The importance of ships to a nation, either in peace or war time is great and has been recognised since early times. The fact that ships and seamen, wherever they come from, or to whichever nation they belong, are exposed to the same dangers and are dealing with the same problems, has made maritime law uniform. This system of law has been one of the few, if not the only one that has been uniform for a period of thousands of years. Its rules were formed by the customs of the sea and the effort of seamen to overcome their · · common problems with the result that, although the political and social circumstances on land changed very often, the principles of maritime law remained unchanged.