Page images
PDF
EPUB

[the owner, if he was shipwrecked and escaped, “omnes res suas liberas et quietas haberet," but also that, if he perished, his children, or, in default of them, his brethren and sisters, should retain the property, and only in default of brother or sister should the goods remain in the king. And the law, as laid down by Bracton in the reign of Henry the Third, was to this effect, that if only a dog, for instance, escaped, by which the owner might be discovered, nay, if any certain mark were set on the goods, by which they might be known again, it was held to be no wreck (g). And this is certainly most agreeable to reason, the claim of the Crown being only founded upon this, that the true owner cannot be ascertained. Afterwards, by the Statute of Westminster the first (1275), c. 4, the law was laid down more agreeably to the charter of Henry the Second; and it was enacted, that if a man, a dog, or a cat, escaped alive, the vessel should not be adjudged a wreck,—these animals being put only for examples (h); for not only if any live thing escaped, but if proof could be made of the property of any of the goods or lading which came to shore, they were not forfeited as wreck (i). The Statute of Westminster the first further ordained, that the sheriff of the county should be bound to keep the goods a year and a day, (as in France for one year, agreeably to the maritime laws of Oleron (k), and in Holland for a year and a half,) so that if any man could prove a property in them, either in his own right or by right of representation, they should be restored to him without delay; but if no such property were proved within that time, they then should be the king's (1). And if the goods were of a perishable nature, the sheriff might sell them, and the money was to be

(g) Bract. 1. 3, ch. 3, s. 5.

(h) Flet. 1. 1, ch. 44; 2 Inst. 167; 5 Rep. 107.

(i) Hamilton v. Davis (1771), 5 Burr. 2732.

(k) Ll. Ol. s. 28.

(7) 2 Inst. 168.

[liable in their stead (m). This revenue from wrecks was frequently granted out to lords of manors as a royal franchise, but subject, of course, to all the same limitations as wrecks were subject to in the hands of the Crown; also, where any one was thus entitled to wrecks in his own land, and the goods of the king were wrecked thereon, the king might claim them at any time, even after the year and a day (n).

It is to be observed, that, in order to constitute a legal wreck, the goods must have come to land (o). If they continue at sea, the law distinguishes them by the appellations of jetsam, flotsam, and ligan; jetsam being where goods are cast into the sea, and there sink and remain under water; flotsam where they continue floating on the surface of the waves; and ligan where they are sunk in the sea, but tied to a cork or buoy, in order to be found again (p). These goods are also the property of the Crown, if no owner appears to claim them; but if any owner appears, he is entitled to recover the possession (7). A royal grant of wreck, will not, apart from statute, pass things jetsam, flotsam, and ligan (r).

Wrecks, in their legal acceptation, are at present not very frequent; for if any goods come to land, it rarely happens, since the improvement of commerce, navigation, and correspondence, that the owner is not able to assert his property within the year and day limited by law. And, in order to preserve this property entire for him, our laws, in a spirit quite opposite to those savage laws which formerly prevailed in all the northern regions of Europe,

(m) Plowd. 466.

(n) 2 Inst. ubi sup. Bro. Abr. Wreck.

(0) Palmerv. Rouse (1858), 3H. & N.505; Hale, De Jure Maris, ch. vii. (p) Constable's Case (1599), 5 Rep. 106. But see s. 510 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894.

(9) Qua enim res in tempestate levande navis causâ ejiciuntur, ha dominorum permanent,-quia palam est, eas non eo animo ejici quod quis eas habere nolit. (Inst. 2, 1. 48.)

(r) Constable's Case, ubi supra.

[have made many humane regulations (s).] For, by the common law, if any persons (other than the sheriff) took any goods cast on shore, which were not legal wreck. the owners might have a commission to inquire and compel restitution (t); and it was provided, by a statute of Edward the Third, that if any ship were lost on the shore, and the goods came to land, they should presently be delivered to the merchants, the latter paying only a reasonable reward, or salvage, to those that saved and preserved them. Many additions to the law of wreck and salvage, whereby these subjects were placed on a more satisfactory footing, were, in more modern times, made by the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, and by the numerous Acts by which that Act was, from time to time, amended (u). All these earlier Acts have now been repealed, and their provisions consolidated, by the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894. By this enactment, it is provided, that the Board of Trade shall have the general superintendence of all matters relating to wreck (a), which, for the purpose of the Act, includes things jetsam, flotsam, and ligan (y), and power is given to such board, with the consent of the treasury, to appoint receivers of wreck in different districts. These receivers are authorized to summon as many men

(8) On the coasts of the Baltic Sea, in particular, the inhabitants were long permitted to seize on whatever they could get as lawful prize. (Stiern. de Jure Sueon. 1. 3, ch. 5.)

(t) F. N. B. 112.

(u) See more particularly Merchant Shipping Act (Amendment) Act, 1855, ss. 19, 20; Admiralty Court Act, 1861, s. 9; Merchant Shipping Amendment Act, 1862; Merchant Shipping Act, 1876, ss. 29-33, appointing wreck commissioners to investigate into shipping casualties; Merchant Shipping (Colonial Inquiries)

Act, 1882; Merchant Shipping (Expenses) Act, 1882; and Merchant Shipping Acts, 1889, c. 43 (tonnage); c. 68 (pilotage); and c. 73 (colours).

(x) As to wreck removed in order to free the navigation, see the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, ss. 530-534; and as to floating derelict, see Derelict Vessels (Report) Act, 1896.

(y) The word "wreck" under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, s. 510, also includes "derelict found in or on the shores of the sea or any tidal water (Cossmanv. West (1887), L. R. 13 App. Cas. 160).

as may be necessary, to demand help from any ship near at hand, or to press into their service any neighbouring waggons, carts, or horses, for the purpose of preserving or assisting any stranded or distressed vessel, or her cargo, or for the saving of human life; and a penalty is established in case their demands are not complied with (z). The Act contains also copious provisions with reference to salvage for services rendered, and the manner in which the amount is to be assessed in case of dispute ; which is either made the subject of an action in the proper division of the High Court of Justice, or, in cases below a certain amount, may be determined by the judge of a neighbouring county court, or before justices of the peace (a). With regard to wreck found, it is provided, that any finder, other than the owner, must deliver the same, as soon as possible, to the receiver of the district; and, even if such finder be the owner, he must give notice to that officer (b). If, before the expiration of a year, no owner establishes his claim to wreck so found, and no person, other than the Crown, is proved to be entitled to the same, it is then to be sold by the receiver. The proceeds thereof, after payment of all expenses and the salvage, if any, were, during the life of the late Queen, paid to the Mercantile Marine Fund created or regulated by the Act (c); such moneys are now, for the most part, paid into the Exchequer, and go to form General Lighthouse Fund (d). Other provisions have also been made, with a view to

(z) Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, ss. 511-514.

(a) Ibid. ss. 547-549. (b) Ibid. s. 518.

(c) Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, s. 525.

(d) Merchant Shipping (Mercantile Marine Fund) Act, 1898, s. 1. But such of the proceeds of wreck as shall belong to his Majesty in right of his duchy of

Lancaster, or as shall belong to the duchy of Cornwall, form part of the revenues of such duchies respectively (Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, s. 525). As to salvage within the boundaries of the cinque ports, see the Cinque Ports Act, 1821, ss. 1-5, 15, 16 and 18; and the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, s. 571.

prevent the disgraceful practices of wrecking which formerly obtained on some parts of our sea coasts; for, by sect. 515 of the Act of 1894, continuing a like provision in the Act of 1854, if any ship, stranded or in distress on or near the shore, be plundered or damaged by persons riotously and tumultuously assembled together, compensation is to be made to the owner, by the police district, in or nearest to which the offence is committed, in the manner by law provided in cases of the destruction of churches and other buildings by riotous assemblages (e). Moreover, by the Larceny Act, 1861, s. 64, persons plundering or stealing wreck are made liable to penal servitude for fourteen years; and, by the Malicious Damage Act, 1861, s. 47, persons exhibiting any false light or signal, with intent to bring a ship into danger, or doing any other malicious act tending to the immediate loss of a ship, may be sentenced to penal servitude for life (ƒ).

3. [Treasure-trove (thesaurus inventus), is where any money, coin, gold, silver, plate, or bullion, is found hidden in the earth, or other private place, the owner thereof being unknown. The treasure so found belongs to the Crown; but if he that hid it be known, or afterwards. found out, the owner, and not the Crown, is entitled to it (g). It is the hiding, we may observe, and not the abandonment, that gives the king the property; as appears from Bracton's definition, that it is, in the words of the

(e) The provision for compensation for riotous damage to buildings is now contained in the Riot Damages Act, 1886. See also the Malicious Damage Act, 1861, ss. 11, 12.

(f) By the civil law, to destroy persons shipwrecked, or to prevent their saving the ship, was punishable with death; and to steal even a plank from a vessel in distress, or wrecked, made the party liable

to answer for the whole ship and cargo. (Dig. 47, 9, 3.) In our own law, the provision previously in force on this subject (7 Will. 4 & 1 Vict. (1837), c. 89, s. 5), made this offence of wilfully bringing a ship into danger by false lights, &c., a crime punishable with death.

(g) 3 Inst. 132; Dalton, Sheriffs,

ch. 16.

« EelmineJätka »