The Scottish court's earliest records, held in West Register House in Edinburgh, indicate that sittings were a regular event by at least 1556.

[1] The growth in caseload was related to increasing disputes regarding breaches of charter, including ship's masters seeking compensation for unpaid freight and merchants suing for damage to goods or unexpected port fees.

Cases reflected Scotland's principal marine industries including the transshipment of sugar and tobacco and the export of dried fish, coal and grains.

A smaller number of cases related to smuggling, principally brandy, and to salvage rights for ships wrecked on Scottish shores.

The jurisdiction of the Court of Admiralty of the Cinque Ports extends in an area with boundaries running from the Naze Tower, Essex along the shore to Brightlingsea, then to Shoe Beacon (or Shore Beacon),[4] (to the east of Shoeburyness, Essex[5]), across the mouth of the Thames Estuary to Shellness, Kent, and around the coast to Redcliffe, near Seaford, Sussex.

Unless the judge finds a conflict of interest in the registrar's work their main task is to co-invest each successive Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.

In this respect the silver oar is the equivalent of a ceremonial mace, representing the authority of the Crown and the Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom.

[12] The Admiralty Court of the Cinque Ports had a silver oar of early date, but it was stolen in the 1960s and replaced with a replica.

[14] To expedite the administration of maritime law, British colonies were routinely granted subsidiary jurisdiction through independent vice-admiralty courts.

A vice-admiralty court was also formed in Nova Scotia to try smugglers and to enforce the Sugar Act 1764 throughout British North America.

[17] A silver oar sat in Quebec City, for many years from 1764 the seat of Admiralty practice in the St Lawrence Great Lakes drainage basin.

The Halifax vice Admiralty court sat in judgment of the bulk of the piracy cases in the western Atlantic, while Quebec dealt with most of the commercial work.

"[19] The Hanseatic League was formed in the 13th century to exploit trade between Nordic cities linked by the Baltic Sea.