law and take up the doctrines of the Admiralty. In the early
books which have just been referred to, and long afterwards, the
fact of motion is adverted to as of much importance. A maxim of
Henry Spigurnel, a judge in the time of Edward I., is reported,
that "where a man is killed by a cart, or by the fall of a house,
or in other like manner, and the thing in motion is the cause of
the death, it shall be deodand." /5/ So it was [26] said in the
next reign that "oinne illud quod mover cum eo quod occidit
homines deodandum domino Regi erit, vel feodo clerici." /1/ The
reader sees how motion gives life to the object forfeited.

The most striking example of this sort is a ship. And accordingly
the old books say that, if a man falls from a ship and is
drowned, the motion of the ship must be taken to cause the death,
and the ship is forfeited, -- provided, however, that this
happens in fresh water. /2/ For if the death took place on the
high seas, that was outside the ordinary jurisdiction. This
proviso has been supposed to mean that ships at sea were not
forfeited; /3/ but there is a long series of petitions to the
king in Parliament that such forfeitures may be done away with,
which tell a different story. /4/ The truth seems to be that the
forfeiture took place, but in a different court. A manuscript of
the reign of Henry VI., only recently printed, discloses the fact
that, if a man was killed or drowned at sea by the motion of the
ship, the vessel was forfeited to the admiral upon a proceeding
in the admiral's court, and subject to release by favor of the
admiral or the king. /5/

A ship is the most living of inanimate things. Servants sometimes
say "she" of a clock, but every one gives a gender to vessels.