The Collaborative International Dictionary
Bottomry \Bot"tom*ry\, n. [From 1st Bottom in sense 8: cf. D. bodemerij. Cf. Bummery.] (Mar. Law) A contract in the nature of a mortgage, by which the owner of a ship, or the master as his agent, hypothecates and binds the ship (and sometimes the accruing freight) as security for the repayment of money advanced or lent for the use of the ship, if she terminates her voyage successfully. If the ship is lost by perils of the sea, the lender loses the money; but if the ship arrives safe, he is to receive the money lent, with the interest or premium stipulated, although it may, and usually does, exceed the legal rate of interest. See Hypothecation.
Wiktionary
n. (context nautical English) An early form of maritime contract in which owner of a ship could borrow money using the ship as collateral.
Wikipedia
A bottomry, or bottomage, is an arrangement in which the master of a ship borrows money upon the bottom or keel of it, so as to forfeit the ship itself to the creditor, if the money with interest is not paid at the time appointed at the ship's safe return.
This occurs, for example, where the ship needs urgent repairs during the course of its voyage or some other emergency arises and it is not possible for the master to contact the owner to arrange funds, allowing the master to borrow money on the security of the ship or the cargo by executing a bond. Where the ship is hypothecated, the bond is called a bottomry bond. Where both the ship and its cargo are hypothecated, the relationship is called respondentia. Due to the bottomry bond's relatively low priority as against other liens in the event of a libel against the ship, the use of bottomry bonds declined greatly in the 19th century and the subject is today of interest only to legal historians.
The Code of Hammurabi describes a form of bottomry that was a type of insurance. A bottomry would be taken, but the repayment would be contingent on the ship successfully completing the voyage.
In his Life of Cato the Elder, Plutarch describes how he would use the process to make money, but calls it "the most disreputable form of money-lending." Kaplan and Kaplan describe it as follows:
Usage examples of "bottomry".
Over the next several months DeSalvo submitted to an interrogation under hypnosis and recorded fifty hours of detailed confessions for John Bottomry, head of the Strangler Bureau.