July 10, 1723

In the good old days, before kings had to take guff, one of their perks was that they got any goods that were ship wrecked. This was the time when if anything heavy got moved, it likely was on a ship. It may still be good to be king, but then it was better. There were however, intricacies in the laws, and these were traced out by the 18th century scholar William Blackstone (July 10, 1723 to February 14, 1780). His Commentaries on the Laws of England in Four Books (1783) is the source of our quotes. This "maritime revenue" is governed by:

 the law of wrecks [and] has been altered, and the rigour of it gradually softened in favour of the distressed proprietors. 'Wreck', by the ancient common law, was where any ship was lost at sea, and the goods or cargo were thrown upon the land; in which case these goods, so wrecked, were adjudged to belong to the king: for it was held, that, by the loss of the ship, all property was gone but of the original owner. But this was undoubtedly adding sorrow to sorrow, and was consonant neither to reason nor humanity. Wherefore it was first ordained by king Henry I, that if any person escaped alive out of the ship it should be no wreck; and afterwards king Henry II, by his charters, declared, that if on the coasts of either England, Poitou,.... or Gascony, any ship should be distressed, and either man or beast should escape or be found therein alive, the goods should remain to the owners, if they claimed them within three months; but otherwise should be esteemed a wreck, and should belong to the king....This was again confirmed with improvements by king Richard the first; who, in the second year of his reign, not only established these concessions, by ordaining that the owner, if he was shipwrecked and escaped,...but also, that, if he perished, his children, or in default of them his brethren and sisters, should retain the property; and, in default of , brother or sister, then the goods should remain to the king. And the law,.... in the reign of Henry III, seems still to have improved in it's equity. 

For .... then, if not only a dog (for instance) escaped, by which the owner might be discovered, but if any certain mark were set on the goods, by which they might be known again, it was held to be no wreck...And this is certainly most agreeable to reason; the rational claim of the king being only founded upon this, that the true owner cannot be ascertained. Afterwards, in the statute of Westminster.... the time of limitation of claims, given by the charter ... is extended to a year and a day, according to the usage of Normandy: and it enacts ... that if a man, a dog, or a cat, escape alive, the vessel shall not be adjudged a wreck. These animals... are only put for examples; for it is now held, that not only if any live thing escape, but if proof can be made of the property of any of the goods or lading which come to shore, they shall not be forfeited as wreck. .....

It is to be observed, that, in order to constitute a legal wreck, the goods must come to land. If they continue at sea, the law distinguishes them by the barbarous and uncouth appellations of jetsam, flotsam, and ligan. Jetsam is where goods are cast into the sea, and there sink and remain, under water: flotsam is where they continue swimming on the surface of the waves: ligan is where they are sunk in the sea, but tied to a cork or buoy, in order to be found again...These are also the king's if no owner appears to claim them...
There is a nice article on Blackstone at Encyclopedia Britannica.  They say:

Blackstone was the fourth and posthumous son of Charles Blackstone, a silk merchant of moderate means. His mother died when Blackstone was 12. He was educated by his uncle Thomas Bigg, a London surgeon, first at the Charterhouse (1730–38) and then at Pembroke College, Oxford, where he read not only the classics but also logic and mathematics. Everything that he wrote shows a wide knowledge of literature and an allusive and elegant literary style.

Although the article talks about how Blackstone oversimplified the law, our excerpt shows his great charm and clarity.