Shipwrecks, Sea Lore and Maritime Law

Maritime Lore: Centuries of sea disasters, mutinies and superstition have produced a body of law and tradition unlike any on land. Ghost ships, finders' rewards, salvage contracts and ceremonies for crossing the equator all grew from the same problem: when people are far from help, they invent rules and rituals to survive.

Mary Celeste: Found drifting near the Azores in December 1872 with no one aboard, the brigantine had cargo and supplies intact but its lifeboat gone. The crew of ten, including the captain's wife and young daughter, were never found. A Gibraltar court awarded the rescuers a salvage payment of about one fifth of the value.

HMS Bounty: After the 1789 mutiny led by Fletcher Christian, Captain William Bligh and 18 loyalists were cast adrift in a 23 foot launch. Bligh navigated about 3,600 nautical miles to Timor in 47 days with no charts.

Pitcairn Island: The Bounty mutineers burned their ship here in 1790 so no passing vessel could reveal their hiding place. Their descendants still live on the remote island.

Crossing the Line Ceremony: When ships cross the equator, sailors who have not crossed before, called pollywogs, face a mock trial before King Neptune. After dunkings and silly punishments they become shellbacks.

Flying Dutchman: The legend of a ship cursed to sail forever has been reported for centuries. In 1881 the future King George V, then a midshipman aboard HMS Bacchante, recorded sighting a glowing phantom ship off Australia.

SS Baychimo: Abandoned in Arctic ice off Alaska in 1931, the cargo ship drifted for decades without a crew. Sightings were reported as late as 1969, making it one of the longest roaming ghost ships.

Lloyd's Open Form: Introduced in 1892, this standard salvage contract is built on the principle of no cure, no pay. Salvors are rewarded only if they save something, and an arbitrator in London decides how much.

Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes: Sunk by British frigates in 1804, the Spanish ship was found by Odyssey Marine Exploration in 2007, which raised more than half a million coins. A US court ruled it a Spanish sovereign vessel, and the treasure was returned to Spain in 2012.

SS Central America: The steamship sank in a hurricane in 1857 carrying California gold, and its loss helped worsen a financial panic. In 1988 explorer Tommy Thompson located the wreck, setting off a long legal fight over who owned the gold.

HMS Birkenhead: When this troopship hit a rock in 1852, soldiers stood in formation while women and children took the few lifeboats. The Birkenhead drill became the origin of the women and children first tradition, though it is not law.

Costa Concordia: After the cruise ship struck rocks off Italy in 2012, captain Francesco Schettino left while passengers were still aboard. A coast guard officer famously ordered him to return, and he was sentenced to 16 years.

Essex: A sperm whale rammed and sank this Nantucket whaleship in 1820, stranding the crew in small boats thousands of miles from land. The survivors' harrowing account helped inspire Moby Dick.

Jonah: Sailors still call an unlucky shipmate a Jonah, after the biblical prophet who brought a storm down on his ship. Old superstitions also blamed bad luck on whistling, bananas and setting sail on a Friday.

Davy Jones: The sailor's name for the bottom of the sea appears in print by 1726, in a memoir of the era. Its origin is uncertain, with theories ranging from a tavern keeper to a West Indian spirit.

Wellerman: This New Zealand whaling song about waiting for supplies from the Weller Brothers' ship went viral in 2020 when Nathan Evans posted a version to TikTok. It reignited interest in sea shanties, which began as work songs to coordinate hauling.

Liberian Registry: Founded in 1948 with help from former US Secretary of State Edward Stettinius, it lets foreign owners register ships under a flag of convenience with lower taxes and looser rules. Its success helped make flags of convenience a defining feature of world shipping.

SS Richard Montgomery: Wrecked on a sandbank near Sheerness in 1944, the American ship still holds around 1,400 tonnes of explosives. Its masts are visible from shore, and authorities have chosen to leave it undisturbed.

Lusitania: A German torpedo sank the liner in 1915 in about 18 minutes, killing almost 1,200 people. The sinking turned opinion in neutral countries against Germany and sparked debate over the munitions it carried.

Amistad: In 1839 Africans held aboard this Spanish schooner seized it, and it was later captured off Long Island. The US Supreme Court freed them in 1841, a landmark case about the slave trade and property law.

Batavia: The Dutch East India Company ship wrecked on a reef off Western Australia in 1629. While survivors awaited rescue, merchant Jeronimus Cornelisz led a mutiny that killed about 110 people before a rescue ship arrived.

International Ice Patrol: Formed in 1914 after the Titanic disaster, it tracks icebergs drifting into North Atlantic shipping lanes. Reports say no ship that has heeded its warnings has been lost to ice.

Mayday: Radio operator Frederick Stanley Mockford coined the distress call in 1923 from the French m'aider, meaning help me. He needed a word that could not be mistaken amid the traffic between England and France.

Carroll A. Deering: The five masted schooner was found aground at Cape Hatteras in January 1921 with no crew, its lifeboats and navigation gear missing. A meal was reportedly laid out in the galley, and the mystery was never solved.

RMS Titanic Inc.: In 1994 a US court granted this company exclusive salvage rights to the wreck, which lies in international waters. Courts have since ruled on artifacts, and a US and UK agreement seeks to protect the site as a memorial.