The right of the warden of the Cinque Ports to wreck was de rived from charters granted to the ports by Edward I. and his successors; many other seaports enjoyed a similar right under early charters. It would seem that these rights were of some value, for in 1829 the little towns of Dunwich and Southwold litigated at a cost of L r,000 the question whether a tub of whisky picked up at sea belonged to the admiralty jurisdiction of the one town or the other ; and the town of Yarmouth is said to have spent no less than £7,000 upon a similar question. The Municipal Corporations Act of 1835 put an end to all dealings with wreck by local admiralty courts, except those of the Cinque Ports.
Grants of wreck to individuals are earlier than those to towns. Even before the Conquest it seems to have been not unusual for grantees from the Crown of lands adjoining the sea to get the franchise of wreck included in their grants. The lords of counties palatine had wreccum maxis within their areas as part of their jura regalia, but yet inferior lords might prescribe for wreck be longing to their several manors within a county palatine.
From early times a distinction was made in English law be tween wreck cast ashore and wreck that is floating or sunken below low-water mark. Wreck proper, or common law wreck, ejectum maxis, is what is cast by the sea upon the shore; for "nothing shall be said to be wreccum maxis, but such goods as are cast or left upon the land" (Sir H. Constable's Case, 1599 5 Rep. o6), and this belonged to the king jure coronae, and was dealt with by the common law. Floating and sunken wreck belonged to the Crown as inter regalia, but was granted to the lord-admiral jure regis. Even when the office of lord high admiral is in abeyance, and the duties are performed by commissioners, as now, these rights are distinguished from the other royal revenues as belonging to the Crown in its office of admiralty, or, as they are commonly known, droits (q.v.) of the Admiralty. From early times the lord-admiral tried to usurp, and there are several instances of his actually usurping jurisdiction over wreck proper; and in the reign of Richard II. special statutes (which were only declaratory of the common law) were passed for the purpose of confining his jurisdiction to its proper limits. Droits are flotsam, jetsam, lagan, derelict. In Lord Coke's words, flotsam is "when a ship sinks or otherwise perishes, and the goods float on the sea"; jetsam is "when goods are cast out of a ship to lighten her when in danger of sinking, and afterwards the ship perishes"; and ligan, or lagan, is "when heavy goods are, to lighten the ship, cast out and sunk in the sea tied to a buoy or cork, or something that will not sink, in order that they may be found again and recovered." Derelict is
a ship or cargo, or part of it, abandoned by its master and crew sine spe recuperandi et sine animo revertendi. "None of these goods," adds Coke, "which are so called, are called wreck so long as they remain in or upon the sea ; but if any of them by the sea be put upon the land then they shall be said to be wreck" (Sir H.
Constable's Case, 1599, 5 Rep. 1°6; and 2 Inst. 167). Contrary to the opinion of Hale, Lord Stowell held that what is found any where derelict on the seas is acquired beneficially for the sovereign, if no owner shall appear. It seems that this was also Coke's view (2 Inst. 168).
The provisions of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, mentioned below, upon the subject of droits of admiralty are not clear. In practice the only droits of the admiralty that are commonly dealt with are anchors that have been slipped or parted from in heavy weather. In the Downs and other roadsteads these are "swept" for by creepers towed over the sea bottom, and in former days sweeping for anchors was a common industry. In the Downs large sums have been made of ter gales in this way. In the 17th century it became customary to obtain from the Crown grants of the right to fish for sunken wreck and treasure not only upon English coasts but all over the world.
The method of dealing with wreck outside territorial waters (which does not come within the scope of the act) is governed by the previous general law relating to droits of admiralty. The Board of Trade, and receiver-general, in its instructions to receivers, di rects that wreck picked up at sea out of the limits of Great Britain, or brought to it by British ships, is to be taken possession of by the receiver and held by him on behalf of the owners, or, if the owners do not claim it, on behalf of the Crown. Derelict ships picked up at sea outside territorial limits and brought into British ports must be delivered to the receiver and kept by him until the owner can be found (but not longer than a year and a day). Wreck picked up out of territorial limits by a foreign ship need not be interfered with by the receiver, unless upon appli cation by a party interested.