SALVAGE is “the reward which is earned by those who have voluntarily saved or assisted in saving a ship or boat, or their apparel, or any part thereof; or the lives of persons at sea; or a ship’s cargo or any part thereof from peril; or a wreck from total loss” (Roscoe, Admiralty Law and Practice, p. 13). The word salvage is indifferently used to denote the claim, the reward, or the property saved. Salvage is interesting as being perhaps the one case in English law in which a person may become liable to a claim upon him for services rendered to him without his request, express or implied. Salvage may be either military or civil. Claims for military salvage, i.e. , salvage on recapture (for which see Prize), are decided by a prize court. The tribunal for determining cases of civil salvage, the usual kind, is a court having admiralty jurisdiction. In England or Ireland the High Court of Justice (Admiralty Division), in Scotland the Court of Session, have cognizance of salvage claims to any amount. The Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, confers jurisdiction on justices of the peace to arbitrate on claims not exceeding £200, or where the value of the property saved does not exceed £1000. Certain county courts named by order in council have by the County Courts Admiralty Jurisdiction Act, 1868, jurisdiction in any claim in which the value of the property saved does not exceed £1000, or in which the amount claimed does not exceed £300. The jurisdiction of the inferior courts is protected by provisions depriving the suitor in the High Court of his costs without a certificate from the judge in cases where the claim might have been made before justices or in a county court. In addition there are various local tribunals exercising a more or less limited jurisdiction in ...salvage claims. Such are the Commissioners within the Cinque Ports, the Court of Passage of the city of Liverpool, and the Royal Courts of Jersey and Guernsey, besides the various Vice-Admiralty Courts throughout the British empire.
The rules which guide the courts in the award of salvage are reducible to a few simple principles, depending partly upon the general maritime law, partly upon the Merchant Shipping Acts, 1854 and 1862. (1) The salvage services must have been rendered within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty (q.v.). (2) There must be no legal duty on the part of the salvors to render assistance. Therefore there must be very meritorious and exceptional services on the part of the crew, or even of a pilot, a passenger, or the crew of a tug, to entitle any of them to salvage. The same is the case with the officers and crew of a queen’s ship, coastguardsmen, &c., who are bound by their position to assist. (3) The property must have been in peril, and rescued by the salvors. (4) The services must have been successful. Of course where a request for help has actually been made, and the property perishes, the right of remuneration nevertheless survives, on the ordinary principles of contract. The basis of salvage proper is service independently of contract.
If these conditions be satisfied, salvage claims take priority of all others against the property saved, and give the salvors a maritime lien upon such property, enforceable by an action in rem. Salvage of life from a British ship or a foreign ship in British waters ranks before salvage of goods. In distributing the salvage reward the court considers (1) the extent of the peril of the property saved, (2) its value, (3) the nature of the services. This is subject to any contract, not inequitable, made between the parties. Seamen cannot abandon their right to salvage unless they specially engage themselves on a ship to be employed on salvage duty. Salvage of life is rewarded at a higher rate than salvage of property. Misconduct of salvors may operate as a bar to their claim. Salvage reward is commonly apportioned between the officers and crew of the salving ship, its owners, and other persons assisting. The amount is at the discretion of the distributing authority. It seldom exceeds in the whole one-half the value of the property saved. Apportionment for salvage services rendered within the United Kingdom, where the sum does not exceed £200, due by agreement or the order of justices, may be made by the receiver of wreck on application of the parties liable to pay it.
Salvage is a term also applied by analogy to property not saved at sea, but from fire on land, and also to property recovered from destruction by the aid of voluntary payments. The person making the last advance is entitled to priority in the nature of quasi-salvage, as the continued existence of the property at all may be due to him, e.g., the case of a payment made to prevent the forfeiture of a policy of insurance. Chargcs in favour of a solicitor upon property recovered or preserved by his means have been several times declared by the courts to be in the nature of salvage of this kind.
The law of the United States is in general agreement with that of England. The court of admiralty jurisdiction is the district court. The area in which salvage services may be rendered is much wider than in England, as it includes the great freshwater navigable rivers and lakes. This difference arises from the greater importance of inland navigation in the United States. See Riparian Laws.
