The Australian National Maritime Museum organised the expedition.

The Royal Charlotte, a convict and troop transporter, was en route to India with a contingent of troops when it sank in a gale on Frederick Reef in 1825.

Survivors spent six weeks on a sand cay until they were rescued by a government brig.

Among the wreck’s remains the divers found timber, an anchor, a cannon and other items.

Maritime archaeologist Kieran Hosty says the shipwreck will offer great insights on convict and troop transportation in the 19th century.

He says the items will eventually be put on display.

“That material we did bring back will be examined in laboratories in Sydney, and once we’ve worked on it, it will then go into conservation where it’s stabilised and then it’ll be on display at the National Martime (Musuem),” he said.

“The Royal Charlotte is at the first stage of a much bigger project.

“The whole idea of the project is to examine the Anglo-Indian trade of the 1800s.”

HMS Queen Elizabeth alongside in Gibraltar

HMS Queen Elizabeth (pennant number 00) was the lead ship of the Queen Elizabeth-class of dreadnought battleships, named in honour of Elizabeth I of England. She saw service in both World Wars. A Super-Dreadnought class of battleships, the HMS Queen Elizabeth vessels were the first British-built ships of their type to be powered by oil instead of immense amounts of coal.

ADAMSON William               Boatswain           Colossus
ALLEN William                 Capt’s Clerk        Tonnant
BAILEY John P                 Mid                 Africa
BANT Thomas                   Mid                 Bellerophon
BASHFORD James                Lieut               Royal Sovereign
BELLAIRS Henry                Mid                 Spartiate

BENSON John                   Lieut RM            Colossus
BERRY John                    Lieut               Revenge
BLACK James                   Lieut               Mars
BLIGH George Miller           Lieut               Victory
BRAY Josias                   Lieut               Achille
BROKENSHAW Luke               Master              Revenge
BROOKS John                   Boatswain           Temeraire
BROWNE Robert                 Master’s Mate       Defiance
BULKELEY Richard              Mid                 Victory
BULLEY George                 Lieut               Colossus
CABLE Charles P               Mid                 Orion
CAMPBELL John                 Mid                 Royal Sovereign
CHAPMAN Edmund Andrew         Mid                 Defiance
CLARKE John                   Boatswain           Spartiate
CLAVELL John                  Lieut               Royal Sovereign
COOK Thomas                   Master              Mars
COOK William John             Mid                 Mars
CUTFIELD William              Master’s Mate       Belleisle
DENTON George                 Mid                 Colossus
DURHAM Philip Charles         Captain             Defiance
EASTMAN John                  Mid                 Temeraire
ELMHURST Philip James         Mid                 Africa
FARRANT John                  Mid                 Royal Sovereign
FERRIE William                Lieut               Belleisle
FORSTER William           Actg Lieut              Colossus
GALLOWAY Alexander            Mid                 Thunderer
GARRETT Edward William        Lieut               Mars
GEOGHEHAN George       Agent Victualler Clerk     Victory
GIBSON Andrew                 Boatswain           Belleisle
GRINT William                 Mid                 Britannia
GUERIN George                 Mid                 Mars
HANDCOCK Alexander Bell       Mid                 Swiftsure
HARTLEY Edward                Master’s Mate       Bellerophon
HAY Matthew                   Actg Lieut          Africa
HERRINGHAM William Allan      Mid                 Colossus
HODGE J.T.                    1st Cl Vol.         Belleisle
HODGE John                    Mid                 Defiance
HURRELL Richard               Capt’s Clerk        Neptune
JAGO Samuel                   Mid                 Belleisle
JENKINS John                  Mid                 Mars
JEWELL William Nunn           Mid                 Bellerophon
KENNICOTT Gilbert             Mid                 Royal Sovereign
KNAPMAN Edward                Mid                 Spartiate
LEDDON William                Lieut RM            Achille
LELY Peter                    Capt RM             Revenge
LITTLE Richard                Boatswain           Tonnant
LLOYD James                   Lieut               Dreadnought
LUCKCRAFT Alfred              Mid                 Mars
Le VESCONTE James         2nd Lieut RM            Royal Sovereign
MACLEAN Rawdon                Mid                 Colossus
MENDEL Philip               Lieut Imp Russ Navy   Conqueror
MILBANKS Henry                Master’s Mate       Colossus
MOORSOM Robert                Captain             Revenge
MORRIS James Nicoll           Captain             Colossus
MOULD James                   Lieut               Temeraire
McCULLOCH Andrew              Mid                 Dreadnought
NORMAN Thomas                 Capt RM             Mars
OWEN John                     Lieut RM            Belleisle
PASCO John                    Lieut               Victory
PAYNE Samuel J                Lieut               Temeraire
PEAKE James G                 Lieut RM            Victory
PEARSON George                Mid                 Bellerophon
PEARSON William Henry         Master’s Mate       Belleisle
PEGGE George                  Master’s Mate       Achille
PRICE Francis Swain           Master’s Mate       Temeraire
PRYNN Parkins                 Lieut               Achille
READY Henry                   Master’s Mate       Tonnant
REECE Thomas G                Mid                 Colossus
REEVES Lewis Buckle           Lieut RM            Victory
RENOU Timothy                 Mid                 Colossus
RIVERS William                Mid                 Victory
ROBINSON James                Boatswain           Minotaur
ROBINSON Thomas               Boatswain           Bellerophon
SABBEN James                  Mid                 Dreadnought
SMITH John Samuel             Mid                 Minotaur
SNELL John Coxetter           Master’s Mate       Thunderer
SNELLGROVE Henry              Mid                 Colossus
SNOW William J                Mid                 Achille
SPRATT James                  Master’s Mate       Defiance
STAINES William H             Mid                 Achille
STONE James                   Mid                 Bellerophon
TAUSE Charles                 Mid                 Orion
THISTLEWAYTE Frederick        Mid                 Colossus
THOMPSON Granville            Mid                 Royal Sovereign
TROUNCE Stephen               Master              Britannia
TURNER Abraham                Master’s Mate       Africa
TYLER Charles                 Captain             Tonnant
TYNMORE James                 Capt RM             Africa
WARREN William Smith       1st Cl Vol.            Achille
WATSON J.W.                   Mid                 Leviathan
WATSON William                Master’s Mate       Royal Sovereign
WEARING Thomas                Lieut RM            Conqueror
WEMYSS James                  Capt RM             Bellerophon
WEST Henry                    Master’s Mate       Africa
WESTPHAL George Augustus      Mid                 Victory
WESTROPP Palmes               Capt RM             Achille
WHARRIE George                Mid                 Colossus
WHITE Frederick               Mid                 Africa
WILKINSON Isaac               Boatswain           Royal Sovereign
YOUNG John                    Mid                 Mars

The above data has been extracted from “The Royal Navy – A History”
by Sir William Laird CLOWES.- Volume 5 pages 157-160.

HMS Bounty Launch

HMS Imperieuse

(1) This is the copy of the Charter of Oleron of the Judgments of the Sea.
First a man is made master of a ship. The ship belongs to two or three men. The ship departs from the country to which she belongs, and comes to Bordeaux or to Rochelle, or elsewhere, and is freighted to go to a strange country. The master may not sell the ship unless he has a mandate or procuration from the owners; but If he has need of money for his expenses, he may put some of the ship’s apparel in pledge upon consultation with the ship’s company, and this is the judgment in this case.

(2) A ship is in a haven and stays to await her time, and the time comes for her departure, the master ought to take counsel with his companions and to say to them: “Sirs, you have this weather.” There will be some who will say the weather is not good, and some who will say the weather is fine and good. The master is bound to agree with the greater part of his companions. And if he does otherwise, the master is bound to replace the ship and the goods, if they are lost. And this is, etc.

(3) If a ship is lost in any land or in any place whatever, the mariners are bound to save the most they can; and if they assist, the master is bound, if he have not the money, to pledge some of the goods which they [the mariners] have saved, and to convey them back to their country; and if they do not assist, he is not bound to furnish them with anything nor to provide them with anything, on the contrary they shall lose their wages, when the ship is lost. And the master has no power to sell the apparel of the ship, if he has not a mandate or procuration from the owners, but he ought to place them in safe deposit, until he knows their wishes. And he ought to act in the most loyal way he can. (Et si doit fere a plus loialment qil pourra.) And if he act otherwise, he is bound to make compensation, if he have wherewithal. And this is the judgment, etc.

(4) A ship departs from Bordeaux or elsewhere; it happens sometimes that she is lost, and they save the most they can of the wines and the other goods. The merchants and the master are in great dispute, and the merchants claim from the master to have their goods. They may well have them, paying their freight for such part of the voyage as the ship has made, if it please the master. And if the master wishes, he may repair his ship, if she is in a state to be speedily repaired; if not he may hire another ship to complete the voyage, and the master shall have his freight for as much of the cargo as has been saved in any manner. And this is the judgment, etc.

(5) A ship departs from a port laden or empty, and arrives in another port; the mariners are not to go ashore without the leave of the master; for if the ship should be lost from any accident they would be bound to make compensation [if they have the wherewithal. But if the ship is in a place where she has been moored with four hawsers they may properly go ashore].(note 1)

—- Note —-
(note 1) The words in brackets were added to the Liber Horn in a hand considerably more modern than that of the original manuscript. It is possible that the rigor of the first part of the article was unenforceable. It has always been a source of more friction than even poor pay and bad food, between sailors and owners this restriction of shore leave. We may assume that the work of mooring with four hawsers would be done with enthusiasm.
—– end note —–

(6) Mariners hire themselves out to their master, and some of them go ashore without leave, and get drunk, and make a row (fount contekes), and there are some of them who are hurt; the master is not bound to have them healed, nor to provide them with anything; on the contrary he may properly put them ashore, and hire others in their place; and if the others cost more than they did, they ought to pay, if the master can find anything of theirs, But if the master sends a mariner on any service of the ship, and the mariner wounds himself or is hurt, he is to he healed and maintained at the cost of the ship.

(7) It happens that sickness attacks one of the ship’s company, or two or three, and the sick man can do nothing in a the ship, as he is so ill; the master ought to put him ashore, and seek a lodging for him, and furnish him with tallow or a candle, and supply him with one of the ship’s boys to tend him, or hire a woman to nurse him, and he ought to provide him with such food as is used on the ship, that is to say, with as much as he had when he was in health, and nothing more, unless he pleases. If the sick man wishes to have more delicate food the master is not bound to find it, unless it be at his [the sailor's] expense: and the ship ought not to delay her voyage for him; on the contrary she should proceed on it, and if he should recover he ought to have his wages for the whole voyage; and if he should die, his wife or his near relatives ought to have them [wages] for him. And this is, etc.

(8) A ship loads at Bordeaux, or elsewhere, and it happens a storm catches the ship at sea, and she cannot escape without casting overboard goods and wines; the master is bound to say to the merchants: “Sirs, we cannot escape without casting overboard wines and goods.” The merchants if there are any, answer as they will, and agree readily on a jettison on the chance, since the reasoning of the master is most clear, if they do not agree, the master ought not to give up for that reason casting over board as much as he shall see fit, swearing himself and three of his companions on the Holy Evangelists, when he has arrived in safety on shore, that he did not do it except to save the lives of the merchants and the ship and the goods and the wines. Those goods which are cast overboard ought to be appraised at the market price of those which have arrived safely, and shall be sold and shared pound by pound amongst the merchants; and the master ought to share in the reckoning of his ship or his freight at his choice, to reimburse the losses: the mariners ought to have a tun free, and the rest they ought to share in the jettison, according to what they have on board, if they conduct themselves as men of the sea; and if they do not so conduct themselves, they ought not to have any exemption, and the master shall be believed on his oath. This is the judgment, etc. (note 2)

—– Note —–
(note 2) Here we have the ancient and universal principle of “general average” set forth in its simplest form. Those whose goods, for the safety and advantage of all, are thrown over board, are compensated by all on board. Simple as the rule appears on the surface, we can rest assured that each ease had to be argued hotly on its merits, each of the contestants swearing on the Holy Evangelists before the worthy consuls who held their court at the quayside or, as the phrase went, “at the chain.” The chain was drawn across the harbor mouth each night for safety. So it was often known as “the Court of the Chain.”
—– end of note —–

(9) It happens that the master of a ship has to cut his mast from stress of weather, he ought to call the merchants, and show them that it is expedient to cut the mast to save the ship and the goods: and sometimes it happens that cables are cut and anchors abandoned to save the ship and the goods, they ought to be reckoned pound by pound as in jettison; and the merchants ought to share and pay without any delay everything, before the goods are landed from the ship; and if the ship should be on hard ground, and the master tarries for their dispute, and there shall be leakage, the master ought not to share in it; on the contrary he ought to have his freight as of the other goods which are saved.

(10) A master of a ship comes in safety to his place of discharge; he ought to show to the merchants the ropes with which he will hoist; and if he sees anything to mend, the master is bound to mend them, for if a tun is lost by fault of the hoisting or of the ropes, the master is bound to make compensation, he and his mariners; and the master ought to share all that he receives for the hoisting, and the hoisting ought to be reckoned in the first place to replace the losses, and the residue ought to be shared amongst then. But if the ropes break without his having shown them to the merchants, he and his mariners will be bound to make good all the damage. But if the merchants say that the ropes are fair and good, and they break each ought to share the loss, that is to say, the merchants to whom the wine belongs, so much alone. This is the judgment, etc.

(11) A ship loads at Bordeaux, or elsewhere, and hoists sail to convey her wines, and departs, and the master and mariners do not fasten their bulkheads as they ought and bad weather over takes them on the sea in such manner that the casks within the ship crush either a tun or a pipe; the ship arrives in safety and the merchants say that the casks have destroyed their wines; the master says that it is not so; if the master can swear himself and three of his companions, or four of those the merchants have chosen, that the wines were not destroyed by the casks, as the merchants stowed their wines above the water line, they ought to be quit. If they are not willing to swear they ought to make good to the merchants all their damage, for they are bound to fasten well and surely their bulkheads (boucles) and their hatches (elores) before they depart from the place where they have loaded. And this is the judgment, etc.

(12) A master hireth his mariners, and he ought to keep them in peace, and he their judge, if there is anyone who hurts another, whilst he puts bread and wine on the table, he who shall give the lie to another ought to pay fourpence. And the master, if he gives the lie to any one ought to pay eightpence and if anyone gives the lie to the master he ought to pay as much as the master. And if it so be that the master strikes one of his mariners, the mariner ought to abide the first blow whether it be of the fist or the palm of the hand; if the master strike him again he may defend himself. If a mariner strikes the master first he ought to lose a hundred shillings, or his fist, at the choice of the mariner. This is the Judgment, etc.

(13) A ship is freighted at Bordeaux, or at Rochelle or elsewhere and arrives at her place of discharge and has a charter party, towage and harbor-pilotage fall upon the merchants. On the coast of Brittany all those whom they take after they have passed “L’Isle de Bas” are harbor pilots: and those of Normandy and of England (after they have passed Calais and those of Scotland) after they have passed Guernsey, and those of Flanders after they have passed Calais and those . . . after they have passed Yarmouth. This is the judgment, etc.

(14) Contention arises on board of a ship between the master and his mariners. The master ought to take away the napkin from before the mariners three times before he sends them out of the ship. If the mariner offers to make amends according to the award of the mariners who are at the table, and if the master is so cruel that he will not do anything and puts him [the mariner] out of the ship, the mariner may follow the ship to her port of discharge and have all his wages as if he had come aboard the ship making amends according to the award of the other mariners. If the master has not another mariner as good as this one, and the ship is lost through any accident, the master is bound to make good the damage, if he have wherewithal. This is the judgment, etc.

(15) A ship is in a roadstead moored and riding at her mooring and another ship strikes her while she is at rest. The ship is damaged by the blow and there are some wines stove in. The damage ought to be appraised and divided by halves between the two ships. And the wines which are in the two ships ought to be halved for the damage between the merchants. The maser of the ship which has struck the other is bound to swear, himself and his mariners that he did not do it intentionally. The reason that this judgment is made is, that it may happen that a vessel would willingly place herself in the way of a better ship, if she were to have all her damage made good from having struck the other ship. But when she knows she ought to share the damage of both by halves she willingly places herself out of the way.

(16) A ship and divers others are in a haven where there is little or no water, and one of the ships dries and is too near another. The master of this ship ought to say to the other mariners [on the other ship]: “Sirs, you should raise your anchor [and move for it is too near us and may do us damage." If they will not raise it the master for himself with his companions may proceed to raise it and remove it at a distance from them. If they fail to raise it and the anchor does then damage the others [other ship] must make compensation thoroughly. And if it be that they have let go an anchor without a buoy and it does damage they are bound to make compensation thoroughly. If they are in a haven which dries they are bound to put floats to their anchors, so that they may appear above water [as markers]. This is the judgment, etc.

(17) The mariners of the coast of Brittany ought to have only one cooked meal a day, by reason that they have drink going and coming. And those of Normandy ought to have two a day, by reason that their master only supplies them with water in going. But when the ship arrives at the land where the wine grows the mariners ought to have drink and the master ought to find it. This is the judgment, etc.

(18) A ship arrives to load at Bordeaux or elsewhere. The master is bound to say to his companions: “Sirs, will you freight your fares, or will you let them at the freight of the ship?” And they are bound to reply, which they will do. And if they wish to freight choose to let them according to the freight of the ship, such freight as the ship shall have they shall have And if they wish to freight [their fares] for themselves, they ought to freight them in such manner that the ship ought not to be delayed. And if it should happen that they find not freight the master is not to blame. And the master ought to show them their fares and their berths, and each ought to place there the weight of their venture. And if he wishes to place there a tun of water and it be cast into the sea, it is to be reckoned pound by pound for wine or other goods if the mariners exert themselves reasonably on the sea. And if they [the mariners] freight their fares to merchants the same franchise which the mariners shall have shall be allowed to the merchants. This is the judgment etc.

(19) A ship arrives to discharge. The mariners wish to have their wages And there are some who have neither cot nor chest on board; the master may retain of their wages, in order to take the ship back to the place whence he brought it, if they do not give good security to perform the voyage. This is the judgment, etc.

(20) The master of a ship hires mariners at the town whereof the ship is, some of them for the venture, the others for money, and it happens that the ship cannot find freight for those parts to come in, and in the expedient to go a further distance, those who are engaged for the venture ought to follow the ship, but to those who are engaged for money the master is bound to increase their wages, view by view and course by course, by reason that he has engaged them to go to a given place. And if they go a shorter distance than that for which the engagement was made, they ought to have all their wages but they ought to assist in bringing the ship back to the place whence they brought it, if the master wishes it, at the adventure of God. This is the judgment, etc.

(21) It happens that a ship is at Bordaux or elsewhere; of such cooked food as there shall be In the ship, two mariners may carry with them ashore one mess such as they are cut on board ship. And such bread as there shall be, they might to have according to what they can eat, and of drink they ought to have none. They ought to return all quickly in order that the master lose not the service of the ship, for if the master loses it [the service] and there shall be damage, they ought to be bound to indemnify him. IF one of the crew hurts himself for want of help they are bound to contribute for his cure and to make compensation to their companion and the master and their mess-men. This is the judgment, etc.

(22) A master lets for freight his ship to a merchant, and it is devised between them, and a term is fixed [for loading] and the merchant does not observe this time; on the contrary he keeps the ship and the mariners waiting for fifteen days or more and sometimes the master loses his time and his expenses from the default of the merchant. The merchant is bound to indemnify the master, and of the indemnification that shall be paid, the mariners ought to have one fourth and the master three fourths, because he provides the expenses, And this is the Judgment, etc.

(23) A merchant freights a ship and loads her and sets her on her way and the ship enters a port and remains there so long that money fails them; the master keeps well and he may send to his own country to seek for money, but he ought not to lose time for if he does so he is bound to indemnify the merchants for the damage they shall incur. But the master may well take of the wines of the merchants and sell them to obtain provisions. And when the ship shall have arrived at her right discharge the wines which the master at the market price at which the others shall be sold, neither at a higher nor a lower price. And the master ought to have his freight of those wines as of the others. This is the judgment, etc.

(24) A young man is pilot of a ship, and he is hired to conduct her into the port where she ought to discharge, and it may well happen that the port where ships are placed to discharge is a closed port. The master is bound to provide her berth by himself and his crew, and to place buoys that they may appear above water, or to see that her berth is well buoyed, that the merchants may suffer no damage; and if damage results the master is bound to make it good, if they state reasons wherefore the master should be driven from his reasons. And the pilot who has well done his duty when he has brought the ship in safety to her berth, for so far ought he to conduct her and thenceforth the duty is on the master and his companions. This is the judgment, etc.*

—– Last Note —–
* The clumsiness of this article’s phrasing derives from the general provincialism of the sea coast of France in all periods. The “young man” is a “bachelor” in tbe original a local expression for a young fellow. “Pilot” is “lod-man” or loadman in the same sense as loadstar or guiding star. What the article is driving at is that the responsibility of making the ship secure in her berth belongs to the captain or master. The pilot’s job is done when he has brought the ship to her berth. In a general the final touch to bringing a ship in is expressed in the words that she has been secured “to the satisfaction of the master.” In one version of the Laws of Oleron it is stated that in the ease of a pilot [lod-man or lead-man] if he bring a ship into a haven and she is cast ashore by his lack of skill the crew shall lead him to the hatchway and there strike off his head. Charles Molloy (1676) says that the law of England permits no such hasty execution. This is a good example of the gradual evolution of the basic law of the sea to fit the times. It had become obvious by the seventeenth century that such rough justice would thin the ranks of any profession that ran such risks in the practice of it.

Use of first sea laws at sea.

SEA LAWS, a title which came into use among writers on maritime law in the 16th century, and was applied by them to certain medieval collections of usages of the sea recognized as having the force of customary law, either by the judgments of a maritime court or by the resolutions of a congress of merchants and shipmasters. To the former class belong the sea laws of Oleron, embodying the usages of the mariners of the Atlantic; under the latter come the sea laws of Visby (Wisby), reflecting the customs of the mariners of the North Sea and of the Baltic.

The earliest collection of such usages received in England is described in the Black Book of the Admiralty as the “Laws of Oleron,” whilst the earliest known text is contained in the Liber memorandorum of the corporation of the City of London, preserved in the archives of their Guildhall. These laws are in an early handwriting of the 14th century, and the title prefixed to them is La Chaste d’Oleroun des juggementz de la mier. How and in what manner these “Judgments of the Sea” came to be collected is not altogether certain. Cleirac, a learned advocate in the parlement of Bordeaux, in the introduction to his work on Les Us et coustumes de la mer (Bordeaux, 1647), states that Eleanor of Aquitaine, having observed during her visit to the Holy Land that the collection of customs of the sea contained in The Book of the Consulate of the Sea (see CON Sulate Of The Sea) was held in high repute in the Levant, directed on her return that a record should be made of the judgments of the maritime court of the island of Oleron (at that time a peculiar court of the duchy of Guienne), in order that they might serve as law amongst the mariners of the Western Sea. He states further that Richard I. of England, on his return from the Holy Land, brought back with him a roll of those judgments, which he published in England and ordained to be observed as law. Though R. G. Marsden doubts the story of Richard I. having brought back La Leye Olyroun to England, the general outline of Cleirac’s account accords with a memorandum on the famous roll of 12 Edw. III., De Superioritate Maris Angliae “(for many years preserved in the archives of the Tower of London, now deposited in the Public Record Office). According to this memorandum, the king’s justiciaries were instructed to declare and uphold the laws and statutes made by the kings of England, in order to maintain peace and justice amongst the people of every nation passing through the sea of England.

The earliest version of these Oleron sea laws comprised certain customs of the sea which were observed in the wine and the oil trade, as carried on between the ports of Guienne and those of Brittany, Normandy, England and Flanders. No English translation seems to have been made before the Rutter of the Sea, printed in London by Thomas Petyt in 1536, in which they are styled” the Lawes of ye Yle of Auleron and ye Judgementes of ye See.”French was, in fact, a tongue familiar to the English high court of admiralty down to the reign of Henry VI. A Flemish text, however, appears to have been made in the latter part of the 14th century, the Purple Book of Bruges, preserved in the archives of Bruges, in a handwriting somewhat later than that of the Liber Memorandorum. Prefixed to this Flemish version is the title,” Dit es de Coppie van den Rollen van Oleron van den Vonnesse van der Zee.”Certain changes, however, have been made in the Purple Book of Bruges in the names of the ports mentioned in the original Gascon text. For instance, Sluys is in several places substituted for Bordeaux, just as in the Rutter of the Sea London replaces Bordeaux. That these sea laws were administered in the Flemish maritime courts may be inferred from two facts. First, a Flemish translation of them was made for the use of the maritime tribunal of Damme, which was the chief Flemish entrepot of the wine trade in the 13th century. The text of this translation has been published by Adriaen Verwer under the title of the Judgments of Damme. In the second place, there is preserved in the archives of the senate of Danzig, where there was a maritime court of old, an early manuscript of the 5th century, containing a Flemish reproduction of the Judgments of Oleron headed” Dit is Twater Recht in Vlaenderen.”So far there can be no doubt that the Judgments of Oleron were received as sea laws in Flanders as well as in England in the 14th century. Further inquiry can trace them as they followed the course of the wine trade in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. Boxhorn, in his Chronyk van Zeelande, has published a Dutch version of them, which van Leeuwen has reproduced in his Batavia Illustrata, under the title of the Laws of West-Capell in Zealand. Verwer has also published a Dutch text of them in his Nederlant’s See-Rechten, accompanied by certain customs of Amsterdam, of which other MSS. exist, in which those customs are described as usages of Stavoren, or as usages of Enkhuizen, both ports of active commerce in the 15th century. Of these customs of Amsterdam, or, as they were more generally styled,” Ordinances of Amsterdam,”further mention is made below.

A new and enlarged collection of sea laws, purporting to be an extract of the ancient laws of Oleron, made its appearance in the latter part of the 15th century in Le Grant routier de la mer, printed at Poitiers in France by Jan de Marnef, at the sign of the Pelican. The title-page is without a date, but the dedication, which purports to be addressed by its author, Pierre Garcie, alias Ferrande, to his godson, is dated from St Gilles on the last day of May 1483. It contains forty-seven articles, of which the first twenty-two are identical with articles of the” Judgments of the Sea,”in the Liber Memorandorum, the remaining articles being evidently of more recent origin. A black-letter edition of this work in French, without a date, is preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and to the last article this colophon is appended: ‘ ` Ces choses precedentes sont extraictes du tres utille et profittable Roolle Doloyron par le dict Pierre Garcie alias Ferrande.” An English translation is printed in the appendix to A View of the Admiral Jurisdiction, published in 1661 by Dr John Godolphin, in which the laws are described as “an Extract of the Ancient Laws of Oleron rendered into English out of Garsias alias Ferrand.” Although this new text had the recommendation of an advocate who had filled the office of judge of the Admiralty Court during the Commonwealth and been appointed king’s advocate-general by Charles II., it seems to have been superseded in a short time by Cleirac’s Us et coustumes de la mer, to which was appended the following clause of authentication: “Tesmoin le Seel de 1′Isle d’Oleron, estably aux contracts de la dite Isle, le jour du Mardy apres la Feste Sainct Andre l’an mille deux cens soixant-six.” Cleirac does not inform us from what source or under what circumstances he procured his text, nor on what authority he has adopted in certain articles readings at variance with those of Garcie, whilst he retains the same number of articles, to wit, forty-seven. The clause of authentication cannot be accepted as a warranty above suspicion, as the identical clause of authentication with the same date is appended to the early Norman and Breton versions of the rolls, which contain only twenty-six articles. Cleirac’s version, however, owing probably to the superior style in which it was edited, and to the importance of the other treatises on maritime matters which Cleirac had brought together for the first time in a single volume, seems to have obtained a preference in England over Garcie’s text, as it was received in the High Court of Admiralty during the judgeship of Sir Leoline Jenkyns, and an English translation of it was introduced into the English translation of the Black Book of the Admiralty made by John Bedford, the deputy registrar of the High Court. It seems to have been Bedford’s intention to print this translation under the title of “Sea Laws”; but the manuscript passed into the hands of Sir Leoline Jenkyns, who gave it to the College of Advocates in 1685. The Black Book itself, which was missing for a long time from the Admiralty registry, was discovered in the 1gth century and replaced in the archives of the Admiralty Court. Of these two versions of the sea laws of Oleron the earlier obtained a world-wide reception, for it was translated into Castilian (Fuero de Layron) by order of King Alphonso X., and a Gascon text of it is still preserved in the archives of Leghorn, apparently in a handwriting of the 15th century, entitled “Asso es la copia deus Rolles de Leron de jucgemens de mar.” The parent stock of the Visby sea laws would appear to have been a code preserved in the chancery of Lubeck, drawn up in the Old Saxon tongue, and dated 1240. This code contains amongst many others certain articles on maritime law which are identical with articles in the Gotland sea laws. This collection comprises sixty-six articles, and it is now placed beyond a doubt by modern researches, especially of Professor Schlyter of Lund, that these Gotland sea laws are a compilation derived from three distinct sources – a Lubeck, an Oleron and an Amsterdam source. A Saxon or Low German text of this collection was printed for the first time in 1505 at Copenhagen by Godfrey de Gemen, a native of Gouda in Holland, who is reputed to have set up the earliest printing-press in Copenhagen. This print has no title-page, and in this respect resembles the earliest known print of The Consulate of the Sea; but upon a blank leaf, which occupies the place of a frontispiece in one of two copies of Godfrey de Gemen’s text, both preserved in the royal library at Copenhagen, there has been inserted with a pen in alternate lines of black and red ink the title “Dat hogheste Gotlansche Water-Recht gedrucket to Koppenhaven Anno Domini M.D.V,,” and there has also been inserted on the first page of the text the introductory title “Her beghynt dat hogheste Water-Recht” (here begins the supreme sea law). Professor Schlyter discovered a MS. (No. 3123) in the royal library at Copenhagen, which is written on parchment in a hand of the 15th century, and from which it seems probable that Godfrey de Gemen mainly derived his text, as it comprises the same number of articles, containing the same matter arranged in the same order, with this minor difference, that, whilst both the MS. and the print have the simple title “Water-Recht” prefixed to the first article, the MS. has also a similar title prefixed to the fifteenth. Further, as this article, together with those that follow it in the MS. appears to be in a handwriting different from that of the articles that precede, the fifteenth article may justly be considered as the first of a distinct series, more particularly as they are numbered in Roman characters, beginning with § 1, and such characters are continued with a single interruption down to the end of the MS. Although, however, the numeration of the articles of this second series is continuous and the handwriting of the MS. from the fifteenth to the sixty-sixth article is unchanged, the text of the series is not continuous, as the fortieth article commences with an introductory clause – “This is the ordinance which the skippers and merchants have resolved amongst themselves as ship law.” There is no difficulty in recognizing the first division of this second series of sea laws as a Low German version of the Judgments of Oleron, transmitted most probably through a Flemish text. This hypothesis would account for the substitution in several articles of Sluys for Bordeaux. On the other hand, the introductory clause which ushers in the fortieth article is identical with the title that is generally prefixed to MSS. of the maritime Ordinances of Amsterdam, and the text of this and of the following articles down to the sixty-fifth inclusive is evidently of Dutch origin and more or less identical with Verwer’s text of the usages of Amsterdam. M. Pardessus, in his valuable Collection de lois maritimes, published in Paris before Professor Schlyter made known the result of his researches, justly remarked that the provisions of several articles of this last division of the sea laws are inconsistent with the theory that they originated at Visby. It may be observed that the sixty-sixth article of the MS. is a Lubeck law identical with the first article of the first series, which is of Lubeck origin. No colophon is appended to this final article in the MS. Nevertheless, Godfrey de Gemen’s edition of 1505, which breaks off in the middle of the sixty-sixth article of the MS., has the following colophon: “Here end the Gotland sea laws, which the community of merchants and skippers have ordained and made at Visby, that all men may regulate themselves by them. Printed at Copenhagen, A.D. M.D.V.” The question naturally suggests itself, To what MS. was Godfrey de Gemen indebted for this colophon, or is the alternative more probable that he devised it ? There is no known MS. of this collection of an earlier date to which an appeal can be made as an authority for this colophon; on the contrary, the only known MSS. of which the date is earlier than Godfrey de Gemen’s print, both of which are in the library of the university of Copenhagen, are without this colophon, and one of them, which purports to have been completed at Nykoping on the Eve of the Visitation of the Virgin in 1494, concludes with a colophon which precludes all idea that anything has been omitted by the scribe, viz., “Here ends this book, and may God send us His grace, Amen.” We are disposed to think that Gemen himself devised this colophon. He was engaged in printing for the first time other collections of laws for the Danish government, and, as Gotland was at that time a possession of Denmark, he may have thus distinguished the sea laws from another collection, namely, of land laws. Professor Schlyter, however, believes Gemen may have borrowed it from a MS. which is lost, or at all events is not known. There is some support to this view in the fact that in the archives of the guildhall of Lubeck there is preserved a MS. of 1533 which contains a Low German version of the same collection of sea laws, with a rubric prefixed to the first article announcing them to be “the water law or sea law, which is the oldest and highest law of Visby,” and there are good reasons for supposing that the scribe of this MS. copied his text from a MS. other than the Copenhagen MS. The same observation will apply to a second MS. of a similar character preserved in the library of the gymnasium of Lubeck, which purports to have been written in 1537. But as regards the Visby sea laws little reliance can be placed on such rubrics or colophons as proofs of the facts recited in them, though they may be valuable as evidence of the reputed origin of the sea laws at the time when the scribe completed the MS. In illustration of this view it may be stated that in the same year in which the more recent of these two MSS. purports to have been completed – namely 1 537 – there was printed at Lfibeck an enlarged edition of the sea laws consisting of seventy-two articles, being a Low German translation of a Dutch text, in which six additional Dutch laws had been inserted which are not found in the Copenhagen MS., nor have a place in Gemen’s text, yet to this edition is prefixed the title, “This is the highest and oldest sea law, which the community of merchants and shipmasters have ordained and made at Visby, that all persons who would be secure may regulate themselves by it.” Further, it has an introductory clause to its thirty-seventh article – “This is the ordinance which the community of skippers and merchants have resolved upon amongst themselves as ship law, which the men of Zeeland, Holland, Flanders hold, and with the law of Visby, which is the oldest ship law.” At the end of the seventy-second article there follows this colophon: “Here ends the Gotland sea law, which the community of merchants and mariners have ordained and made at Visby, that each may regulate himself by it. All honour be to God, Mdxxxvii.” Each article of this edition has prefixed to it after its particular number the word “belevinge” (judgment). It would thus appear that the Visby sea laws have fared like the Oleron sea laws: they have gathered bulk with increasing years.

The question remains to be answered, How did this collection of sea laws acquire the title of the “Visby sea laws” outside the Baltic ? for under such title they were received in Scotland in the 16th century, as may be inferred from extracts from them cited in Sir James Balfour’s System of the more Ancient Laws of Scotland, which, although not printed till 1754, was completed before his death in 1583. The text of the Visby sea laws generally current in England is an English translation of a French text which Cleirac published in 1641 in his Us et coustumes de la mer, and is an abbreviated, and in many respects mutilated, version of the original sea laws. This inquiry, however, would open a new chapter on the subject of the northern sea laws, and the civilizing influence which the merchants of Visby exercised in the 13th century through their factories at Novgorod, linking thereby the trade of the Baltic to that of the Black Sea. (T. T.) See Pardessus, Collection de lois maritimes anterieures au X VII10 siecle (6 vols., Paris, 1828-1845); Schlyter, Wisby Stadslag och Sjorcitt, being vol. viii. of the Cor¢us Juris Sueco-Gotorum Antiqui (Lund, 1853); and The Black Book of the Admiralty, ed. by Sir Travers Twiss (4 vols., London, 1871-1876). An exhaustively critical edition of the Rhodian sea law (given in vol. i. of Pardessus) by W. Ashburner, appeared in 1909 (Oxford, University Press). It contains valuable material not only on the Rhodian sea law, but on the various other sea laws in force on the Mediterranean coast.

Captain Tom Jennings, Royal Marines, who was killed in Afghanistan on 22 December 2011

It is with great sadness that the Ministry of Defence must confirm the death of Captain Tom Jennings, Royal Marines, who was killed in Afghanistan on 22 December 2011.

Squadron Leader Anthony Downing RAF, whose death was announced separately by the Ministry of Defence, had been travelling in the same vehicle.

Captain Tom Jennings, Royal Marines

Capt Jennings died after the vehicle he was travelling in struck an explosive device whilst on an operation to the south of Kabul.

Capt Jennings, aged 29, was a true leader, selfless in his professional approach serving those who were his responsibility. Dedicated and humble, he was an archetypal Royal Marine with a keen sense of humour even when faced with adversity. Whilst working with the Afghan forces that he partnered, he displayed empathy and a broad cultural understanding that ensured he was highly valued by the Afghans as well as his Royal Marine brothers.

He was devoted to his wife and their two young sons whose loss cannot be portrayed in words. The Royal Marines have lost a brother, they have lost their world.

Capt Jennings family have asked that their privacy is respected.