man could by wading touch !t with a sprit (Kemble Cod Dip!., No. 7X1) There is reason to think that before the end of the reign of Henr>- II . the crown had granted away its right to wreck round a great part of the coast of England. Although a landowner o the present day. who under such a grant is entitled to wreck, will, in respect of wreck itself, derive no substantial benefit nevertheless the grant may be of great value as evidence of his right to the foreshore; and even where no grant of wreck can be produced, if he can show that he and his predecessors have been accustomed to take possession of wreck on the foreshore, it is strong evidence as against the crown of his right to the foreshore, and a lost grant may be presumed. As to these grants of wreck Hale saj'S that though wreck of the sea doth de jure communi belong to the king, yet it niay belong to a subject by charter or by prescription..: . Sometime wreck hath belonged to an honour by prescription, as in the honour of Arundel, sometimes to the owner of a county. Ihe lords of an counties palatine regularly had wreccum mans within their counties palatine as part of their jura regalia, but yet inferior lords might prescribe for Teck belonging to their several manors within a county palatine.
The earl of Cornwall had wreccum mans per totum comitatum Cornubiac; for though Cornwall was not a county palatine, it had many royalties belonging to it, viz. as against the king, though particular lords might prescribe for wreck against the earl
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(De jure maris, i. vii.; Hargrave 41). In the Isle of Man unreclaimed wreck, whether cast on shore or found in the sea, within the headlands of Man, belongs to the lord, now the crown by purchase from the duke of Athol; in the Channel Islands all wreck cast on shore or within reach of a person standing on shore, except certain valuables which go to the crown, belongs to the lord of the manor if not reclaimed within a year and a day; while in Wales the old law made everything thrown on shore belong to the king, for
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the sea is a packhorse of the king {A O. v. Jones 2 H & C. 347). In Scotland, as m England, unclaimed wreck belonged to the crown and was often granted to subjects, generally under the style of " wrak, waith and ware, the lait two words signifying derelict and seaweed. It was so granted to the earl of Orkney in 1581. It was occasionally dealt with by the Scottish parliament. Thus by an act of 1426, ships wrecked on the coast of Scotland were to be escheat to the king if they belonged to a country observing a similar law, other^vise to have the favour shown to ships of Scotland. In France under the name of drmt de brzs or drml d'epave similar grants were made to feudal seigneurs. From early times a distinction was made in English law between wreck cast ashore and wreck that is floating or sunken below lowwater mark. Wreck proper, or common law wreck, ejeclum mans is what is cast by the sea upon the shore; for nothing shall be said
to be wreccum maris, but such goods as are cast or left upon the land (Sir H. Constables Case, 1599, 5 Rep. 106), and this belonged to the king jure coronae, and was dealt with by the common law. Hoating and sunken wreck belonged to the crown as inter regalia^ but was granted to the lord-admiral jure regis.
Even when the office of lord
high admiral is in abeyance, and the duties performed by commissioners, as now, these rights are distinguished from the other royal revenues as belonging to the crown in its office of admiralty, or, as thev are commonly known, droits of the admiralty. I-r9m early times the lord-admiral tried to usurp, and there are several instances of his actually usurping jurisdiction over wreck proper; and in the reJgn of Richard II. special statutes (which were only declaratory of the common law) were passed for the purpose of connn'ng his jurisdiction to its proper limits. One of these (15 Ric II) (leclared that
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of all manner of contracts, pleas and quereles, and a 1 other things arising within the bodies of the counties as well by land as by water and also of vTeck of the sea, the admiral 3 court shall have no manner of cognizance, po^ver nor jurisdiction, but all such manner of contracts, pleas and quereles, and all other things nsing within the bodies of counties as well by land as by water as afore, and also week of the sea, shall be tried by the laws of the land and not before nor bv the admiral nor his lieutenant in any wise.
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In spite of this statute, instances still occurred of the admiralty court exercising this jurisdiction, until by frequent prohibition by the common law courts, especially in the 17th century, and by the admission of the admiralty judges. themselves, it was recognized as bevond the scope of their authority. These admiralty droits are cla'ssified as flotsam, jetsam, lagan and derelict. In Lord Coke s words, flotsam is
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when a ship sinks or otherwise perishes, and the goods float on the sea "; jetsam is "when goods are cast out o 1 a ship to lighten her when in danger of sinking, and afterwards the ship perishes "; and ligan, or lagan, is
" when hea-y goods are to lighten
the ship, cast out and sunk in the sea tied to a buoy or cork, or something that will not sink, in order that they may be found again and recovered."
Derelict is a ship or cargo, or part of it, abandoned by its master and crew sine spe rccuperandi el sine ammo rererteiidi "None of these goods, " adds Coke.
" which are so called, are called
wreck so long as they remain in or upon the sea- but if any of them by the sea be put upon the land then they shall be said to be wreck (Sir H. Constable's Case, 1599. 5 ReP- 106; and 2 Inst. 167). Hale says" they are not wreck of the sea but of another nature, neither do they pass by urcccum maris as is recorded in Sir Henry Constable s case and the case of the 3 Edw. II ., where they are styled adventure maris.
And as they are of another nature, so they are of another
cognizance or jurisdiction, viz. the admiral Jurisdiction. Flotsam,
jetsam and lagan, and other sea estrays, if they are taken up in the wide ocean, belong to the taker of them if the owner cannot be known. But if they be taken up within the narrow seas that do belong to the king, or in any haven, port or creek or arm of the sea, they do prima facie and of common right belong to the king, in case where the ship perisheth or the owner cannot be known
But if the owner can
be known he ought to have his goods again, for the casting them overboard is not a loss of his property. Although the right of these adventures of the sea within the king's seas belongs to him where the owner cannot be known, vet the king hath little advantage of it, for by the custom of the English seas the one moiety of what is gained belongs to him that saves it [this is not the present rule] ...
A
subject may be entitled to these as he may be entitled to wreck(i) by charter; (2) by prescription" (Dejure mans; Hargrave, 41 4->) The difference between these two kinds of wreck is clearly brought out in R. v . 49 Casks of Brandy (1836, 3 Hagg. Ad. 257; and R. v . 2 Casks of Tallow, ibid. 294)—a dispute between the crown and a grantee of wreck, where it was decided that objects picked up -below low-water mark, and within 3 m. of it, as also objects afloat between high- and low-water marks, never having touched the ground, are droits of the crown, whereas objects picked up aground between high- and low-water marks, or though aground, yet covered by the waves, are wreck.
The distinction that Hale draws in the above passage between sea waifs or estrays taken on the high seas, and those taken in the seas of the realm, seems to be founded on the occupalw of the civil law but although favoured by the similar rule existing in the case of royal fish, it has not been recognized by the courts, which have always held that in both cases they are droits of the crown in its office of admiralty, and, subject to the right.of the salvor to reward and the right of the owner to reclaim them in a year and a day, go to the royal revenue (Lord Stowell, The Anuria, 1798- I C. Rob. 37)-Lord Stowell bases this prerogative right on the general rule of civilized countries that what is found derelict on the seas 15 acquired beneficially for the sovereign, if no owner shall appear. It seems
that this was also Coke's view (2 Inst. 168).
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The provisions of the Merchant Snipping Act 1894, mentioned below, upon the subject of droits of admiralt>' are not clear. In
practice the only droits of the admiralty that are commonly dealt With are anchors that have been slipped or parted from in heavj; weather
In the Downs and other road steads these are swept-
for by creepers towed over the sea bottom, and m former days sweeoing for anchors was a common industry. In the Downs large sums' have been made after gales in this way. In the 17th century it became customary to obtain from the crown grants of the nght to fish for sunken wreck and treasure not only upon English coasts but all over the world.
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Although a ship on board which, or by means of which a man was killed, might be a deodand {q.v.), yet qua wreck she was not subject to forfeiture as deodand.
Present British Lavi. — Yrom the above sketch of the development of the law of wreck it will be seen that it owes little to the legislature. After the act of 1353 no statute dealt with the subject until 1 71 2. In that year a salvage act was passed, but it made no material alteration in the law; and although during the i8lh and early 19th centuries several acts were passed dealing fragmentarily with wreck and salvage, the act of 1846, above mentioned, is the only one that caUs for notice. That act was embodied in and added to by the Merchant Shipping Act iSs4, which again was repealed, re-enacted and added to by the Merchant Shipping Act x894- The last mentioned act contains the whole of the existing statute law upon the subject of wreck within the territorial waters of the United Kmgdom. For its purposes wTCck includes jetsam, flotsam, lagan and derelict, found in or on the shores of the sea or any tidal water. The term does not extend to a barge adrift in the Thames, nor a raft of timber adrift; it must be the huU, cargo or appurtenances of a vessel. Under the Sea Fisheries Act 18S3, passed to give effect to the North Sea Fisheries Convention, the pro%isions of the Merchant Shipping Act as to wreck, apply to fishing boats with their rigging and gear.
The provisions of the Merchant Shipping Act dealing with wreck (ninth part) may be summarized as follows: The Board of Irade as the receiver-general of droits of admiralty) has the general superintendence of wreck in the United ICingdom, and appoints receive.^ of wreck for the whole coast, who are paid by fees. Y^here a Bntisn or foreign vessel is wrecked, stranded or in distress, at any place on or near!he coasts or any tidal vvater with n the l'^'« °;, ^^^^^l^fc
it is the duty of the receiver for the district to proceed there and give directions for preserving the ship, the lives on board her^^d h«nartro and aooarel He can require the assistance of any person. S^cialb? th^Taier of any v4el, or the useof any waggo^. ^r^^s
or horses, near at hand: and for this purpose any ptir^oa may.