or SHIPTWRECK, the destruction of a ship by rocks or shallows at sea.

By the ancient common law, where any ship was lost at sea, and the goods or cargo were thrown upon the land, these goods, so wrecked, were judged to belong to the king; for it was held, that, by the loss of the ship, all property was gone out of the original owner. But this was undoubtedly adding sorrow to sorrow, and was consonant neither to reason nor humanity. Wherefore it was first ordained by king Henry I. that if any person escaped alive out of the ship, it should be no wreck; and afterwards king Henry II. by his charter, declared, that if on the coasts of either England, Poictou, Oleron, or Gascony, any ship should be distressed, and either man or beast should escape or be found therein alive, the goods should remain to the owners, if they claimed them within three months; but otherwise should be deemed a wreck, and should belong to the king, or other lord of the franchise. This was again confirmed with improvements by king Richard I.; who, in the second year of his reign, not only established these concessions, by ordaining that the owner, if he was shipwrecked and escaped, omnes res suae libertatis et quietus habeat, but also, that if he perished, his children, or in default of them, his brethren and sisters, should retain the property; and in default of brother or sister, then the goods should remain to the king (a). And the law, as laid down by Bracton in the reign of Henry III., seems still to have improved in its equity. For then, if not only a dog (for instance) escaped, by which the owner might be discovered, but if any certain mark were set on the goods, by which they might be known again, it was held to be no wreck. And this is certainly most agreeable to reason; the rational claim of the king being only founded upon this, that the true owner cannot be ascertained. Afterwards, in the first statute of Westminster, the time of limitation of claims, given by the charter of Henry II. is extended to a year and a day, according to the usage of Normandy; and it enacts, that if any man, a dog, or a cat, escape alive, the vessel shall not be adjudged a wreck. These animals, as in Bracton, are only put for examples; for it is now held, that not only if any live thing escape, but if proof can be made of the property of any of the goods or lading which come to shore, they shall not be forfeited as wreck. The statute further ordains, that the sheriff of the county shall be bound to keep the goods a year and a day (as in France for one year, agreeable to the maritime laws of Oleron, and in Holland for a year and a half), that if any man can prove a property in them, either in his own right or by right of representation, they shall be restored to him without delay; but if no such property be proved within that time, they then shall be the king's. If the goods are of a perishable nature, the sheriff may sell them, and the money shall be liable in their stead. This revenue of wrecks is frequently granted out to lords of manors as a royal franchise; and if any one be thus entitled to wrecks in his own land, and the king's goods are wrecked thereon, the king may claim them at any time, even after the year and day.

It is to be observed, that, 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 lagan. 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; lagan is where they are sunk in the sea, but tied to a cork or buoy, in order to be found again. These are also the king's, if no owner appears to claim them; but if any owner appears, he is entitled to recover the possession. For even if they be cast overboard, without any mark or buoy, in order to lighten the ship, the owner is not by this act of necessity construed to have renounced his property; much less can things lagan be supposed to be abandoned, since the owner has done all in his power to assert and retain his property. These three are therefore accounted so far a distinct thing from the former, that by the king's grant to a man of wrecks, things jettam, flotsam, and lagan, will not pass.

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 affect his property within the year and day limited by law. And in order to preserve this property entire for him, and if possible to prevent wrecks at all, our laws have made many very humane regulations; in a spirit quite opposite to those savage laws which formerly prevailed in all the northern regions of Europe, and a few years ago were still said to subsist on the coasts of the Baltic Sea, permitting the inhabitants to seize on whatever they could get as lawful prize; or, as an author of their own expresses it, "in naufragiorum miseria et calamitate tanquam vultures ad prandum currere." By the statute 27 Edw. III. c. 13, if any ship be lost on the shore, and the goods come to land (which cannot, says the statute, be called wreck), they shall be presently delivered to the merchants, paying only a reasonable reward to those that saved and preserved them, which is intitled salvage. Also by the common law, if any persons (other than the sheriff) take any goods to cast on shore, which are not legal wreck, the owners might have a commission to inquire and find them out, and compel them to make restitution. And by 12 Ann. ft. 2. c. 18, confirmed by 4 Geo. I. c. 12, in order to afflit the distressed, and prevent the scandalous illegal practices on some of our tea coasts (too similar to those on the Baltic), it is enacted, that all head-officers and others of towns near the sea, shall, upon application made to them, summon as many hands as are necessary, and send them to the relief of any ship in distress, on forfeiture of L. 100; and in case of assistance given, salvage shall be paid by the owners, to be assessed by three neighbouring justices. All persons that fecere any goods shall forfeit their treble value; and if they wilfully do any act whereby the ship is lost or destroyed, by making holes in her, stealing her pumps, or otherwise, they are guilty of felony without benefit of clergy. Lastly, by the statute 26 Geo. II. c. 19, plundering any vessel, either in distress or wrecked, and whether any living creature be on board or not (for whether wreck or otherwise, it is clearly not the property of the populace), such plundering or preventing the escape of any person that endeavours to save his life, or wounding him with intent to destroy him, or putting out false lights in order to bring any vessel into danger, are all declared to be capital felonies; in like manner as the destroying of trees, steeples,

(a) In like manner Constantine the Great, finding that by the imperial law the revenue of wrecks was given to the prince's treasury or fiscus, restrained it by an edict (Cod. 11. 5. 1.) and ordered them to remain to the owners; adding this humane expostulation: "Quod enim jus habet fiscus in aliena calamitate, ut de re tam lucuosa compendi-um fecetur?" or other stated sea-marks, is punished by the statute 8 Eliz. c. 13, with a forfeiture of L 100 or outlawry. Moreover, by the statute of Geo. II. pilfering any goods cast ashore is declared to be petty larceny; and many other salutary regulations are made, for the more effectually preserving ships of any nation in distress.

By the civil law, to destroy persons shipwrecked, or prevent their saving the ship, is capital. And to steal even a plank from a vessel in distress or wrecked, makes the party liable to answer for the whole ship and cargo. The laws also of the Wifgoths, and the most early Neapolitan constitutions, punished with the utmost severity all those who neglected to assist any ship in distress, or plundered any goods cast on shore.