Professional Documents
Culture Documents
IV. Salvage
A. Defined: 1989 salvage convention says:
1. any act or activity undertaken to assist a vessel or any property (not intentionally
attached to the shoreline, i.e. maritime property) in danger in any waters (navigable or
not)
a. The salvor must reasonably believe the vessel was in peril, an actual or
apprehended danger which might result in the vessel’s destruction
B. Who:
1. No pre-existing duties (fire boats, Coast guard, towing boats) unless efforts are
extraordinary (navy gets it a lot).
a. Towage is not salvage unless it relieved the vessel from present or reasonably
apprehended danger
2. Not the crew unless:
a. They have been ship wrecked, abandoned, discharged, or recapturing the boat
from hostile powers
C. What:
1. you have to show results, not just effort
2. you cant hog the job, misrepresent, or embezzle anything (clean hands)
3. You cant have been told not to help
4. if you were asked for help, you will win at least in K
5. The aid has to be directly to the vessel
6. You cant have had a hand (negligence) in causing the incident to begin with. You
have a duty to render aid to those people, anyway.
D. Award: (The Blackwell) (typically not more than ½ the value)
1. degree of danger
2. value of salvaged property (and environmental effects prevented)
3. risks incurred by the salvors
4. value of the property put at risk by the salvors
5. time and labor of the salvors
E. Life salvage doesn’t get anything
1. every master is bound, so far as he can without serious danger to his vessel and
persons thereon, to render assistance to any person in danger of being lost at sea
(there is no penalty for this, though)
2. Congress has said that salvors who save lives, a part of the services rendered on the
occasion giving rise to the salvage, are entitled to a fair share of the salvage award
made to salvors of the vessel and her cargo.
F. Finds
1. ownership rather than salvage
2. when is something abandoned? Look for:
a. affirmative action to assert ownership
b. behavior consistent with ownership or abandonment
c. affirmative action consistent with continued assertion of ownership
3. The US has asserted title to all abandoned shipwrecks which are imbedded in US
waters (now the states own them)
V. Seamen’s Remedies
A.