The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c17.56

c17.56

But clear and simple as this arrangement may seem, it did not lead to an immediate termination of troubles. Where financial interests are involved, a point may be easily stretched and the slightest injury to a ship may convert it in the eyes of interested parties into a wreck. So a wreck had to be defined officially, and this was done by Article 2 of the treaty, concluded between the Bombay Government and Peshwa Madhav Rao I on 14 September 1761. This provided that ‘all assistance be afforded in future to any vessel or vessels in distress, having English colours or passes, without subjecting the owners or proprietors thereof to any impediments under the pretence of their being wrecks from the splitting of a sail, the breaking of their masts or yards and such trifling misfortunes; whereas no vessels are to be deemed wrecks but such as are driven ashore, and there break to pieces by stress of weather when the Maharatta officer and the people of the vessels are to join in saving all that is possible, which must be lodged in secure warehouses, and then one-half of what is so saved shall belong to Madarao and the other half to the owners’.¹