Law of Wreck, The
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CHAPTER 2
Wreck and the maritime commercial adventure
Wreck and the maritime commercial adventure
The wreck of a ship will have serious implications for all those involved in a normal commercial maritime adventure. This chapter will consider the perspective of such persons who may be interested if a ship is involved in a casualty and (eventually) wrecked, and the legal consequences for them. The aim is to help understand their reactions (and provide a wider context) as the full implications of a casualty become apparent, eg where a wreck removal operation is later required. The chapter therefore examines wreck in its wider sense, eg as affecting the maritime commercial adventure, and is not immediately concerned with wreck removal under the Nairobi International Convention on the Removal of Wrecks (WRC) 2007.1 It is evident that many maritime law principles can interact when a wreck occurs, and one of the aims of this chapter is to show the links between them and with the sort of casualties highlighted in Chapter 1. As explained in the Preface and Chapter 1, the discussion that follows cannot provide exhaustive commentaries on every area of law involving maritime casualties.2