A Handbook on the Law of Shipping and Marine Insurance (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAP. II. GENERAL, AVERAGE. A General average act is the intentional sacrifice of property generally by the master, as agent for the owners, of the ship or cargo, done on account of the common venture to avert a total loss of the whole under circumstances in which such sacrifice is apparently the only alternative. It differs from a particular average in that a general average is a partial loss voluntarily incurred for the common safety of the venture, whilst particular average is a partial loss caused by a maritime peril. In the first case, the loss is made good by all parties interested in the venture in proportion to the interest of each in the venture ('). In the latter, the loss is borne by the person upon whom it falls. Cases for general average arise from jettison of cargo, damage to cargo from acts done for the general good, sale of cargo to effect repairs on ship, or even to raise funds for transfer of balance of cargo, wilful damage to ship for common good, expenses incurred for common good, or loss of freight for common good. It may be here mentioned that the finding of jettisoned goods confers no title upon the finder. He is only entitled to salvage for saving the goods recovered. Various opinions have been expressed by various judges on the question of whether salvage is a subject of general average or not. After carefully considering the opinions expressed, it seems there are some cases of salvage which affect only the particular article salved, and in which case, of course, no doctrine of general average applies. There are (') Lawson, J., in BirMey v. Presgrave, 1 East, 220. other cases of salvage, however, where the salvor works for the good of the common venture, as, for instance, where a salvor tows a ship and cargo to a place of safety; there, we think,...