(1) if any person dies on board a foreign-going Indian ship, the proper officer at the port where the crew of the ship is discharged, or the proper officer at any earlier port of call in India, shall, on the arrival of the ship at that port, inquire into the cause of death, and shall make in the official log book an endorsement to the effect, either that the statement of the cause of death in the book is in his opinion true, or the contrary, according to the result of the inquiry.
     (2) If, in the course of any such inquiry, it appears to the proper officer that a death has been caused on board the ship by violence or other improper means, he shall either report the matter to the Director-General or, if the emergency of the case so requires, shall take immediate steps for bringing the offender to trial.