The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1884-04-10
What is a Seap
\ LEARNED JUDICIAL DEFINITION. DICTION-
ARIES OVERIIAULED.

ARIES OVERIIAULED.
Chief Justice Sedgwick. in an opinion hand
ed down in the Superior Court in a suit against
William H. Guion, of the Guion line of steam
erS, to recover upon policy of marine insur-
ance against loss of cattle shipped upon one of
the defendants steamers, gives an interesting
construction of the stereotyped phrase in marine
policies of perilS 'directly by a sea-"
This is what the Judge says - policies gen.
orally have peril Of the seas but writers upon
Insurance and judges often use as an equivalent
peril of the sea- The word seas in the gen
eral provision has no specific or limited refer
ence to the ocean as a body of water. 1t is con-
traSted to land. 1t refers to the peculiarties of
the contingencies of living and trading upon
water, as distinguished from living and trading
upon land. The definitions of die
tonaries seem to give what is the use of the
word sea among seafarers as well as among
people generally.
WHAT THE DICTIONARIES SAY.
webster makes to mean "A wave, a bill
low, as to ship sea; the swell of the ocean in
a tempest; motion or agitation of the waters
surface Falconer's Marine Dictionary by
/ Burney. says Sea is yar1ously applied by
sailors to single wave, to the agitation pro-
duccd by multitude of waves in tempest or
to their particular progress or direction Thus
they say: We shipped heavy sea : There is a
quiet sea in the otiing:' The sea sets to the
southwark Hence ship is said to head the
sea when her course is opposed to the direction
.
sea Is defined as a separate word to mean that
vast tract Of water encompassng the whole
earth, more properly called ocean, and also as
another word more properly used fora particu-
lar part of the ocean. us the Irish Sea. the
Mediterranean Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Red
Sea-
There may be doubt" continues the Judge.
THAT parties to such contracts could accurately
state the difference between the articles "a and
the yet if they use one or the other in way
ali, III.
elimination must have its proper weight.
" l1ter> on language say that the definite art-
Gle always grows out of a demonstrative pro-
noun, the indefinite out of the numeral one;
that an or a is the numeral one; the is the de-
monstr:tiEe that.
SOME PART OF THE WATER.
The parties meant by peril of sea- not a
peril Of the that might be in the winds as
well is III the water, but a risk connected with
a moN ement of the water of the sea- AS it was
described as a, or one, sea, the intention to
designate some part of the water-for example,
Il wave. of which there might be several, each
of which would be different object from the
general body of water and would involve its
peculiar or characteristic risk. A sea in the
sense ~ a general agitation of the water or
waves was not meant, because that it is ii col
iective term embracing many waves, and it
ceases to he applicable when the individual
waves which compose it are intended to be de-
>igndted. A loss could not occur from the par
tculars considered collectively. but only from
their proper individual effects.
Il do not mean that the parties confined
themselves to a wave specifically, but they in
tended definite and separated part of the gen
era! body Of water and a risk that would be pc
Gu liar to that and loss that might be definitely
traced from that
NOT THE RESULT OF \ SEA.
In conclusion the Judge holds that none of
The cattle suffered injury from any direct action
of the water upon them. There was no evil
donce. he says, that any water reached them.
ana of the opinion that the general tossing and
labaring Of the steamer, which caused the in
Jury to the animals, was not the result of a sea.
in the sense of the policy, bat of the general
cOnmotion of the and of the winds. ard
that for these reasons the defendants Were not
liable for the losS.'
lie accordingly orders new trial, the insur-
cd having obtained averdct in the court below
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