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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 August 2016
In considering the various expenses, or, as some writers term them, expenditures, that are the results of a general average act, the same test must be applied as in the case of sacrifices. Were they had recourse to as being, in the exercise of sound judgment and prudence, indispensably necessary for procuring the safety of all concerned in the adventure? Might the act from which they proceeded be the means of arresting any course of events which, if allowed to take their full scope, would terminate in the destruction of the vessel and the consequent loss of the freight and cargo? It is true human judgment is likely to err under these, as in other circumstances of like nature, and expenses may be incurred needlessly, for the ultimate consequences of an act cannot be always perceived; but if the end proposed will admit of no other course by which the vessel and the property in her may be preserved at the time, and if the measures resorted to are such as would not be employed in the ordinary prosecution of the voyage, there is reason for admitting such as a lawful subject of contribution. When common sense is exercised, and the circumstances are regarded comprehensively and clearly, the results are generally found to justify the means adopted in cases of danger needing prompt action.
page 41 note * In support of the above a ease is subjoined as an illustration:–A Spanish ship from Manilla to Liverpool put into St. Helena, being in a leaky condition, and for repairs generally. No previous general average act had taken place. The cargo was, by order of surveyors, gradually discharged; and when they had ascertained the full extent of the damage, she was condemned as unseaworthy and sold. The agents required large sums of money from time to time, to meet the expenses of snip and cargo. Their claim for advances exceeded £7,800; and the master, after vainly endeavouring to raise money by hypothecation of the cargo to be shipped to its destination in another vessel, sold part of it at auction for £6,500. The enormous sum advanced was partly made up of £l,800 for warehouse rent of the cargo; £450 was charged as commission fop trouble and taking care of the cargo, £1,000 for landing, add £1,000 for reshipping it. The total amount of the agents' charge at St, Helena {including the above), apart from the other expenses for which, they advanced money, was £4,800! When the statement was adjusted in England, about £2,200 was apportioned as general averages so that a large proportion of the charges fell on the cargo and freight. And as the contributary values were as follows–ship £895 (what she sold for), freight £2,473, and cargo £21,027–it will be seen how little the ship (the condition of which caused the act entailing the expenses) had to pay, in comparison with the other interests. This is an extreme case, but it illustrates the principle stated, and is but one out of a great number that occur in the course of the year.
page 43 note * During the winter months the fishermen of the eastern and southern coasts of England obtain their chief maintenance from these services. It is of the highest importance that a ship should never be without a good anchor, often almost literally “the sailor's last hope”; and these men knowing its value, sometimes demand large sums (especially if the danger of boarding the ship be great), which m the end are settled only by arbitration or legal decision. From a report of the Lloyd's special agent at Deal, it appears that nine cases were referred to him after the gales of the 7th to 12th January of the present year. One was a claim for £250 for taking off an anchor and chain at midnight. It was subsequently reduced to £150.
page 46 note * Mr. Rd. Lowndes, of Liverpool.
page 48 note * Concerning these, Sir Joseph Arnould observes– “There is hardly any point, even in the perplexed doctrine of general average, in which there is such a great diversity in the positive laws of mercantile states” (vol ii., p. 911)
page 50 note * See Baily, pp 42, 75, 82.