: The Mystery of Evelin Delorme: A Hypnotic Story by Paine Albert Bigelow - Fantasy fiction; Paranormal fiction

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EDITORS' PREFACE v

APPENDICES

TABLE OF CASES 291

INDEX 299

THE LAW OF THE SEA

This law is to be found in the statutory laws of different countries, the decisions of the courts and text-books on the subjects involved. Back of the laws of each particular country is what is termed the general maritime law or common law of the sea, which, like the common law of the land, consists of that general mass of usages and customs which exists by the universal consent and immemorial practice of those doing business by sea. It is effective within particular countries only so far as they consent to follow it, as is the case with international law, of which it is really a part. In general, however, it is recognized and enforced wherever the local laws are silent in regard to maritime transactions.

It sometimes becomes a question of some difficulty whether a particular object is or is not a vessel and subject to admiralty jurisdiction. Rev. Stat., ? 3, define "vessel" as including "every description of watercraft or other artificial contrivance, used or capable of being used as a means of transportation by water," and in General Cass, 1 Brown Adm. 334, it was said:

The true criterion by which to determine whether any watercraft or vessel is subject to admiralty jurisdiction is the business or employment for which it is intended, or is susceptible of being used, or in which it is actually engaged, rather than size, form, capacity or means of propulsion.

In one or two old cases it was held that a dredge was not a ship but the preponderance of authority is to the effect that a dredge is a ship and within admiralty jurisdiction. The question whether a raft of logs is a vessel has been variously decided. If it be a mere pile or series of floating logs it is probably not a vessel, but rafts made of cross-ties, used as a convenient mode of bringing them to market, manned by crew, who lived thereon during the voyage and propelled by the current and by poles and oars, have been held to be a ship and subject to admiralty jurisdiction. So, also, a floating bathhouse, not permanently moored, but which was towed from place to place has been held to be a vessel; whereas a floating drydock, kept permanently moored, is not a vessel. The question whether barges and floats are subject to admiralty jurisdiction has been the subject of frequent adjudication, and while some old cases held that they were not, the tendency of the modern decisions is to hold that such crafts are vessels. In the Mac, 7 P. D. 126, the question was whether a hopper barge was a ship. It was decided in the affirmative by the English Court of Appeal, Lord Justice Brett saying:

The words "ship" and "boat" are used; but it seems plain to me that the word "ship" is not used in the technical sense as denoting a vessel of a particular rig. In popular language ships are of different kinds; barques, brigs, schooners, sloops, cutters. The word includes anything floating in or upon the water, built in a particular form, and used for a particular purpose. In this case the vessel, if she may be so called, was built for a particular purpose; she was built as a hopper-barge; she has no motive power, no means of progression within herself. Towing alone will not conduct her; she must have a rudder; and, therefore, she must have men on board to steer her. Barges are vessels in a certain sense; and, as the word "ship" is not used in a strictly nautical meaning, but is used in a popular meaning, I think that this hopper-barge is a "ship".... This hopper-barge is used for carrying men and mud; she is used in navigation; for to dredge up and carry away mud and gravel is an act done for the purposes of navigation. Suppose that a saloon-barge, capable of carrying 200 persons, is towed down the river Mersey in order to put passengers on board of vessels lying at its mouth; she would be used for the purposes of navigation, and I think it equally true that the hopper-barge was used in navigation.

As to contracts, it has been equally well settled that the English rule which concedes jurisdiction, with a few exceptions, only to contracts made upon the sea and to be executed thereon is entirely inadmissible and that the true criterion is the nature and subject-matter of the contract, as whether it was a maritime contract, having reference to maritime service or maritime transactions.

Perhaps the best criterion of the maritime character of a contract is the system of law from which it arises and by which it is governed. And it is well known that the contract of insurance sprang from the law maritime, and derives all its material rules and incidents therefrom.

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