not liable, so far as regards fire, loss of life or personal injury, or loss of goods or merchandise, unless they have rendered themselves personally responsible, "to an extent beyond the value of their ship, and the freight due or to grow due in respect of such ship during the voyage." This liability was further limited in 1862 by Mr. Milner Gibson when President of the Board of Trade.[1] The mode of procedure is laid down at length and with great perspicuity; but nothing in the Act is "to lessen or take away any liability to which any master or seaman, being also owner or part owner of the ship to which he belongs, is subject in his capacity of master or seaman."
Various miscellaneous provisions. The tenth part of the Act refers to the mode of legal procedure "in all cases where no particular country is mentioned within her Majesty's dominions;" while the eleventh and last part deals with a few miscellaneous subjects, such as granting power to masters or owners of ships to enter into contracts, under certain circumstances, with Lascars or other natives of India for voyages to Great Britain, Australia, or other parts of her Majesty's dominions: to corporations for the granting of sites for the erection of sailors' homes: to the legislative
- ↑ 25 & 26 Vict., chap. 63. This Act altered the law of 1854 by making the limit a sum dependent on the tonnage for 15l. per ton in case of damage for loss of life, and 8l. per ton for loss of goods. It was found that the law of 1854, by making the value of the ship and freight in all cases the limit of damages, gave a premium to bad, cheap, and ill-found ships, since the owner of the cheap ships could recover against the owner of the valuable ship up to a large limit, while the owner of the valuable ship could only recover against the other a very small amount. It also encouraged the conveyance of passengers in ships of an inferior description.
