The purpose of this book is to provide annotations for the Canadian equivalent of the Merchant Shipping Act 1894. The latter, imperial, statute was the backbone of merchant shipping legislation throughout the then empire and it is still influential in many former colonies and dominions. Fortunately for them, their Parliaments have made significant improvements over the years so that a United Kingdom lawyer might find in Commonwealth Merchant Shipping Acts more similarities in structure than content. Books such as Temperley’s Merchant Shipping Acts have provided authoritative annotations to the British legislation and so the Fernandes and Burke book aims to fill the gap for Canadian lawyers by providing explanations for their Act.

Canada is fortunate in having, in the Canada Shipping Act, what seems to be a consolidated and reasonably modern statute dealing with merchant shipping. United Kingdom maritime lawyers would envy their Canadian counterparts—at least to the extent that they do not have to search through a mass of statutes and amendments covering 100 years in order to find the relevant law. It really is a disgrace that there has been no consolidation as yet of the United Kingdom Merchant Shipping Act 1894 and that the amendments that have been made do not conform to any coherent pattern. Nevertheless, it is apparent that all was not perfect in Canada when this book was produced, for the Canadian Maritime Code Act had been enacted but not proclaimed into force. The subsequent history of that Act is beyond