship, her official number, if any, her port of registry and the place where she is.