SEA

The ocean; the great mass of water which surrounds the land. Beyond sea. In England, this phrase means beyond the limits of the British Isles; in America, outside the limits of the United States or of the particular state, as the case may be. High seas. The ocean; public waters. According to the English doctrine, the high sea begins at the distance of three miles from the coast of any country; according to the American view, at low-water mark, except in the case of small harbors and roadsteads inclosed within the fauces terra. The open ocean outside of the fauces terrw, as distinguished from arms of the sea; the waters of the ocean without the boundary of any county. Any waters on the sea-coast which are without the boundaries of low-water mark. Main sea. The open, unin-closed ocean; or that portion of the sea which is without the fauces terrw on the sea-coast, in contradistinction to that which is surrounded or inclosed between narrow headlands or promontories. Sea-batteries. Assaults by masters in the merchant service upon seamen at sea. Sea-bed. All that portion of land under the sea that lies beyond the sea-shore. Sea-brief. See SEA-LETTER. Sea-greens. In the Scotch law. Grounds overflowed by the sea in spring tides. Bell-Sea-laws. Laws relating to the sea, as the laws of Oleron, etc. Sea-letter. A species of manifest, containing a description of the ship’s cargo, with the port from which it comes and the port of destination. This is one of the documents necessary to be carried by all neutral vessels, in the merchant service, in time of war, as an evidence of their nationality. 4 Kent, Comm. 157. See Sleght v. Hartshorne, 2 Johns. (N. Y.) 540. Sea-reeve. An officer in maritime towns and places who took care of the maritime rights of the lord of the manor, and watched the shore, and collected wrecks for the lord. Tomlins. Sea rovers. Pirates and robbers at sea. Sea-shore. The margin of the sea in its usual and ordinary state. When the tide is out, low-water mark is the margin of the sea; and, when the sea is full, the margin is hieh-water mark. The sea-shore is therefore all the ground between the ordinary high-water mark and low-water mark. It cannot be considered as including any ground always covered by the sea, for then it would have no definite limit on the sea-board. Neither can it include any part of the upland, for the same reason. Storer v. Freeman, 6 Mass. 439, 4 Am. Dec. 155; Church v. Meeker, 34 Conn. 424. That space of land over which the waters of the sea are spread in the highest water during the winter season.