24 International Journal of Law ISSN: 2455-2194 Impact Factor: RJIF 5.12 www.lawjournals.org Volume 3; Issue 5; September 2017; Page No. 24-28 The maritime salvor as a volunteer adventurer Nzeribe Ejimnkeonye Abangwu Lecturer, Department of Private & Commercial Law, School of Law and Security Studies, Babcock University, Ogun, Nigeria Abstract This article reviews and examines the role of a maritime salvor in salvage operations in shipping law. It explains who a salvor is and the ingredients a salvor should satisfy for there to be compensation. These ingredients include the fact that the ship must be in danger; the service must be voluntary; the salvage service must be partially or fully successful and the subject matter of salvage must be maritime in nature. Furthermore, the legal framework in Nigeria that addresses the issue of maritime salvage will be reviewed. It concludes by recommending that salvage operation carried out on land be legally recognized in deserving cases for compensation in line with the state of affairs in maritime salvage. Keywords: volunteer, maritime salvor, satisfy Introduction Salvage is a voluntary service by which ships or any other maritime property which are in danger of being lost in navigable water or other waters are assisted or rescued by volunteers. Such volunteers who engage in such salvage operations are legally known as salvors. In The Neptune, Lord Stowell described a salvor as: one who, without any particular relation to the ship in distress, proffers useful service, and gives it, as a volunteer adventurer, without any pre-existing covenant that connected him with the duty of employing himself for the preservation of that ship [1] . It is noteworthy that at sea the person who saves property receives a reward which is generally computed in the light of “the fundamental public policy...for the encouragement of seamen to render prompt services in future emergencies [2] .” However, on land, the person who rushes in to save another’s property from danger is described as an “officious intermeddler, the volunteer whom even equity will not aid” [3] . The right to salvage may, but does not necessarily, arise out of an actual contract. It may be a legal liability arising out of the fact that property has been saved, that the owner of the property who had the benefit of it should make remuneration to those who have conferred the benefit, upon him notwithstanding that he had entered into any contract on the subject matter [4] . It is to be noted that the protection of lives at sea and of maritime property is very important which the law needs to encourage. This is because, without this encouragement, only few people would engage in maritime activity because of the risks associated with the industry in-spite of its importance in international commerce [5] . In Nigeria, the master of every vessel is statutorily bound to render assistance to any person in danger of being lost at sea so far as to do so would not endanger his own vessel or persons on the vessel [6] . Any master of a vessel who fails to obey this duty commits an offence and on conviction is liable to a fine not less than N 500,000.00 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or both [7] . In carrying out this salvage operation, the owner and the master of a vessel or the owner of the property in danger is enjoined to co-operate fully with the salvor during the course of salvage operations [8] . Characteristics of Salvage For there to be an effective salvage which would entitle a salvor to receive compensation, the following ingredients must be available. 1. There must be a maritime peril from which the ship or other property could not have been rescued without the salvor’s assistance. That is, the ship must be in danger. 2. The Salvor’s act must be voluntary – that is, he must be under no official or legal duty to render the assistance. 3. The act must be successful in saving, or in helping to save, at least a part of the property at risk. 4. The service must be rendered to a legally recognized subject of salvage, that is, to vessels, their apparel, cargo and merchandise, bunkers, wreck etc. The ship in danger To determine whether a maritime property is in danger for it to satisfy this requirement, the test is usually both objective and subjective. Thus, the requirement that the subject of salvage must be in danger means real, but not necessarily immediate danger, provided that it is not so remote as to be a mere possibility” [9] . The onus of proof lies on the person claiming salvage operation to adduce evidence to show that at the time the salvage operation was commenced, the maritime property was exposed to real danger. Thereafter, it is left to the court to determine, whether within the available evidence before it, the property was in danger or not [10] . The court in doing this must