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 bottles of various forms occur on Egyptian monuments. The Greeks and Romans also were accustomed to use bottles made of skins; and in the southern parts Europe they are still used for the transport of wine. The first of explicit reference to bottles of skin in Scripture occurs in Joshua (ix. 4), where it is said that the Gibeonites took “old sacks upon their asses, and wine-bottles old and rent and bound up.” The objection to putting “new wine into old bottles” (Matt. ix. 17) is that the skin, already stretched and weakened by use, is liable to burst under the pressure of the gas from new wine. Skins are still most extensively used throughout western Asia for the conveyance and storage of water. It is an error to represent the bottles of the ancient Hebrews as being made exclusively of skins. In Jer. xix. 1 the prophet speaks of “a potter’s earthen vessel.” The Egyptians (see : Art and Archaeology) possessed vases and bottles of hard stone, alabaster, glass, ivory, bone, porcelain, bronze, silver and gold, and also of glazed pottery or common earthenware. In modern times bottles are usually made of (q.v.), or occasionally of earthenware. The glass bottle industry has attained enormous dimensions, whether for wine, beer, &c., or mineral waters; and labour-saving machinery for filling the bottles has been introduced, as well as for corking or stoppering, for labelling and for washing them.

 BOTTLE-BRUSH PLANTS, a genus of Australian plants, known botanically as Callistemon, and belongiug to the myrtle family (Myrtaceae). They take their name from the resemblance of the head of flowers to a bottle-brush. They are well known in cultivation as greenhouse shrubs; the flower owes its beauty to the numerous long thread-like stamens which far exceed the small petals. Callistemon salignus is a valuable hard wood.

 BOTTLENOSE WHALE (Hyperoödon rostratus), a member of the sperm-whale family, which is an inhabitant of the North Atlantic, passing the summer in the Spitzbergen seas and going farther south in winter. It resembles the sperm-whale in possessing a large store of oil in the upper part of the head, which yields spermaceti when refined; on this account, and also for the sake of the blubber, which supplies an oil almost indistinguishable from sperm-oil, this whale became the object of a regular chase in the latter half of the 19th century. In length these whales vary between 20 ft. and 30 ft.; and in colour from black on the upper surface in the young to light brown in old animals, the under-parts being greyish white. There is no notch between the flukes, as in other whales, but the hinder part of the tail is rounded. Bottlenoses feed on cuttle-fishes and squills, and are practically toothless; the only teeth which exist in the adult being a small pair at the front of the lower jaw, concealed beneath the gum during life. Examples have frequently been recorded on the British coasts. In November 1904 a female, 24 ft. long, and a calf 15 ft. long were driven ashore at Whitstable. (See .)

 BOTTOMRY, a maritime contract by which a ship (or bottom) is hypothecated in security for money borrowed for expenses incurred in the course of her voyage, under the condition that if she arrive at her destination the ship shall be liable for repayment of the loan, together with such premium thereon as may have been agreed for; but that if the ship be lost, the lender shall have no claim against the borrower either for the sum advanced or for the premium. The freight may be pledged as well as the ship, and, if necessary, the cargo also. In some cases the personal obligation of the shipmaster is also included. When money is borrowed on the security of the cargo alone, it is said to be taken up at respondentia; but it is now only in rare and exceptional cases that it could be competent to the shipmaster to pledge the cargo, except under a general bottomry obligation, along with the ship and freight. In consideration of the risks assumed by the lender, the bottomry premium (sometimes termed maritime interest) is usually high, varying of course with the nature of the risk and the difficulty of procuring funds.

A bottomry contract may be written out in any form which sufficiently shows the conditions agreed on between the parties; but it is usually drawn up in the form of a bond which confers a maritime (q.v.). The document must show, either by express terms or from its general tenor, that the risk of loss is assumed by the lender,—this being the consideration for which the high premium is conceded. The lender may transfer the bond by indorsation, in the same manner as a bill of exchange or bill of lading, and the right to recover its value becomes vested in the indorsees. (See .)

According to the law of England, a bottomry contract remains in force so long as the ship exists in the form of a ship, whatever amount of damage she may have sustained. Consequently, the “constructive total loss” which is recognized in marine insurance, when the ship is damaged to such an extent that she is not worth repairing, is not recognized in reference to bottomry, and will not absolve the borrower from his obligation. But if the ship go to pieces, the borrower is freed from all liability under the bottomry contract; and the lender is not entitled to receive any share of the proceeds of such of the ship’s stores or materials as may have been saved from the wreck. Money advanced on bottomry is not liable in England for general average losses. If the ship should deviate from the voyage for which the funds were advanced, her subsequent loss will not discharge the obligation of the borrower under the bottomry contract. If she should not proceed at all on her intended voyage, the lender is not entitled to recover the bottomry premium in addition to his advance, but only the ordinary rate of interest for the temporary loan. As the bottomry premium is presumed, in every case, to cover the risks incurred by the lender, he is not entitled to charge the borrower with the premium which he may pay for insurance of the sum advanced, in addition to that stipulated in the bond.

The contract of bottomry seems to have arisen from the custom of permitting the master of a ship, when in a foreign country, to pledge the ship in order to raise money for repairs, or other extraordinary expenditures rendered necessary in the course of the voyage. Circumstances often arise, in which, without the exercise of this power on the part of the master, it would be impossible to provide means for accomplishing the voyage; and it is better that the master should have authority to burden the ship, and, if necessary, the freight and cargo also, in security for the money which has become requisite, than that the adventure should be defeated by inability to proceed. But the right of the master to pledge the ship or goods must always be created by necessity; if exercised without necessity the contract will be void. Accordingly, the master of a British ship has no power to grant a bottomry bond at a British port, or at any foreign port where he might raise funds on the personal credit of the shipowners. Neither has he any power to pledge the ship or goods for private debts of his own, but only for such supplies as are indispensable for the purposes of the voyage. And in all cases he ought, if possible, to communicate with the owners of the ship, and with the proprietor of the cargo before pledging their property (“The Bonaparte,” 1853, 8 Moo. P.C. 473; “The Staffordshire,” 1872, L.R. 4 P.C. 194). Increased facility of communication, by telegraph and otherwise, has given additional stringency to this rule, and caused a decline in the practice of giving bottomry bonds.

The bottomry lender must use reasonable diligence to ascertain that a real necessity exists for the loan; but he is not bound to see to the application of the money advanced. If the lender has originally advanced the funds on the personal credit of the owner he is not entitled to require a bottomry obligation. A bond procured from the shipmaster by improper compulsion would be void.