lagan or ligan

[Robert Mahnke]

It even took several centuries before the law could make up its mind
about exactly what constituted wreck.  The legal historian Lord Coke,
writing in 1817, defined it thus:

"Flotsam is when a ship is sunk or otherwise perished, and the goods
float upon the sea.  Jetsam is when the ship is in danger of being
sunk and, to lighten the ship, the goods are cast into the sea, and
afterwards notwithstanding the ship perish.  Lagan or ligan is when
the goods are so cast into the sea, and afterwards the ship perishes,
and the goods are so heavy that they sink to the bottom; and the
mariners to the intent to have them again, tie to them a buoy, or
cork, or such other  thing that will not sink, so that they may find
them again."

Bella Bathurst, The Wreckers 9-10 (Houghton Mifflin, 2005).