CARRIAGE BY SEA BY SPECIAL CONTRACT. 147 



Shipping Amendment Act, 18G2, section 54: "The owners 

 of any ship, whether British or foreign, shall not, where any 

 of the following events occur without their actual fault or 

 privity, that is to say, . . . 



(2.) Where any damage or loss is caused to any goods, 

 merchandise, or any other thing whatsoever on 

 board any such ship, (a) . . . 

 (4.) Where any loss or damage is, by reason of the impro- 

 ■pev navigation of such ship, as aforesaid, caused to 

 any other sliip or boat, or to any goods, merchan- 

 dise, or other thing whatsoever on board any other 

 ship or boat, 

 be answerable for loss or damage ... to sfoods, to an asfffre- 

 gate amount exceeding £8 for each ton of the ship's tonnage," 

 such tonnage to be registered tonnage in the case of sailing 

 ship, and in the case of steamships the gross tonnage. 



This benefit is extended by the Regulation of Railways Act, 

 1871, to railways carrying partly by rail and partly by sea, 

 provided the loss happened during carriage by the vessel, 

 and the onus of showing that it did so is laid on the railway 

 company, (b) 



118. Carriage by Sea by Special Contract. — The contract 

 of affreightment which contains the specification of the 

 animal or animals to be carried, the freight and the modifi- 

 cations of the common law responsibilities of the shipowner 

 may be by charter-party or by bill of lading. (c) The former 

 occurs when the ship itself is chartered, the latter is usually 

 adopted in the carriage of horses ; and the bill of lading is 

 the ordinary document embodying evidence of a contract of 

 carriage between the shipowner and the shipper. Under the 

 present state of the law, shipowners, as has already been 

 pointed out, are liable as common carriers to make good all 



(a) This does not apply to loss after transhipment into another ship in conse- 

 quence of a collision, Bernina, 1886, 12 P.D. 36. 

 {h) 34 & 35 Vict. c. 78, § 12. See also § 105. 

 (c) See form. Appendix vii. 



