The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c17.53

c17.53

Another Maratha naval practice that led to so much negotiation and controversy, was that relating to wrecks. By the immemorial custom of the coast a wreck was appropriated by the prince to whose shore it was driven, for he argued that it had been sent by God to his doors. Henry Oxinden was the first English envoy to negotiate about the English ships wrecked on Shivaji’s coast, but that prince was at first reluctant to make any concession on this point. Oxinden wrote to his official superiors at Bombay that his request for the restoration of English wrecks was opposed by Shivaji’s officers. ‘They say that should they grant us our wrecks the French, Dutch and other merchants would demand the same which they cannot graunt being positively against the lawes and constitutions of their country now and formerly the Nisamshay Kingdome by which they are still governed.’² Ultimately Shivaji was prevailed upon to make this concession, but it appears that during the stormy days following his death the Marathas had again reverted to their original custom, for wrecks formed the subject of an Article of the treaty of 1739. Article 9 of that treaty laid down that ‘Any vessel belonging to the English or Bajirav that shall be driven by stress of weather, or other accidents, for shelter on the coast of either jurisdiction, all possible assistance shall be given for the refittal; but if stranded or wrecked on either shore, half of the cargo and vessel shall belong to the Government, and the other half be reserved to the owner’.³