ABSTRACT
The phrase 'perils of the sea' is the most controversial and crucial part of marine insurance law. Likewise, it has been the subject of argument throughout the centuries whether the words 'inherent vice' meant a 'characteristic of the goods' without intervention of any external circumstances or the 'process' by which the goods have deteriorated by interacting with ordinary weather and sea conditions. The chapter analyses the origins of the important components of 'perils of the sea', 'inherent vice' and causation within the pre-Marine Insurance Act 1906 cases. It was decided that the slave risk had to be different from the tobacco and/or cotton risk to some extent due to the fact that the 'perils of the sea' should exclude human responsibility and interference; the case also defined the causation of an improbable event. The court identified the damage due to the "natural death" of the slaves was a form of 'inherent vice' and not a 'peril of the sea'.
