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Admiralty.

74 Sect.

11,

Salvage.

Salvage, whether of life or of property, confers a maritime lien whether the services of the salvors have been rendered on the high seas or within the body of a county {a), and such lien is only lost by laches. Site-Sect.

Property must have

been saved.

Extent of jurisdiction.

1.

Life Salvage.

124. In order that life salvage may be awarded some property must have been saved (b), though not necessarily on the same occasion or by the same salvors (c). The jurisdiction of the Admiralty Court to award salvage for services in the preservation of life is entirely statutory (d) In regard may be awarded for the preservation of life wherever the services were rendered, but (except as mentioned below in the case of Prussian vessels) to give the Court power to.

to British vessels salvage

grant salvage ior services to the lives of persons belonging to a foreign vessel the services must be rendered wholly or in part in British waters. But with the concurrence of a foreign Government, the Crown may, by Order in Council, give the Court jurisdiction over claims for life services rendered to persons belonging to ships owned by subjects of that foreign Government whilst beyond the limits of British jurisdiction. An Order in Council relating to Prussian ships {e) has been made and is still in force, but with that exception there are no provisions existing with respect to the salving of life from foreign vessels on the high seas beyond British waters, and in any case of salvage of life from foreign vessels other than Prussian vessels on the high seas beyond British waters coming before the Admiralty Division the practice of giving an enhanced award if life and property were salved together would probably be follow^ed.

125. The Court has no jurisdiction to award life salvage for saving the lives of persons belonging to a foreign vessel not a Prussian ship where the services to life were rendered outside British waters, though the persons whose lives were saved were transferred from the salving vessel on to another vessel which brought them into an English port (/). On the other hand, the Court has jurisdiction to award life salvage where the lives from the foreign ship were saved by being taken on board the salving ship outside British waters and carried on board that ship into an English port (g). " British waters " mean waters within the territorial limits of the United Kingdom, i.e., in ordinary cases waters within the distance of three miles from the coast {h).

The Veritas, [1901] P. 304, at p. 311. TheRenpor (1883), 8P D. 115. (c) See The Cargo ex Schiller (1877), 2 P. D. 145, where the property saved was recovered by divers long after the life services were rendered. (d) See Merchant Shipping Act, 1894 (57 & 58 Yict. c. 60), ss. 544 et seq. (e) The date of the Order is April 7, 1864. The Willem III. (1871), L. E. 3 A, & E. 487. ( f) (g) The Pacific, [1898] P. 170; The Fulham, [1898] P. 206, at p. 213; The (a) (b)

Cairo (1874), L. E. 4 A. & E. 184. {h) See The Johannes (1860), Lush. 182



The Leda (1856), Swa. 40.