114 



WRECK WREN. 



land, wreck must have come to land : when at sea, 

 it is distinguished by the barbarous appellations of 

 flotsam, jetsam, and liyan. (See Flotsam.') In no- 

 thing, perhaps, has the beneficial influence of the 

 advance of society in civilization been more appar- 

 ent than in the regulations with respect to the per- 

 sons and property of shipwrecked individuals. In 

 most rude and uncivilized countries, their treatment 

 has been cruel in the extreme. Amongst the early 

 Greeks and Romans, strangers and enemies wen- 

 regarded in the same point of view. (Hostis ;/</ 

 antiques, peregrinus dicebatvr. Pomp. Festus ; see 

 also Cicero, De Offic. lib. i. c. 12.") Where such 

 inhospitable sentiments prevailed, the conduct ob- 

 served towards those that were shipwrecked could 

 not be otherwise than barbarous ; and, in fact, they 

 were, in most instances, either put to death or sold 

 as slaves. But, as law and good order grew up, 

 and commerce and navigation were extended, those 

 who escaped from the perils of the sea were treated 

 in a way less repugnant to the dictates of humanity ; 

 and at length the Roman law made it a capital of- 

 fence to destroy persons shipwrecked, or to prevent 

 their saving the ship ; and the stealing even of a 

 plank from a vessel shipwrecked, or in distress, 

 made the party liable to answer for the whole ship 

 and cargo. (JPand. 47. 9. 3.) During the gloomy 

 period which followed the subversion of the Roman 

 empire, and the establishment of the northern na- 

 tions in the southern parts of Europe, the ancient 

 barbarous practices with respect to shipwreck were 

 every where renewed. Those who survived were, 

 in most countries, reduced to servitude ; and their 

 goods were every where confiscated for the use of 

 the lord on whose manor they had been thrown. 

 (Robertson's Charles V., vol. i, note 29.) But 

 nothing, perhaps, can so strongly evince the pre- 

 valence and nature of these enormities as the efforts 

 that were made, as soon as governments began to 

 acquire authority, for their suppression. The re- 

 gulations as to shipwreck, in the laws of Oleron, 

 are, in this respect, most remarkable. The 35th 

 and 38th articles state, that " Pilots, in order to 

 ingratiate themselves with their lords, did, like 

 faithless and treacherous villains, sometimes willing- 

 ly run the ship upon the rocks, &c. ;" for which 

 offence they are held to be accursed and excommuni- 

 cated, and punished as thieves and robbers. The 

 fate of the lord is still more severe. " He is to be 

 apprehended, his goods confiscated and sold, and 

 himself fastened to a post or stake in the midst of 

 his own mansion house, which being fired at the 

 four corners, all shall be burned together, the walls 

 thereof be demolished, the stones pulled down, and 

 the site converted into a market-place, for the sale 

 only of hogs and swine, to all posterity." The 3 1 st 

 article recites, that, when a vessel was lost by 

 running on shore, and the mariners had landed, 

 they often, instead of meeting with help, " were 

 attacked by people more barbarous, cruel and in- 

 human than mad dogs ; who, to gain their moneys, 

 apparel, and other goods, did sometimes murder and 

 destroy these poor distressed seamen. In this case, 

 the lord of the country is to execute justice by 

 punishing them in their persons and their estates, 

 and is commanded to plunge them in the sea till 

 they be half dead, and then to have them drawn 

 forth out of the sea, and stoned to death." Such 

 were the dreadful severities by which it was at- 

 tempted to put a stop to the crimes against which 

 they were directed. The violence of the remedy 

 shows, better than any thing else, how inveterate 



the disease had become. The law of England, like 

 that of other modern countries, adjudged wrecks to 

 belong to the king; but the rigour and injustice of 

 this law was modified as early as the reign of Henry 

 I., when it was ruled, that, if any person escaped 

 alive out of the ship, it should be no wreck : and, 

 after various modifications, it was decided, in the 

 reign of Henry III., that if goods were cast on 

 shore, having any marks by which they could be 

 identified, they were to revert to the owners, if 

 claimed any time within a year and a day. By the 

 statute 27 Edw. III., c. 13, if a ship be lost, and 

 the goods come to land, they are to be delivered to 

 the merchants, paying only a reasonable reward or 

 salvage to those who saved or preserved them. 

 But these ancient statutes, owing to the confusion 

 and disorder of the times, were very ill enforced ; 

 and the disgraceful practices previously alluded to 

 continued to the middle of the last century. A 

 statute of Anne (12 Ann. st. 2, c. 18), confirmed 

 by the 4 Geo. I., c. 12, in order to put a stop to 

 the atrocities in question, orders all head officer-, 

 and others of the towns near the sea, upon applica- 

 tion made of them, to summon as many hands as 

 are necessary, and send them to the relief of any 

 ship in distress, on forfeiture of 100; and in case 

 of assistance given, salvage is to be assessed by three 

 justices, and paid by the owners. Persons secret- 

 ing any goods cast ashore, are to forfeit treble their 

 value; and if they wilfully do any act whereby the 

 ship is lost or destroyed, they are guilty of felony 

 without benefit of clergy. But even this statute 

 seems not to have been sufficient to accomplish the 

 end in view: and, in 1752, a new statute (26 Geo. 

 II., c. 19) was enacted, the preamble of which is 

 as follows : " Whereas, notwithstanding the good 

 and salutary laws now in being against plundering 

 and destroying vessels in distress, and against taking 

 away shipwrecked, lost or stranded goods, many 

 wicked enormities have been committed, to the dis- 

 grace of the nation, and the grievous damage of 

 merchants and mariners of our own and other coun- 

 tries, be it, &c. ;" and it is then enacted, that the 

 preventing the escape of any person endeavouring 

 to save his life, or wounding him with intent to 

 destroy him, or putting out false lights in order to 

 bring any vessel into danger, shall be capital felony. 

 By the same statute, the pilfering of any goods cast 

 ashore, is made petty larceny. By statute 1 and 2 

 Geo. IV., c. 75, it is enacted that any person or 

 persons wilfully cutting away, injuring or conceal- 

 ing any buoy or buoy-rope attached to any anchor 

 or cable belonging to any ship, whether in distress 

 or otherwise, shall be judged guilty of felony, and 

 may, upon conviction, be transported for seven 

 years. The salvage, or the amount to be paid to 

 those who have assisted in saving the wreck, is de- 

 termined by the court of admiralty, who proportion 

 the allowance to the risk and labour incurred. 

 Sometimes as much as half the value of the property 

 saved has been allowed. For salvage in cases of 

 recapture, see prize. 



WREN (troglodytes) ; a genus of birds, closely 

 allied to the warblers, distinguished by their small 

 size, slender beak, short and rounded wings, mot- 

 tled plumage, and the habit of holding the tail ele- 

 vated. The common wren is, with the exception 

 of the golden-crowned wren, the smallest bird in 

 Europe. It is fond of prying about crevices and 

 holes in walls, ruined buildings, &c., and is constant- 

 ly in motion, searching for insects, which form its 

 accustomed food. It nestles in similar situations, or 



