Collision
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
in maritime affairs, the shock of two ships coming into violent contact, whereby one or both may suffer more or less injury. Collision may happen without blame being imputable to either party as in a storm. Or a collision may arise where both parties are to blame-where there has been a want of due diligence or skill on both sides; in which case neither party has an action against the other. Thirdly, it may happen by the misconduct of the suffer ing party only, and then the rule is that the sufferer must bear his own burden. Lastly, it may have been the fault of the ship which ran the other down; and in that case the injured party would be entitled to an entire compensation from the other. By the rule of the road at sea, if two sailing ships are approaching each other end on, or nearly so, the helms of both must be put to port, so that each may pass on the port side of the other; in crossing so as to involve risk of collision the sailing ship with the wind on the port side shall keep out of the way of the ship with the wind on the starboard, but if they have both the wind on the same side, the ship which is to windward shall keep out of the way of the one that has it to leeward. If a steamship and a sailing ship are approaching, so as to involve collision the former must keep out of the way of the latter. If one vessel is overtaking another she must keep out of the way of the last-named vessel.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's 1921 statement that when both ships are at fault "neither party has an action against the other" was already being overtaken: the Brussels collision convention of 1910, given effect in Britain by the Maritime Conventions Act 1911, required damages to be divided in proportion to each ship's fault, and the United States finally abandoned its old equal-division rule in United States v. Reliable Transfer Co. (1975) in favour of comparative fault. The "rule of the road" Collier's recites has been superseded by the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGS) agreed in 1972 and in force from 1977, which still require power-driven vessels to keep clear of sailing vessels and give the windward boat the burden between two sailing craft, but now add mandatory traffic separation schemes, lights and sound signals, and an explicit rule that radar information be used properly. Avoidance is no longer a matter of eyesight alone: radar, VHF, and satellite-based AIS transponders, compulsory on most large ships since the early 2000s, let vessels see and identify each other far beyond visual range.
Written for this edition, 2026.