and it is desirable that such amendments should be made in the law relating to merchant shipping as will enable effect to be given to the conventions:

Be it therefore enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

1.

Provisions as to collisions, etc.

(1) Where, by the fault of two or more vessels, damage or loss is caused to one or more of those vessels, to their cargoes or freight, or to any property on board, the liability to make good the damage or loss shall be in proportion to the degree in which each vessel was in fault: Provided that

(a) if, having regard to all the circumstances of the case, it is not possible to establish different degrees of fault, the liability shall be apportioned equally; and

(b) nothing in this section shall operate so as to render any vessel liable for any loss or damage to which her fault has not contributed; and

(c) nothing in this section shall affect the liability of any person under a contract of carriage or any contract, or shall be construed as imposing any liability upon any person from which he is exempted by any contract or by any provision of law, or as affecting the right of any person to limit his liability in the manner provided by law.

(2) For the purposes of this Act, the expression "freight" includes passage money and hire, and references to damage or loss caused by the fault of a vessel shall be construed as including references to any salvage or other expenses, consequent upon that fault, recoverable at law by way of damages.

2. Where loss of life or personal injuries are suffered by any person on board a vessel owing to the fault of that vessel and of any other vessel or vessels, the liability of the owners of the vessels shall be joint and several:

Provided that nothing in this section shall be construed as depriving any person of any right of defence on which, independently of this section, he might have relied in an action brought against him by the person injured, or any person or persons entitled to sue in respect of such

loss of life, or shall affect the right of any person to limit his liability in cases to which this section relates in the manner provided by law.

3.(1) Where loss of life or personal injuries are suffered by any person on board a vessel owing to the fault of that vessel and any other vessel or vessels, and a proportion of the damages is recovered against the owners of one of the vessels which exceeds the proportion in which she was in fault, they may recover by way of contribution the amount of the excess from the owners of the other vessel or vessels to the extent to which those vessels were respectively in fault:

Provided that no amount shall be so recovered which could not, by reason of any statutory or contractual limitation of, or exemption from, liability, or which could not for any other reason, have been recovered in the first instance as damages by the persons entitled to sue therefor. (2) In addition to any other remedy provided by law, the persons entitled to any such contribution as aforesaid shall, for the purpose of recovering the same, have, subject to the provisions of this Act, the same rights and powers as the persons entitled to sue for damages in the first instance.

4. (1) Subsection (4) of section four hundred and nineteen of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894 (which provides that a ship shall be deemed in fault in a case of collision where any of the collision regulations have been infringed by that ship), is hereby repealed.

(2) The failure of the master or person in charge of a vessel to comply with the provisions of section four hundred and twenty-two of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894 (which imposes a duty upon masters and persons in charge of vessels after a collision to stand by and assist the other vessel), shall not raise any presumption of law that the collision was caused by his wrongful act, neglect, or default, and accordingly subsection (2) of that section shall be repealed.

5. Any enactment which confers on any court admiralty jurisdiction in respect of damage shall have effect as though references to such damage included references to damages for loss of life or personal injury, and accordingly proceedings in respect of such damages may be brought in rem or in personam.

6.

Provisions as to Salvage

(1) The master or person in charge of a vessel shall, so far as he can do so without serious danger to his own vessel, her crew and passengers (if any), render assistance to every person, even if such person

be a subject of a foreign state at war with His Majesty, who is found at sea in danger of being lost, and, if he fails to do so, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

(2) Compliance by the master or person in charge of a vessel with the provisions of this section shall not affect his right or the right of any other person to salvage.

7. Where any dispute arises as to the apportionment of any amount of salvage among the owners, master, pilot, crew, and other persons in the service of any foreign vessel, the amount shall be apportioned by the court or person making the apportionment in accordance with the law of the country to which the vessel belongs.

General Provisions

8. No action shall be maintainable to enforce any claim or lien against a vessel or her owners in respect of any damage or loss to another vessel, her cargo or freight or any property on board her, or damages for loss of life or personal injuries suffered by any person on board her, caused by the fault of the former vessel, whether such vessel be wholly or partly in fault, or in respect of any salvage services, unless proceedings therein are commenced within two years from the date when the damage or loss or injury was caused or the salvage services were rendered, and an action shall not be maintainable under this Act to enforce any contribution in respect of an overpaid proportion of any damages for loss of life or personal injuries unless proceedings therein are commenced within one year from the date of payment:

Provided that any court having jurisdiction to deal with an action to which this section relates may, in accordance with the rules of court, extend any such period, to such extent and on such conditions as it thinks fit, and shall, if satisfied that there has not during such period been any reasonable opportunity of arresting the defendant vessel within the jurisdiction of the court, or within the territorial waters of the country to which the plaintiff's ship belongs or in which the plaintiff resides or has his principal place of business, extend any such period to an extent sufficient to give such reasonable opportunity.

9.(1) This Act shall extend throughout His Majesty's dominions and to any territories under his protection, and to Cyprus:

Provided that it shall not extend to the Dominion of Canada, the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, and Newfoundland.

(2) This Act shall not apply in any case in which proceedings have been taken before the passing thereof and all such cases shall be determined as though this Act had not been passed.

(3) The provisions of this Act shall be applied in all cases heard and determined in any court having jurisdiction to deal with the case and in whatever waters the damage or loss in question was caused or the salvage services in question were rendered, and subsection (9) of section twenty-five of the Supreme Court of Judicature Act, 1873, shall cease to have effect.

(4) This Act shall apply to any persons other than the owners responsible for the fault of the vessel as though the expression "owners" included such persons, and in any case where, by virtue of any charter or demise, or for any other reason, the owners are not responsible for the navigation and management of the vessel, this Act shall be read as though for references to the owners there were substituted references to the charterers or other persons for the time being so responsible.

10. This Act may be cited as the Maritime Conventions Act, 1911, and shall be construed as one with the Merchant Shipping Acts, 1894 to 1907.

TREATY BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND GREAT BRITAIN PROVIDING FOR THE PRESERVATION AND PROTECTION OF FUR SEALS

1

Signed at Washington, February 7, 1911; ratifications exchanged
July 7, 1911

The United States of America and His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, Emperor of India, being desirous of adopting effective measures for the preservation and protection of the fur seals, have resolved to conclude a treaty for that purpose and to that end have named as their plenipotentiaries:

The President of the United States of America, Philander C. Knox, Secretary of State of the United States; and

His Britannic Majesty, the Right Hon. James Bryce, O. M., his Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary at Washington;

Who, having communicated to each other their respective full powers,

1 U. S. Treaty Series, No. 563.

which were found to be in due and proper form, have agreed to and concluded the following articles:

ARTICLE I

The high contracting parties mutually and reciprocally agree that their citizens and subjects, respectively, and all persons subject to their laws and treaties, and their vessels shall be prohibited while this article remains in force from engaging in pelagic sealing in that part of the Behring Sec. and North Pacific Ocean north of the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude and east of the one hundred and eightieth meridian, and that every such person or vessel offending against this prohibition may be seized and detained by the naval or other duly commissioned officers of either of the high contracting parties, but they shall be delivered as soon as practicable to the authorities of the nation to which they respectively belong, who alone shall have jurisdiction to try the offense and impose the penalties for the same, the witnesses and proof necessary to establish the offense being also sent with them, or otherwise furnished to the proper jurisdictional authority with all reasonable promptitude; and they agree, further, respectively, to prohibit during the same period the use of any United States or British port by any persons for any purposes whatsoever connected with the operations of pelagic sealing in said waters, and to prohibit during the same period the importation or bringing of any fur-seal skins taken in such pelagic sealing into any United States or British port, and by the necessary legislation and enforcement of appropriate penalties thereunder to make such prohibitions effective.

Such prohibitions, however, shall not apply to Indians dwelling on the coasts of the territory of the United States or of Great Britain and carrying on pelagic sealing in canoes not transported by or used in connection with other vessels, and propelled wholly by paddles, oars, or sails, and manned by not more than five persons each, in the way hitherto practiced by the Indians, without the use of firearms, provided such Indians are not in the employment of other persons, nor under contract for the delivery of the skins to any person.

ARTICLE II

The United States agrees that one-fifth (1/5) in number and in value of the total number of sealskins taken annually upon the Pribilof Islands, or any other islands or shores of the waters above defined, subject