Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/366

 current of air. Further experience on this point is, however, necessary, though very considerable improvements have recently been made.

As great fault was found by the central committee of the General Shipowners' Society with the 504th section of the Merchant Shipping Act (Part IX.), which lays down the measure of the owners' liability, it may be desirable to state the nature of the complaints. This section of the Act provides:—

1st. Where any loss of life or personal injury is caused to any person being carried in such ship:

2nd. Where any damage or loss is caused to any goods, merchandise, or other things whatsoever on board any such ship:

3rd. Where any loss of life or personal injury is, by reason of the improper navigation of such sea-going ship as aforesaid, caused to any person carried in any other ship or boat:

4th. Where any loss or damage is, by reason of any such improper navigation of such sea-going ships as aforesaid, caused by any other ship or boat, or to any goods, merchandise, or other things whatsoever on board any other ship or boat: No owner shall, in such cases where the events occur without his knowledge or privity, be answerable in damages to an extent beyond the value of his ship and the freight due, or to grow due, in respect of such ship during the voyage which, at the time of the happening of such event, as aforesaid, is in prosecution or contracted for, subject to the following proviso, that is to say: that, in no case, where any liability, as aforesaid, is incurred in respect of loss of life or personal injury to the passenger, shall the