EXTRACTS FROM THE MERCHANT SHIPPING ACTS, THE INTER- BY REGINALD G. MARSDEN, OF THE INNER TEMPLE, ESQ., BARRISTER-AT-LAW. "Si navis tua impacta in meam scapham damnum mihi dederit quæsitum Dig. lib. ix., tit. ii., fr. 29, § 2. LONDON: STEVENS AND SONS, 119, CHANCERY LANE, Law Publishers and Booksellers. 1880. PREFACE. STATISTICS issued by Lloyd's show that in the year 1878 there were in collision 1790 sailing-ships and 836 steam-ships. About 15 per cent. of the steam-ships and 3.6 per cent. of the sailingships of the world (estimated as numbering respectively 5462 and 49,524) suffered loss from this one cause. Some idea of the amount of that loss may be formed from the fact that in the Admiralty Division of the High Court of Justice in this country there were instituted in the year ending 31st October, 1878, actions in which sums amounting to £985,550 were claimed for damage by collision. In the same year occurred the collision between the Bywell Castle and the Princess Alice in the River Thames, in which were lost upwards of 600 lives; also that between the Grosser Kurfürst and the König Wilhelm, off Folkestone, where 281 of the crew of the former ship perished. The importance of the subject treated of in the following pages is sufficiently shown by the above facts. To seamen having the charge of ships this treatise is offered in the hope that by setting forth the exact requirements of the law it may enable them to navigate in accordance with the law, and possibly avert collision. To others interested in shipping, |