or SHIPWRECK, 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 and either man or beast should escape or be found there- in alive, the goods should remain to the owners, if they claimed them within three months; but otherwise should be esteemed 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 con- cessions, by ordaining that the owner, if he was ship- wrecked 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 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 cer- tainly 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 ani- mals, 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 for- feited 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 representa- tion, 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 perish- able 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 intitled to wrecks in his own land, and the king's goods are wrecked there- on, 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 le- gal wreck, the goods must come to land. If they con- tinue at sea, the law distinguishes them by the barbarous and uncouth appellations of jettam, flotsam, and lagan. Jettam 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 intitled to recover the possession.

Vol. XX. Part II.

(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. ii. 5. i.) and ordered them to remain to the owners; adding this humane expostulation: "Quod enim jus habet fiscus in aliena calamitate, ut de re tam iucuosa com- pendium seceatur." WRECK is punished by the statute 8 Eliz. c. 13, with a forfeiture of 100l. or outlawry. Moreover, by the statute of Geo. II. pilfering any goods cast adrift 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 Visigoths, 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.