ARRESTING A SHIP

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 44, 16 November 1925, Page 10

ARRESTING A SHIP

With the arrest of the Thames whisky ship, General Serret, many people learned for .the first time that a ship can *The Taw of maritime arrest is very complicated, but it appears that having committed a crime a vessel can be followed until she is caught, even if she has passed into different ownership since her lapse from grace. Shu must, however, be arrested in a port where tho courts of the country which has ordered the arrest have jurisdiction, and there are many vessels afloat to-day that avoid making voyages to certain countries because there is a warrant out against them there. Tho crimes that a vessel can commit are varied, but the most common Is damaging another vessel, or piers or docks, by collision. In such cases a vessel can bo arrested until security for the damage is given or liability for damage has been decided in the courts. Evading dock and harbour duos is another offence for which a vessel can be arrested. As in the case of tho General Serret, arrest can also be made on an allegation that the owner has not paid some debt.

A ship is arrested by nailing tho warrant to a prominent part, generally a mast.

Some vessels cannot be arrested, for they belong to nations, and not. to private owners, and by international law are immuno from legal process. This was all very well when nations owned only warships nnd the like, because it was essential that a man-of-war about to sail for battle should not be held up in port on some frivolous pretext. To-day, however, many nations own comnißrcinl ships, and naturally the private shipowners resent the legal immunity which their State-owned comnetitors enjoy. So pressing has the matter become that the. International Maritime Committee, which is about to meet at Genoa, is devoting much of its time to the discussion of the problem, and it is probable that international law dealing with the immunity of State-owned ships will shortly be amended. —D. K. Page, in the “Daily Mail.”