Definition
An archaic and largely obsolete term in maritime law meaning to leave or be out of a port. "Parture" is an older form of "departure" and carries the same legal significance in the maritime insurance context: a vessel has not merely begun to move or "broken ground," but has actually cleared the port entirely.
The term's legal weight concentrated in warranty clauses in marine insurance policies. Where a policy warranted that a vessel would "depart" on or before a specified date, courts and commentators interpreted that warranty to require not only that the ship set sail but that it be physically out of the port by that date. The distinction matters because a ship could weigh anchor, begin moving, and still be considered within the port — that act alone would not satisfy a departure warranty.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "departure" — the act of leaving or going away.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Lists "parture" simply as an obsolete form of "departure," citing Spenser. No independent definition is given.
Editorial note: The gap here is not between a common meaning and a legal meaning — both point to leaving. The gap is one of legal precision. In ordinary speech, a ship that "set sail" has departed. In maritime insurance law, departure required complete clearance of the port. Researchers encountering "parture" in historical insurance documents should not assume the common-language sense is sufficient; the legal threshold was higher.
Why It Matters in Research
"Parture" appears almost exclusively in historical maritime and insurance sources. Researchers are unlikely to encounter it in modern materials except in reproductions of older policies, voyage charters, or commentary on historical marine insurance doctrine. Its significance is almost entirely definitional and evidentiary: when reviewing an antique policy or 19th-century admiralty record, the presence of a "parture" or "departure" warranty triggers a specific interpretive rule — one that cannot be satisfied by mere anchor-weighing.
The truncated quotations in both Black's editions point to the same underlying authority (Kent's Commentaries and the Maule & Selwyn reporters), suggesting the definition was settled and uncontested by the time it entered standard legal dictionaries. Researchers should trace the substantive doctrine through Kent and the cited reporter volumes rather than relying on the dictionary entry alone.
Because both Black's editions carry nearly identical text, there is no meaningful evolution between them on this term. The difference in cited reporter volume numbers (3 Maule & S. in the 1st edition versus 8 Maule & S. in the 2nd) may reflect a typographical discrepancy and should be verified against the primary sources before relying on either citation.
Historical Dictionary Support
Both Black's editions are in agreement: parture means to leave a port, and departure imports more than mere sailing or setting sail. Both cite Kent's Commentaries and Maule & Selwyn as authority, and both preserve the core interpretive rule that a departure warranty is satisfied only when the vessel is out of the port, not merely underway.
Webster's 1913 confirms that "parture" was already considered obsolete in general English usage by the late 19th century, citing Spenser — a 16th-century poet — as the source of the form. This suggests the term survived longer in legal and maritime usage than in common speech, likely because policy language was slow to modernize.
Neither Black's edition explains why the standard shifted from "set sail" to "out of port," nor do they address how "port" itself was defined for these purposes — a gap researchers working on boundary or jurisdictional questions in historical maritime insurance disputes should note.
Jurisdictional Note
The doctrine reflected in "parture" developed primarily in English admiralty and insurance law and was received into American maritime law through Kent and early federal admiralty practice. Researchers working in non-English-tradition jurisdictions should treat this entry as specific to the Anglo-American maritime insurance context.