The Lusitania sank in international waters in 1915 after a torpedo attack by submarine U-20 of the Imperial German Navy. In 1982 various items were raised from her and brought within British jurisdiction. Those items which had been part of the vessel herself were recognized by the claimants as belonging to the insurers or their sucessors in title who had paid on a total loss. Two other categories of raised property were, however, in dispute: the personal property of the passengers and a quantity of general cargo. The case was centred around the issue of who had a better claim to these disputed contents, the claimants or the Crown.

The decision involves two distinct points: first, the meaning of the word “wreck” as used in s. 510 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1894, and secondly, whether the Crown, in its office of admiralty, still continues to enjoy droits over high seas derelicts. Sheen, J., decided inter alia that the disputed goods were derelict and “wreck” within the meaning of s. 510 and that consequently Part IX of the 1894 Act dictated dealings with and entitlement to them.

It should be noted first that there is a distinction between wreck and legal wreck (“wreccum maris”). This inevitably leads to confusion, especially since both notions are referred to throughout the 1894 Act and both are referred to simply as “wreck”. In usual speech and, indeed, in many areas of maritime law the word “wreck” bears its usual meaning, that is, according to the Oxford Dictionary: