ADMIRALTY properly signifies the office of lord high admiral, whether discharged by one single person, or by joint commissioners called lords of the admiralty.

Court of ADMIRALTY, is a sovereign court, held by the lord high admiral, or lords of the admiralty, where cognizance is taken in all maritime affairs, whether civil or criminal.—All crimes committed on the high seas, or on great rivers below the first bridge next the sea, are cognizable in this court only, and before which they must be tried by judge and jury. But in civil cases the mode is different, the decisions being all made according to the civil law. From the sentences of the admiralty judge an appeal always lay, in ordinary course, to the king in chancery, as may be collected from statute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 19, which directs the appeal from the archbishop's courts to be determined by persons named in the king's commission, "like as in case of appeal from the admiral court." But this is also expressly declared by statute 8 Eliz. c. 5, which enacts, that upon an appeal made to the chancery, the sentence definitive of the delegates appointed by commission shall be final.

Appeals from the vice-admiralty courts in America, and our other plantations and settlements, may be brought before the courts of admiralty in England, as being a branch of the admiral's jurisdiction, though they may also be brought before the king in council. But in case of prize vessels, taken in time of war, in any part of the world, and condemned in any courts of admiralty or vice-admiralty as lawful prize, the appeal lies to certain commissioners of appeals confining chiefly of the privy council, and not to judges delegates. And this by virtue of divers treaties with foreign nations, by which particular courts are established in all the maritime countries of Europe for the decision of this question, Whether lawful prize or not? for this being a question between subjects of different states, it belongs entirely to the law of nations, and not to the municipal laws of either country, to determine it.

Court of ADMIRALTY, in Scotland. See Law.

ADMIRALTY Bay, in Geography, a spacious bay with good anchorage on the west coast of Cook's straits, in the southern island of New Zealand. S. Lat. 40° 37'. E. Long. 174° 54'.

There is a bay of the same name on the north-west coast of America, in N. Lat. 59° 31'. W. Long. 140° 18'.

ADMIRALTY Inlet, the entrance to the supposed straits of Juan de Fuca, on the west coast of New Georgia, Admiralty in N. Lat. 48° 30'. W. Long. 124° 15'. It was visited by Captain Vancouver in 1792, who found the soil on the shores rich and fertile, well watered, and clothed with luxuriant vegetation.

Admiralty Islands lie in about 2° 18' S. Lat. and 146° 44' E. Long. There are between 20 and 30 islands said to be scattered about here, one of which alone would make a large kingdom. Captain Carteret, who first discovered them, was prevented from touching at them, although their appearance was very inviting, on account of the condition of his ship, and of his being entirely unprovided with the articles of barter which suit an Indian trade. He describes them as clothed with a beautiful verdure of woods, lofty and luxuriant, intermixed with spots that have been cleared for plantations, groves of cocoa nut trees, and housetops of the natives, who seem to be very numerous. The largest of these islands is 18 leagues long in the direction of east and west. The discoverer thinks it highly probable that these islands produce several valuable articles of trade, particularly spices, as they lie in the same climate and latitude as the Moluccas.