PART IV.- SALVAGE. Permission to re-captured ship to proceed on voyage, and danger, the prize court may, if it thinks fit, award to the re-captors as prize salvage a larger part than one-eighth part, but not exceeding in any case one-fourth part, of the value of the prize. Provided also, that where a ship after being so taken is set forth or used by any of Her Majesty's enemies as a ship of war, this provision for restitution shall not apply, and the ship shall be adjudicated on as in other cases of prize. 41. Where a ship belonging to any of Her Majesty's subjects, after being taken as prize by the enemy, is retaken from the enemy by any of Her Majesty's ships of war, she may, with the consent of the postponement re-captors, prosecute her voyage, and it shall not be necessary for the adjudication. re-captors to proceed to adjudication till her return to a port of the United Kingdom. of Proceedings in case return of ship is delayed. PART V.- Prize bounty to officers and crew present at The master or owner, or his agent, may, with the consent of the re-captors, unload and dispose of the goods on board the ship before adjudication. In case the ship does not, within six months, return to a port of the United Kingdom, the re-captors may nevertheless institute proceedings against the ship or goods in the High Court of Admiralty, and the court may thereupon award prize salvage as aforesaid to the re-captors, and may enforce payment thereof, either by warrant of arrest against the ship or goods, or by monition and attachment against the owner. V. PRIZE BOUNTY. 42. If, in relation to any war, Her Majesty is pleased to declare, by proclamation or Order in Council, her intention to grant prize bounty to the officers and crews of her ships of war, then such of the officers and crew of any of Her Majesty's ships of war as are actually present at the taking or destroying of any armed ship of any of Her Majesty's enemies shall be entitled to have distributed among them as prize bounty a sum enemy's ship. calculated at the rate of five pounds for each person on board the enemy's ship at the beginning of the engagement. engagement Ascertainment prize bounty by decree of prize court, subject to appeal. 43. The number of the persons so on board the enemy's ship shall be of amount of proved in a prize court, either by the examinations on oath of the survivors of them, or of any three or more of the survivors, or, if there is no survivor, by the papers of the enemy's ship, or by the examinations on oath of three or more of the officers and crew of Her Majesty's ship, or by such other evidence as may seem to the court sufficient in the circumstances. Payment of PART VI.- LANEOUS PROVISIONS. Power for regulating ransom by Order in Council. The court shall make a decrce declaring the title of the officers and crew of Her Majesty's ship to the prize bounty, and stating the amount thereof. The decree shall be subject to appeal as other decrees of the court. 44. On production of an official copy of the decree the Treasury shall, out of money provided by Parliament, pay the amount of prize bounty decreed, in such manner as any Order in Council may from time to time direct. VI. MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS. 45. Her Majesty in Council may from time to time, in relation to any war, make such Orders as may seem expedient according to circumstances, for prohibiting or allowing, wholly or in certain cases, or subject to any conditions or regulations or otherwise, as may from time to time seem meet, the ransoming or the entering into any contract or agreement for the ransoming of any ship or goods belonging to any of Her Majesty's subjects, and taken as prize by any of Her Majesty's enemies. PART VI.- LANEOUS PROVISIONS. of High Court of Admiralty. Any contract or agreement entered into, and any bill, bond, or Jurisdiction other security given for ransom of any ship or goods, shall be under the exclusive jurisdiction of the High Court of Admiralty as a prize court (subject to appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council), and if entered into or given in contravention of any such Order in Council shall be deemed to have been entered into or given for an illegal consideration. contravention If any person ransoms or enters into any contract or agreement for Ransoming in ransoming any ship or goods in contravention of any such Order in of Order in Council, he shall for every such offence be liable to be proceeded against Council. in the High Court of Admiralty, at the suit of Her Majesty in her office of Admiralty, and on conviction to be fined, in the discretion of the court, any sum not exceeding five hundred pounds. Convoy. of masters of convoy orders or 46. If the master or other person having the command of any ship of Punishment any of Her Majesty's subjects under the convoy of any of Her Majesty's merchant ships of war wilfully disobeys any lawful signal, instruction, or command vessels under of the commander of the convoy, or without leave deserts the convoy, he disobeying shall be liable to be proceeded against in the High Court of Admiralty, deserting at the suit of Her Majesty in her office of Admiralty, and upon conviction convoy. to be fined, in the discretion of the court, any sum not exceeding five hundred pounds, and to suffer imprisonment for such time, not exceeding one year, as the court may adjudge. Customs Duties and Regulations. and goods 47. All ships and goods taken as prize and brought into a port of the Prize ships United Kingdom shall be liable to and be charged with the same rates liable to and charges and duties of Customs as under any Act relating to the Customs Customs may be chargeable on other ships and goods of the like forfeiture, as description; and All goods brought in as prize which would on the voluntary importation thereof be liable to forfeiture or subject to any restriction under the laws relating to the Customs shall be deemed to be so liable and subject, unless the Commissioners of Customs see fit to authorize the sale or delivery thereof for home use or exportation, unconditionally, or subject to such conditions and regulations as they may direct. duties and if imported. of Customs to ships and 48. Where any ship or goods taken as prize is or are brought into a Regulations part of the United Kingdom, the master or other person in charge or be observed command of the ship which has been taken or in which the goods are as to prize brought shall on arrival at such port bring to at the proper place of goods. discharge, and shall, when required by any officer of Customs, deliver an account in writing under his hand concerning such ship and goods, giving such particulars relating thereto as may be in his power, and shall truly answer all questions concerning such ship or goods asked by any such officer, and in default shall forfeit a sum not exceeding one hundred pounds, such forfeiture to be enforced as forfeitures for offences against the laws relating to the Customs are enforced; and every such ship shall be liable to such searches as other ships are liable to; and the officers of the Customs may freely go on board such ship and bring to the Queen's PART VI.- PROVISIONS. Sale of prize of Treasury Naval Prize. 27 & 28 VICT. c. 25, 1864. warehouse any goods on board the same, subject, nevertheless, to such regulations in respect of ships of war belonging to Her Majesty as shall from time to time be issued by the Treasury. 49. Goods taken as prize may be sold either for home consumption or goods Power for exportation; and if in the former case the proceeds thereof, after payment of duties of Customs, arc insufficient to satisfy the just and reasonable claims thereon, the Treasury may remit the whole or such part of the said duties as they see fit. to remit Customs duties in certain cases. Punishment of persons guilty of perjury, or subornation of perjury. Jurisdiction of Admiralty on petitions Perjury. 50. If any person wilfully and corruptly swears, declares, or affirms falsely in any prize, cause, or appeal, or in any proceeding under this Act, or in respect of any matter, required by this Act to be verified on oath, or suborn other any person to do so, he shall be deemed guilty of perjury, or of subornation of perjury (as the case may be), and shall be liable to be punished accordingly. 52. A petition of right under the Petitions of Right Act, 1860,† may, of High Court if the suppliant thinks fit, be intituled in the High Court of Admiralty, in case the subject matter of the petition or any material part thereof arises out of the exercise of any belligerent right on behalf of the Crown, or would be cognizable in a prize court within Her Majesty's dominions if the same were a matter in dispute between private persons. of right in certain cases, as in 23 & 24 Vict. c. 34. Appeal, and general orders regulating procedure. 23 & 24 Vict. Any petition of right under the last-mentioned Act, whether intituled in the High Court of Admiralty or not, may be prosecuted in that court, if the Lord Chancellor thinks fit so to direct. The provisions of this Act relative to appea!, and to the framing and approval of general orders for regulating the procedure and practice of the High Court of Admiralty, shall extend to the case of any such petition of right intituled or directed to be prosecuted in that court; and, subject thereto, all the provisions of The Petitions of Right Act, c. 34 10 apply. 1860,† shall apply, mutatis mutandis, in the case of any such petition of right; and for the purposes of the present section the terms "court" and judge" in that Act shall respectively be understood to include and to mean the High Court of Admiralty and the judge thereof, and other terms shall have the respective meanings given to them in that Act. Power to make Orders in Council to be gazetted, &c. Saving for Crown, effect Orders in Council. 53. Her Majesty in Council may from time to time make such Orders in Council as seem meet for the better execution of this Act. 54. Every Order in Council under this Act shall be published in the London Gazette and shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament, within thirty days after the making thereof, if Parliament is then sitting, and if not, then within thirty days after the next meeting of Parliament. Savings. 55. Nothing in this Act shall (1.) give to the officers and crew of any of Her Majesty's ships of war any right or claim in or to any ship or goods taken as prize or the proceeds thereof, it being the intent of this Act *Section 51 (limitation of actions, &c.) repealed by the Public Authorities Protection Act, 1893 (56 & 57 Vict. c. 61), s. 2. Not printed in this edition. that such officers and crew shall continue to take only such (2.) affect the operation of any existing treaty or convention with (3.) take away or abridge the power of the Crown to enter into (4.) take away, abridge, or control, further or otherwise than as or (5.) take away, abridge, or control, further or otherwise than as PART VI.- LANEOUS PROVISIONS. COLONIAL COURTS OF ADMIRALTY ACT, 1890. c. 27. An Act to amend the Law respecting the exercise of 53 & 54 Vict. Admiralty Jurisdiction in Her Majesty's Dominions and elsewhere out of the United Kingdom. [25TH JULY, 1890.] BE it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:- COLONIAL COURTS OF ADMIRALTY Аст, 1890. 1. This Act may be cited as the Colonial Courts of Admiralty Act, Short title. 1890. Courts of Admiralty. 2. (1.) Every court of law in a British possession, which is for the Colonial time being declared in pursuance of this Act to be a court of Admiralty, or which, if no such declaration is in force in the possession, has therein original unlimited civil jurisdiction, shall be a court of Admiralty, with the jurisdiction in this Act mentioned, and may for the purpose of that jurisdiction exercise all the powers which it possesses for the purpose of its other civil jurisdiction, and such court in reference to the jurisdiction conferred by this Act is in this Act referred to as a Colonial Court of Admiralty. Where in a British possession the Governor is the sole judicial authority, the expression "court of law" for the purposes of this section includes such Governor. (2.) The jurisdiction of a Colonial Court of Admiralty shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, be over the like places, persons, matters, and things, as the Admiralty jurisdiction of the High Court in England. whether existing by virtue of any statute or otherwise, and the Colonial 27 & 28 Vict. c. 25. 36 & 37 Vict. c. 88.+ Power of Colonial legislature as to Admiralty jurisdiction. Court of Admiralty may exercise such jurisdiction in like manner and to as full an extent as the High Court in England, and shall have the same regard as that Court to international law and the comity of nations. (3.) Subject to the provisions of this Act any enactment referring to a Vice-Admiralty Court, which is contained in an Act of the Imperial Parliament or in a Colonial law, shall apply to a Colonial Court of Admiralty, and be read as if the expression "Colonial Court of Admiralty" were therein substituted for Vice-Admiralty Court" or for other expressions respectively referring to such Vice-Admiralty Courts or the judge thereof, and the Colonial Court of Admiralty shall have jurisdiction accordingly. Provided as follows: (a) Any enactment in an Act of the Imperial Parliament referring to the Admiralty jurisdiction of the High Court in England, when applied to a Colonial Court of Admiralty in a British possession, shall be read as if the name of that possession were therein substituted for England and Wales; and (b) A Colonial Court of Admiralty shall have under the Naval Prize Act, 1864,* and under the Slave Trade Act, 1873,† and any enactment relating to prize or the slave trade, the jurisdiction thereby conferred on a Vice-Admiralty Court and not the jurisdiction thereby conferred exclusively on the High Court of Admiralty or the High Court of Justice; but, unless for the time being duly authorised, shall not by virtue of this Act exercise any jurisdiction under the Naval Prize Act, 1864,* or otherwise in relation to prize; and (c) A Colonial Court of Admiralty shall not have jurisdiction under this Act to try or punish a person for an offence which according to the law of England is punishable on indictment: and (d) A Colonial Court of Admiralty shall not have any greater jurisdiction in relation to the laws and regulations relating to Her Majesty's Navy at sea, or under any Act providing for the discipline of Her Majesty's Navy, than may be from time to time conferred on such court by Order in Council. (4.) Where a Court in a British possession exercises in respect of matters arising outside the body of a county or other like part of a British possession any jurisdiction exerciseable under this Act, that jurisdiction shall be deemed to be exercised under this Act and not otherwise. 3. The legislature of a British possession may by any Colonial law,(a) Declare any court of unlimited civil jurisdiction, whether original or appellate, in that possession to be a Colonial Court of Admiralty, and provide for the exercise by such court of its jurisdiction under this Act, and limit territorially, or otherwise, the extent of such jurisdiction; and (6) Confer upon any inferior or subordinate court in that possession such partial or limited Admiralty jurisdiction under such regulations and with such appeal (if any) as may seem fit: Provided that any such Colonial law shall not confer any jurisdiction which is not by this Act conferred upon a Colonial Court of Admiralty. |