This is a maritime general interest page with snippets about some of the many shipping incidents which occur on the SA seaboard each year. Some result in litigation; too many result in casualties. We now have some photos of the more spectacular mishaps.

And  'A Miscellany of Admiralty Idiosyncracy' caters for those whose imagination allows them into the world behind the law reports and textbooks ……

A Miscellany of Admiralty Idiosyncracy

What really went on behind the lines of law reports and legal texts? Our students often dig out passages which are worth keeping. We will be putting them into this section of our site.

If you come across any worthy additions, e-mail them to us at shiplaw@law.uct.ca.za and we'll add them in. 

The Spirit of Admiralty Practice …. of yore?

If you practice shipping law in a fishbowl of frenzy like LA Law, you might appreciate this little piece from Roscoe about the now defunct Admiralty Court (by then moved from the salubrious Doctors' Commons to a room at the back of the Common Law courthouse at Westminster):

It was an interesting scene, dramas of the sea were daily described and startling stories of the ocean were narrated by seamen in the most matter of fact manner. Heroic salvage services and tragic collisions were, oddly enough, as it seemed, discussed from a legal point of view and ultimately translated into money values and reduced to pounds shillings and pence. The small professional attendance, almost the same from day to day, the absence of spectators, and the seclusion of the court, tended to produce an intimate and friendly association, and justice was administered in the atmosphere of a select social club.

This scene at Westminster was unique, for nowhere else in the world could one see important legal business carried on in this intimate and friendly way, while at the same time witnessing the last act in the disappearance of an historic and famous legal institution.

[Roscoe: Studies in the History of the Admiralty & Prize Courts (1932) p 11]

THE ADMIRALTY EXAMINER

This review of the role of the Admiralty Examiner in past and present times is offered not as a formal research paper, but merely as a note for interest. It thus has no references or sources quoted. It is however useful in that it shows how the role of the examiner has evolved from one of collecting evidence under oath from people on the move, to one whereby the examiner attempts to expedite matters. This evolution shows how the function of different officers can change over time with the advance of modern technology and new economic imperatives. Nowadays it is not too difficult to get someone to the other end of the world to give evidence, nor is it too difficult to bring them into the court room via satelite link-up where this is allowed. On the other hand, the deveopment of commerce and international trade has grown to the extent that matters cannot always proceed to trial, and where there is the chance of this occuring there is the need understand the issues in order to curtail proceedings. This development is most noticeable in the piece on the US Federal Procedure.

Life on board ship in Rhodian times …

If a captain or cargo owner, or one of the crew, strikes another person with his fist and puts his eye out, or kicks him and a rupture ensues, the aggressor shall provide the sufferer with medical treatment, and in addition twelve pieces of gold for the eye, and ten for the rupture.

[Rhodian Law per Ecloga Chap XXXVII Art 7]

Passengers are forbidden to fry fish on board, and the master shall not permit it.

[Ibid, Tariff item 10]

Cargo owners and passengers shall not load bulky and valuable cargo on an old ship.

[Ibid. Art 11]

Not much improvement by the time of The Agincourt [1824] ….

A young Lushington acted for a seaman claiming damages for cruel treatment. An even younger Phillimore defended for the master, and Lord Stowell adjudged:

If the fact was such as is described, that Burgess(the complainant) had washed some rice, given to him to be prepared for the breakfast of the several passengers on board who messed with the captain, in a tub of water, in which water a bucket had been used by the children of some of the passengers for their necessary purposes, had previously been washed; even supposing that his principal had struck the first blow, though possibly the law might have frowned a little upon such an aggression, I think there is no man whose honest passion would not have silently applauded such an act of resentment, committed in consequence of such an abomination;

[The Agincourt 1 Hagg 269]