12. Single Ship Companies.—
This is a form of organization which has the advantages of the general law of corporations in limiting the liability of shareholders to the amount of their stock. If such a corporation has all its capital invested in a single ship, its liability is, of course, limited to the amount of the investment and if the shares have been paid in full there can be no further calls upon the shareholders. When the ship is lost, all liabilities are lost with her except such as the shareholders may have personally guaranteed or assumed. The corporation which owns several ships will obviously not have the same degree of limitation. Hence the popularity among investors, particularly in England, of the single ship company. As far as the corporate affairs are concerned the laws of the State in which it is incorporated must be observed. In the maritime law, its status is that of an individual shipowner. The privity or knowledge of its managing officers may preclude it from the protection of the admiralty law of limited liability; if so, it cannot retain the insurance or any other part of its capital against its creditors, but, when the capital is lost or exhausted, the stockholders who have paid in full for their shares will have no further responsibility.