Note 5 — THE PIRATES OF THE WHIDAH.
Reading edition
Writ. The money on board the Whidah was claimed by the crown because of its being the product of piracy, not because of the shipwreck, for if man or cat or dog escaped alive from any shipwrecked vessel, its contents were technically not "wreck of the sea", belonging as such to the crown, but were reserved for the owners, with reasonable salvage to the preservers. A recent act, 12 Anne, II., ch. 18, provided that any who secreted goods saved from a wreck should be punished with a fine of treble value; but this act did not run in Massachusetts.