ABSTRACT
The Wreck Removal Convention (WRC) 2007 further defines “wreck” to include “any part of a sunken or stranded ship, including any object that is or has been on board such a ship”. Wreck is often said to include flotsam, jetsam and lagan. Throughout the debate on including within the scope of wrecks those vessels that were not yet wreck in the sense of being sunk or stranded, but might become so, was the place of abandoned vessels or, in salvage terms, derelict. While a “warship or other ship owned or operated by a State and used, for the time being, only on Government non-commercial service” may be a wreck, the WRC 2007 does not apply to such a wreck unless that flag State decides otherwise. The very object of the WRC 2007 is to grant a State the power to take measures to remove a hazard posed by a wreck, which may necessitate removal of the wreck itself.
