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penal servitude for life or not less than seven years, or imprisonment for not less than two years.' And if any one do the like, with intent to murder, or so as to place any person's life in danger, he is guilty of felony and the punishment is death, which may however be recorded merely."

Maliciously to damage, otherwise than by fire, any ship, complete or unfinished, with intent to destroy or render it useless, is felony, and the person is liable to not less than three years' penal servitude, or than two years' imprisonment.' Maliciously to destroy any part of a ship in distress, wrecked, stranded, or cast on shore, or any goods, or articles belonging thereto, is felony, and the offender is liable to fifteen nor less than three years' penal servitude or not less than two years' imprisonment."

Unlawfully exhibiting any false light or signal, or unlawfully and maliciously doing anything that tends to the immediate loss or destruction of any ship in distress, is felony, and the punishment death, which, however, may be recorded merely.'

Any master of, or any seaman or apprentice belonging to any British ship, who by wilful breach of duty, or by neglect of duty, or by reason of drunkenness,-does any act tending to the immediate loss, destruction, or serious damage of such ship, or tending immediately to endanger the life or limb of any person belonging to, or on board of such ship; or refuses or omits to do any lawful act proper and requisite to be done by him for preserving such ship from immediate loss, destruction, or serious damage, or for preserving any person belonging to, or on board of such ship, from immediate danger to life or limb, shall for every offence be deemed guilty of a misdemeanour."

As to the offence of not resisting pirates and enemies.' It OFFENCE OF NOT appears formerly to have been a practice with the Turkish RESISTING ENE

17 W. 4 & 1 Vict. c. 89, § 6; 9 & 10 Vict. c. 24, § 1; 20 & 21 Vict.

c. 3.

27 W. 4 & 1 Vict. c. 89, § 4. 37 & 8 Geo. 4, c. 30, § 10; 20 & 21 Vict. c. 3.

4 7 W. 4 & 1 Vict. c. 89, § 8; 20 & 21 Vict. c. 3. Post, c. xiii.-Salvage. 7 W. 4 & 1 Vict. c. 89, § 5.

6 17 & 18 Vict. c. 104, § 239.

7 See Ord. Hans. (1591) Art. 35, 36, 37-2 Pardess. 518; Roccus, Not. 70.

MIES.

pirates to restore a ship, and the goods of the master, and mariners, and sometimes even to pay the whole, or a part, of the freight, if the ship yielded to them, and they were suffered to take out the cargo without resistance. To prevent this practice, a statute was passed in the reign of Charles the Second, forbidding the master of any vessel of a burthen not less than two hundred tons, and furnished with sixteen guns, to yield his cargo to pirates of any force, without resistance, on pain of being rendered incapable to take charge of any English vessel afterwards. And if the ship is released, and anything given by the pirates to the master, such gift and his share of the ship are to go to the owners of the goods. And any ship of less burthen or force than before mentioned is forbidden to yield to a Turkish pirate, not having double her number of guns, without fighting.' An extraordinary instance of the courage and skill, which the legislature of those times attributed to English seamen, and which the exploits of succeeding generations have so often and so gloriously exemplified!

By the same statute it is enacted, "that if the mariners or inferior officers of any English ship, laden with goods and merchandises as aforesaid, shall decline or refuse to fight and defend the ship, when they shall be thereunto commanded by the master or commander thereof, or shall utter any words to discourage the other mariners from defending the ship, that every mariner who shall be found guilty of declining or refusing as aforesaid, shall lose all his wages due to him, together with such goods as he hath in the ship, and suffer imprisonment, not exceeding the space of six months, and shall during such time be kept to hard labour for his or their maintenance.” *

116 Car. 2, c. 6, expired, but reproduced in the 22 & 23 Car. 2, c. 11.

2 22 & 23 Car. 2, c. 11, § 7.

CHAPTER VI.

PILOTAGE, TOWAGE, RULES OF THE SEA, COLLISION.

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THE name of pilot, though it may be used to designate a PILOTAGE, particular officer, serving on board during the course of the voyage, who has the charge of the helm and the ship's route, and is more frequently named the sailing master, is applied, by the Merchant Shipping Act,' exclusively to a person who does not belong to the ship, but has the conduct of it, as the case may be, through a river, road, or channel, or from, or into a port, being usually taken on board at a particular place for that purpose only. The great benefit resulting to merchant shipping from the exercise of their calling, early entitled men of this description to the considerate protection of the Crown, by which they were incorporated, under royal charter, with a variety of powers and privileges at different places on the shores and navigable rivers of this country; and still further, in order to ensure, at all times, a due supply of such men, well qualified

1 17 & 18 Vict. c. 104, § 2. "Pilot."

QUALIFIED PILOT

-HIS RIGHTS
AND DUTY.

by skill and knowledge, and ready to brave the perils of their vocation, parliament has, at sundry times, made the employment of these licensed pilots within their several districts compulsory, in general, on outward or homeward bound ships engaged in foreign trade.'

An account of these pilotage authorities, and of the districts to which they relate, would be improper in a general treatise. Their existing powers and jurisdiction have been confirmed to them by the Merchant Shipping Act, in so far as they are not inconsistent with its provisions; and very extensive powers are recognised as being in their hands, to be exercised by bye-law, subject to the assent of Her Majesty in council, for the licensing and government of the pilots, and the control and regulation of the pilot-funds and pilotage districts; with a right of appeal on the part of individuals to the Board of Trade, in the case of particular bye-laws made by these authorities in the exercise of their general powers.*

A duly licensed pilot becomes by the registration of his licence with the principal officer of the Customs, at the place nearest to his place of residence, "a qualified pilot" for the district named in his licence, and for that only; and within that district, any master being in a condition to employ him, and refusing to do so, or any unqualified pilot assuming charge or continuing in charge of the ship after such refusal, incurs the penalties in the Act,' if such qualified pilot produced his licence to the master, and it be shown, and is so alleged in the conviction or commitment, that such previous application and

1 The prior general statutes in force with regard to pilotage, were the 52 Geo. 3, c. 39; 6 Geo. 4, c. 125; 16 & 17 Vict. c. 129; Law v. Hollingworth, 7 T. R. 160.

2 17 & 18 Vict. c. 104, § 330-344. As to the Trinity House, § 358-375, 377, 383-387. The pilot must produce or deliver up his licence when required by the pilotage authority so to do; their power is absolute, and his refusal renders him liable to a penalty, § 352, Henry v. Newcastle upon Tyne, 4 Jur. N. S. 685; 27 L. J. (M. C.) 57, S. C.

3 Ibid. § 349.

4 17 & 18 Vict. c. 104, as to the master, $ 353; Beilby v. Shepherd, 3 Exch. 40; as to the pilot, § 361, under which a master is not liable, Beilby v. Shepherd, supra.

5 17 & 18 Vict. c. 104, § 351; Hammond v. Blake, 10 B. & C. 424; and the onus of proving such production is on the plaintiff who sues for the penalty, Usher v. Lyon, 2 Price, 118; and see Peake v. Carrington, 2 B. & B. 399.

refusal, were known to the unqualified pilot at the time of his acting.'

But this general enactment does not apply to any mere His rights within Pilotage district. change of moorings, or taking the ship into or out of dock, after the voyage has been brought to a termination. Thus, where the mate of a ship engaged in the Lisbon trade, steered the ship, which at the time was not quite cleared of her homeward cargo, and had a custom-house officer on board, down the river Thames, from Horsleydown New Stairs to Cherry Gardens, being about half-a-mile, and from thence to Fountain Stairs; it was held that he was not subject to the penalty, for otherwise the station of a ship could not be changed for the purpose of delivering or receiving goods at different wharves without the expense of pilotage.' In like manner, where a ship had been conducted by a regular pilot up the river Thames to Limehouse-hole, and was left by him, and afterwards moored there, but being forced by the wind upon the mud, lay four days in a bad situation, and it becoming dangerous for her to remain there till the tide should ebb again, she was conducted by a waterman about a mile and a half further up the river; the Court, referring to its former decision, and considering the voyage, in this case, to have been ended, when the ship was left at Limehouse by the pilot, determined that the waterman was not subject to the penalty.*

On the contrary, where a ship from Lisbon, with a cargo of fruit and wine, the former being uppermost, went into the London Docks instead of going further up the river, to deliver the fruit at Coxe's Quay, as she was bound to do, it was held that she had not reached her original destination when in the docks, and that a pilot must be employed to take her thence, afterwards, up to Coxe's Quay."

At the same time that he makes signal for a qualified pilot Master's duty to to board the vessel, the master may be in circumstances where engage Pilot.

Chaney v. Payne, 1 Q. B. 712; Reg.

. Chaney, 6 Dowl. P. C. 281. The master of a tug which is employed cannot be prosecuted under this section as a pilot, Beilby v. Scott, 7 M. & W. 93. 2 17 & 18 Vict. c. 104, § 362.

3 Rex v. Lambe, 5 T. R. 76.

4 Rex v. Neale, 8 T. R. 241.

5 M'Intosh v. Slade, 6 B. & C. 657.

6 See the regulations as to signalling

a pilot off Dungeness in the case of
ships coming from the westward for the
Thames or Medway, § 378.

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