well as to the loss of all salvage. Salvage is awarded to persons saving life or property from the perils of the sea, and is regulated in amount by the risk incurred and the extent of services rendered, the saving of life having priority over all other claims.
Provision is, generously and very properly, now made, that no claim for the use of any of her Majesty's ships in saving life or property shall be valid, and that no person on board of such ships shall be permitted to make any demand on this behalf without the formal consent of the Admiralty, the mode of procedure in all such cases, previously in many ways objectionable, is now clearly established and defined. Nor does the Act omit to deal, and with great propriety, with dealers in marine stores and manufacturers of anchors. Subsequently, but on much more debateable grounds,[1] an act was passed which dealt with the makers of chain cables.
Limitation of the liability of shipowners. The ninth part of the Merchant Shipping Act defines or limits the liability of shipowners under certain circumstances; that is to say, shipowners are
- ↑ This Bill was introduced by Sir J. D. Elphinstone and Mr. Laird. I opposed it on principle, as I felt that it was an unnecessary interference with the duty of shipowners; and that, if chain cables were to be tested by Government inspectors, we should be obliged to appoint inspectors to examine and report on every article of a ship's equipment, thus as a matter of fact relieving shipowners from their responsibility to the public. Besides, by subjecting chain cables to an enormous and an unnecessary strain, the fibre of the iron was likely to be destroyed or rendered more brittle, and, hence, less to be depended on. All legislation in this direction should be narrowly watched, and the line carefully drawn, as, in too many instances, it is likely to do more harm than good. Indeed, I cannot too strongly impress upon the minds of persons who have to deal with such questions the impolicy of every measure which has. for its object the performance by Government officials of duties belonging to the shipowner, as every such measure necessarily tends to relieve him from his responsibility to the public.
