to be no
wreck[e]. And this is certainly most agreeable to reason; the rational
claim of the king being only founded upon this, that the true owner
cannot be ascertained. But afterwards, in the statute of Westminster
the first[f], the law is laid down more agreeable to the charter of
king Henry the second: and upon that statute hath stood the legal
doctrine of wrecks to the present time. It enacts, that if any live
thing escape (a man, a cat, or a dog; which, as in Bracton, are only
put for examples[g],) in this case, and, as it seems, in this case
only, it is clearly not a legal wreck: but the sheriff of the county
is bound to keep the goods a year and a day (as in France for one
year, agreeably to the maritime laws of Oleron[h], and in Holland for
a year and an half) that if any man can prove a property in them,
either in his own right or by right of representation[i], they shall
be restored to him without delay; but, if no such property be proved
within that time, they then shall be the king's. If the goods are of a
perishable nature, the sheriff may sell them, and the money shall be
liable in their stead[k]. This revenue of wrecks is frequently granted
out to lords of manors, as a royal franchise; and if any one be thus
entitled to wrecks in his own land, and the king's goods are wrecked
thereon, the king may claim them at any time, even after the year and
day[l].

[Footnote z: Dr & St. d. 2. c. 51.]

[Footnote a: Spelm. _Cod. apud_ Wilkins. 305.]

[Footnote b: 26 May, _A.D._ 1174. 1 Rym. _Foed._ 36.]

[Footnote c: Rog. Hoved. _in Ric. I_.]

[Footnote d: In like manner Constantine the great, finding that by the
imperial law the revenue of wrecks was given to the prince's treasury
or _fiscus_, restrained it by an edict (_Cod._ 11. 5. 1.) and ordered
them to remain to the owners; adding this humane expostulation, "_Quod
enim jus habet fiscus in aliena calamitate, ut de re tam luctuosa
compendium sectetur?_"]

[Footnote e: Bract. _l._ 3. _c._ 3.]

[Footnote f: 3 Edw. I. c. 4.]

[Footnote g: Flet. 1. _c._ 44. 2 Inst. 167.]

[Footnote h: Sec. 28.]

[Footnote i: 2 Inst. 168.]

[Footnote k: Plowd. 166.]

[Footnote l: 2 Inst. 168. Bro. Abr. _tit. Wreck_.]

IT is to be observed, that in order to constitute a legal _wreck_, the
goods must come to land. If they continue at sea, the law
distinguishes them by the barbarous and uncouth appellations of
_jetsam_, _flotsam_, and _ligan_. Jetsam is where goods are