Companions to Pirates: Wreckers

J.M.W. Turner: "The Shipwreck"
Book review on "Wreckers".

A Story of Killing Seas and Plundered
Shipwrecks, From the Eighteenth Century
to the Present Day.
By Bella Bathurst.
Illustrated. 326 pp.
Houghton Mifflin Company (NY Times review here)

Gathering flotsam and jetsam* is perfectly okay.

Luring ships to their doom to generate flotsam is akin to piracy and perhaps is worse since the crew and passengers may have little or no chance of survival.

Looks like an interesting book for maritime junkies.



*Flotsam in maritime law applies to wreckage or cargo left floating on the sea after a shipwreck. Jetsam applies to cargo or equipment thrown overboard (jettisoned) from a ship in distress and either sunk or washed ashore. The common phrase flotsam and jetsam is now used loosely to describe any objects found floating or washed ashore.