in commerce, a marine contract for the borrowing of money upon the keel or bottom of a ship, that is to say, when the master of a ship binds the ship itself, that if the money be not paid by the time appointed, the creditor shall have the said ship.

Bottomry is also where a person lends money to a merchant, who wants it in traffic, and the lender is to be paid a greater sum at the return of the ship, standing to the hazard of the voyage. On which account, though the interest be greater than what the law commonly allows, yet it is not usury, because the money being furnished at the lender's hazard, if the ship perishes, he shares in the loss.