FLOTSAM, JETSAM, and LIGAN. In order to constitute a legal wreck the goods must come to land. If they continue at sea, the law distinguishes them by the barbarous
and uncouth appellations of jetsam, flotsam, and ligan. Jetsam is where goods are cast into the sea, and there sink and remain under water; flotsam is where they continue swimming on the surface of the waves; ligan is where they are sunk in the sea, but are tied to a cork or buoy, in order that they may be found again. Jetsam, flotsam, and ligan belong to the king, or his grantee, if no owner appears to claim them within a year. They are accounted so far distinct from legal wreck, that by the king's grant of wrecks, things jetsam, flotsam, and ligan will not pass.—(Blackstone, b. i., c. 8.)