Definition
Pessurable wares are bulky goods or merchandise that occupy a disproportionately large amount of space in a ship's hold relative to their weight or value. The term belongs to the law of maritime commerce and shipping, where the physical dimensions of cargo — not merely its weight — determine freight charges, stowage arrangements, and contractual obligations between shippers and carriers.
The concept addresses a practical reality of maritime trade: a carrier's capacity is limited by both tonnage (weight) and measurement (cubic volume). Bulky goods that fill hold space while contributing little to the weight-based load impose a distinct kind of burden on the vessel and its operator.
---
Common Confusion
PESSURABLE WARES should not be confused with general cargo, hazardous goods, or heavy goods. The defining characteristic is volumetric bulk — the goods take up room — not weight, danger, or perishability. A bale of wool or a crate of cork might qualify as pessurable; a barrel of lead would not, despite its freight value. Researchers encountering the term in historical shipping contracts or freight disputes should resist reading it as a synonym for any other freight classification.
---
Why It Matters in Research
Structural pattern: This is a historical evolution term with a narrow maritime commercial context. Its appearance in modern research will almost always be in historical sources — pre-twentieth century shipping contracts, admiralty pleadings, freight rate disputes, and treatises on maritime law. The term is essentially obsolete in contemporary practice, having been displaced by modern freight classification systems that use standardized volumetric and weight measures (such as the freight ton or measurement ton).
Researchers working in historical admiralty records, early American or English commercial shipping disputes, or colonial-era trade documents may encounter pessurable wares as a term of art in freight calculations. When it appears, the operative question is whether the contract or custom of the port applied a measurement-based or weight-based freight rate — pessurable wares were typically charged by measurement rather than weight.
The term also surfaces in disputes over dead freight (compensation owed when a shipper fails to provide agreed cargo) and in general average calculations, where the relative burden each cargo type imposed on the vessel could affect apportionment. Researchers should check the specific trade route and era: what counted as pessurable, and how freight was assessed for such goods, varied by custom of the port and by the terms of individual charter parties.
Because the definition in both editions of Black's traces directly to Cowell's legal dictionary (John Cowell, *The Interpreter*, originally published 1607), the term's recorded legal usage is old and thin. No significant doctrinal elaboration appears in the American or English caselaw tradition under this specific label. Researchers who find the term in a historical document and need to understand how it was applied should look to the freight and charter party provisions of the instrument itself, and to contemporaneous trade customs, rather than expecting a body of case law to resolve ambiguity.
---
Historical Dictionary Support
Both Black's Law Dictionary (first and second editions) give identical, minimal definitions: "Merchandise which takes up a good deal of room in a ship," citing Cowell. This consistency reflects the term's status as a received definition passed forward without expansion — neither edition adds interpretation, examples, or case authority.
Cowell's *Interpreter* is the originating source in the English legal lexicographic tradition. The reliance on Cowell without supplementation suggests that by the time Black's was compiled, the term had not generated independent American judicial development. The definition is descriptive rather than technical, leaving the critical question — how much room is "a good deal"? — to trade custom and contractual context.
No meaningful divergence exists between the two Black's editions on this point. The absence of expansion across editions underscores that pessurable wares remained a term of historical and maritime trade practice rather than one generating active litigation under that name.
---
Jurisdictional Note
The term originates in English maritime practice and entered American law through inherited admiralty doctrine. English admiralty courts and their American counterparts both recognized bulk-based freight distinctions, but the specific label "pessurable wares" appears to have been more common in older English commercial usage. Researchers in American admiralty records may find equivalent concepts expressed under different terminology.
---