The basic principles of the English law of salvage were in most respects well developed at the time of—and indeed were substantially incorporated in—the Brussels Convention on Salvage 1910. The rules which are the substance of that Convention are in force in most maritime countries; but the Convention itself has never been formally enacted as part of English law, although the provisions contained in Art. 6 (relating to apportionment of salvage remuneration between owner, master and crew), Art. 10 (relating to the two-year time limit for bringing salvage actions) and Art. 11 (relating to the duty of a master to render assistance to persons found at sea in danger of being lost) are substantially re-enacted in ss. 6, 7 and 8 of the Maritime Conventions Act 1911. The 1910 Convention is now ripe for revision and much detailed work has been done by and under the auspices of the Comité Maritime International, culminating in a conference in Montreal in 1981 in which a draft Convention was prepared to replace that of 1910. That draft and the question of the revision of the law of salvage on an international basis is to be further considered in September 1984 and subsequently by the Legal Committee of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). Contained in this article is a brief summary of nine areas of law and practice which it is suggested might be the subject of useful clarification or revision in the interests of safety, uniformity and certainty or which may in any event be the subject of discussion.

In English law certain restricted classes of property are recognized as being capable of being salved, so that the preservation of any other type of property which does not fall within one of the recognized categories does not permit of a salvage award by the Admiralty Court. The recognized subjects include ship, cargo, freight and wreck. Special statutory provisions have extended the law of salvage to the salvage of aircraft and created the concept of a reward for life salvage when no property is salved. In the United States the courts are much less rigid in their classification of the subjects of salvage. It would seem, for example, that in the U.S. an unmanned gas float is capable of being salved, though this is not the case in English law1.

Article 1 of the CMI Draft Convention extends the ambit of the Convention to a vessel or any property in danger in whatever waters the salvage operations take place: “vessel” means any ship, craft or structure capable of navigation including any vessel which is stranded, left by her crew or sunk; “property” is defined as including freight for the carriage of the cargo, whether such freight be at the risk of the owner of the goods, the shipowner or the charterer. Given the numerous types of structure or object which nowadays may be preserved from danger at sea, it would seem that a clear statement of principle as to what may or may not in law be salved is desirable for two reasons. First, a would-be salvor may refrain from offering his services if his entitlement to a salvage reward is in doubt. Secondly, uniformity of law and practice in this field is desirable.