Catalogue description Records of Droits of Admiralty and Droits of the Crown

The Lord High Admiral formerly had right by royal grant to custody of all ships found derelict on the high seas, to ships or goods of the enemy found in English ports or captured by uncommissioned vessels during time of war, and to goods lost or jettisoned at sea (flotsam, jetsam and lagan). Such droits of Admiralty were subject to the rights of the Lord Warden and Admiral of the Cinque Ports, of lords of manors, and of persons holding Admiralty rights on certain parts of the coast by royal grant. In 1707 Prince George of Denmark, then Lord High Admiral, surrendered his rights to these droits which were thereafter paid into the Exchequer. At one time the receiver-general of Admiralty droits was attached to the Registry of the High Court of Admiralty but his powers and privileges passed to the Board of Trade under the Merchant Shipping Repeal Act 1854, which also provided for the abolition of the post on the next vacancy.

Prize droits of Admiralty should be distinguished from droits of the Crown, the latter being granted to commissioned captors of ships and cargoes taken at sea. Disputes which arose from time to time between the Exchequer, as the department entitled to droits of Admiralty, and commissioned captors as to the right to a particular prize, were settled in the Prize Court. During the First World War, however, it was enacted by the Naval Prize Act 1918 that droits of the Crown were to be paid to a separate fund, to be called the Naval Prize Fund, out of which prize money was to be paid to the naval and marine forces. A Naval Prize Tribunal was also constituted under this Act to decide whether a sum resulting from the condemnation of a prize was a droit of Admiralty or a droit of the Crown. On the completion of its work this tribunal was abolished under the Naval Prize Act 1928.

Following the Second World War the payment of prize money was authorised under the Prize Act 1948 but this Act also extinguished for the future the prerogative right of the Crown to make grants of prize money to captors out of droits of the Admiralty and droits of the Crown. Currently, questions relating to unclaimed wreck etc are dealt with by district receivers of wrecks under the Merchant Shipping Act 1894, but the Admiralty Court has a jurisdiction in the case of disputes concerning droits.