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A BOOK OF REFERENCE

FOR

Shipowners, Shipbrokers, Charterers and Consignees,

AND

SHIPMASTERS' COMPLETE GUIDE.

Maritime Notes & Queries:

A RECORD OF

SHIPPING LAW AND USAGE.

FOR THE YEAR

1899.

Compiled and Edited from the

"SHIPPING AND MERCANTILE GAZETTE," Daily Newspaper.

VOL. XIII.

LONDON:

SPOTTISWOODE & CO., 54 GRACECHURCH STREET, E.C.

AND ALL BOOK AND CHART SELLERS.

1900.

[All Rights are Reserved.]

MG
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v. 13

PREFACE.

HE present volume of Maritime Notes and Queries

THE

contains a selection from the Articles and Letters with

their Answers which appeared in the Shipping Gazette in 1899, carefully revised; also the Index of the judicial decisions of the year in its double form; and, finally the only Regulations passed in the period which appear to be of material interest to those for whom this book is prepared, the Load-line Regulations, and the "Boy Sailors" Scale and Regulations.

The year has been singularly unproductive of legislative enactments or of rules under other authority affecting maritime interests. The only statute, and its bearing on shipping is only indirect, has been the Anchors and Chain Cables Act, which simplifies and amends the law relating to the testing and sale of anchors and chain cables. Some new County Court Rules, which include Rules of Admiralty Procedure, were issued last spring, but they are only of importance to the legal practitioner. An Order of the Board of Trade as to registration, transfer, and mortgage fees of some interest to shipowners was published in the London Gazette (p. 1,116). An Order in Council relating to ships registered in Victoria and their load-line may also be found in the London Gazette (p. 1,663). None of these appear of sufficient general importance to justify reprinting in this volume. The Load-line Regulations of 1899 and

the "Scale and Regulations issued by the Admiralty and the Board of Trade for the grant of money allowances in respect of Boy Sailors"" are likely to be referred to more widely.

Current questions in the Law Courts and in ordinary business, and the explanations given of the points raised or the decisions delivered, provide the main contents of the volume, and the more important of the "cases" receive full attention. As usual, the decisions in the Superior Law Courts in matters connected with shipping during the year have been numerous. Taking first the cases which were more particularly Admiralty as distinguished from Common Law actions, the first thing which strikes one is that serious salvage claims appear to have occupied the attention of the Admiralty Division to a somewhat unusual extent, and that the awards, taking them all round, have been comparatively heavy. It has not been a few abnormally high awards, like the Glengyle, £19,500, in 1897 and La Champagne, £15,000, in 1898, and then a big drop, but a rather large number of very substantial awards. The largest was the Tannenfels, £7,500. Then there were three of £6,000 and upwards-the City of Manchester, £6,700; the Amiral Aube, £6,265; and the Elise, £6,000. The latter, it may be remembered, was the salvage of a French ship on fire off Gibraltar, where an allegation of misconduct, described indeed as piracy, was made against the salvors, a charge which failed, as the award shows. In the next thousand came the Kaisow, £5,100, and the Pavonia, £5,000-the latter being a very meritorious salvage service, which was probably by no means highly paid. Then came the Mamari, £4,500, and two of £4,000-the Lokoja and the Trojan. Close upon these came the Strathleven, £3,800, four of £3,500-the Dart, the Tampico, the Hestia, and the Montana; two of £3,300-the Nile and the Fenchurch; and three of £3,000—the Storm King, the Italiana, and the Commandante Franchetta. Ten were £2,000 and upwards,

and fifteen were between one thousand and two thousand, so on the whole salvors may be considered to have done well. Although salvage actions seem to have taken rather the first place, there has been a fairly large list of collision cases, but few matters of general interest in them. The Cromartyshire and La Bourgogne appeal was duly prosecuted and dismissed, and need only be mentioned, as little more than fact was involved; but reference may be made to the important point of practice raised in this litigation. The writ had been served on an agent of the foreign company owning La Bourgogne, and the defendants moved to set aside the writ. The motion was dismissed in the Admiralty Division, and an appeal to the Court of Appeal was unsuccessful. (See case explained in Maritime Notes and Queries, Vol. XII., p. 44). The further appeal last year to the House of Lords also failed. An important series of cases deserves more attention-the Petriana, Rutland, Cathay, and Star of New Zealand-in all of which the meaning of the second part of Article 16 of the International Regulations was much debated, and in the last of which it was, to some extent at all events, explained. In the Vesta and Snark case also a question of considerable difficulty was decided-the duty of the owner of a sunken wreck, in navigable waters, to buoy and light the wreck. It was a Thames case, and turned upon the liability of an owner who had employed a person to raise the vessel. In the Admiralty Division the owner was held responsible for the wreck being improperly lighted. Another case of general interest is the Ilios and Pierremont, in which a charge of not standing by was sustained; but it was proved that the master was not responsible for the collision, and the owners would have escaped liability if it had not been proved affirmatively that the Pierremont was alone to blame for improper navigation. The Algoa and Gannet is remarkable for having led to a curious difference of opinion

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