, WRECK (oalled in law' Latin wreccum marl's, and in law French wrec de mer).
In Maritime Lavw. Such goods as after a shipivreck are cast upon the landlay the sea, and loft there within some country so as nbt to bebing to the jurisdiction of the admi Palty,tait to the Common law. Coke, 2d Inst.
167 1 Sharswood, Blackst. Comm. 2907 293. ; . • 2.• Goade. found at low water, betvreen high aiid loW water mark, and goods. between the same limits partlyresting on the ground, but. -still moved by the 'water, are wreck: The King vs. Forty-Nine Casks of Brandy, 3 Hagg..'Adin. 257, 294. Wreck, by the corti mon law; belongs to ihe king or his grantee.; but if claimed by the true owner within a year andA day the goods, or their proceeds,' must be restored to .him, by virtue of stat.: Westm. I., 3 Edw. I. c. 4. Ships'and goods found derelict or -abandoned at sea belonged: until lately .to the Office' of the lord high. ad7.1 mira1, by'ri grant fronithe crown, but now be.! long to the national exchequer., subject, how ever, to be claimed by the true owner within a year and a day. 1 Hagg. 383.; The Mer chant Shipping Act; 1854,1 475.
3. In this country, the several states hoi:. dering on ..the sea have enacted laws pro! viding for the .safe keeping and dispooition of property wrecked. on the coast. In one ease, Peabody vs. 28 bales of.cotton, decided
in the district -court .of :Massachusetts,. and reported in the American Jurist for July, 1829, it was held' that the United .States have .succeeded to• the prerogative of .the British crown, and are entitled to derelict •ships or goods found at sea and unclaimed by 'the true owner; but in the southern distriot of Florida it is held that such derelicts, in the absence of any act of congress on the subject; belong to the finder or salvor, subject to the claim of the true owner for a year and a day. Marvin, Wreck and Salvage. Stealing, pinny dering, or destroying any money or good.s from or belonging to a.ny vessel, boat, or .raft in distress; lost, or stranded, wilfulIY obstruct ing the escape of any person endeavoring to save his life from such ship, boat, or raft, holding mit or showing any false light or lights, or extinguishing any true one, with intention to bring any vessel, boat, or raft on the sea into danger, or distress, or ship wreck; are made felony, punishable by fine and imprisanment, by act of congress of the 3d March, 1825, 4 U. S. Stat. at Large, 115. Wrecked goods upon a sale or other act of voluntary importation become liable to duties. 9 Cranch, 387 ; 4 ic/. 347.