discussions and adjustment which take place when a voyage has been disastrous. The equitable doctrine of salvage came from the Roman law; and it was adopted by the admiralty jurisdictions in the different countries of Europe; and whether it be a civil or war salvage, it is equally founded on the principle of rewarding individual, spontaneous and meritorious services, rendered in the protection of the lives and property of others on the sea, or wrecked on the coast of the sea. It is chargeable upon the owners, who receive benefit, and who would have sustained the loss if it had not been prevented by the exertions of the salvors. The allowance of salvage depends frequently on positive statute regulations fixing the rate, and the foreign ordinances contain precise enactments on this head, though salvage is said to be a question of the jus gentium, and not the creature of local institutions, like a mariner's contract. The regulation of salvage, by the statute law of the United States, is confined to cases of recapture. In the case of shipwrecks, or derelicts at sea, and rescue, and most other cases, the law has not fixed any certain rate of salvage, and it is left to the discretion of the Court of Admiralty, under all the circumstances. The amount to be allowed varies according to the labour and peril incurred by the

Salvage, in policies of insurance, says Mr. Phillips, has a meaning some. what different, and it applies to that part of the cargo which survives the peril, and is saved, and is to be charged or credited, as the case may be, on the adjustment of total losses.

b Dig. 3. 5.

The Calypso, 2 Hagg. Adm. Rep. 217, 218. Ware, J., in the Bee, Ware's Rep. 336. The Schooner Emulous, 1 Sumner, 207. In the case of a ship stranded on a sand-bank, in the St. Lawrence, infra corpus comitatus, the suit for salvage was held to be of common law, and not of admiralty jurisdiction. Stuart's Lower Canada Rep. 21.

a 1 Rob. Adm. Rep. 278. The statute of 9 and 10 Vict. c. 99, enacts regu. lations on the subject of Salvage, and its unskilful enactments are exposed in the Law Magazine for February, 1847, art. 2.

salvors, the merit of their conduct, the value of the ship and cargo, and the degree of danger from which they were rescued. The courts are liberal in the allowance of salvage in meritorious cases, as a reward for the service, and as an incentive to effort; and the allowance fluctuates between one half, one third and one fourth of the gross or net proceeds of the property saved, but one third has been the most usual rate.b In a case of derelict, Sir William Scott observed, that in no instance, except where the crown alone was concerned, and where no claim had been given for a private owner, had more than one half of the *246 net proceeds of the property been decreed by way of salvage; and in that case he directed the salvage to be apportioned among the crews of the two vessels which were the salvors, according to the numbers of the crews. The same observations were made

The Aquila, 1 Rob. Adm. Rep. 32. The Two Friends, ibid. 235. The Sarah, cited in a note to ibid. 263. The William Bedford, 3 Rob. 355. Marshall, Ch. J., 2 Cranch's Rep. 267. Bond v. The Brig Cora, 2 Wash. Cir. Rep. 90. The Schooner Emulous, 1 Sumner, 207. The Elizabeth and Jane, 1 Ware's Rep. 35. Bearse v. 340 Pigs of Copper, 1 Story's R. 314. The leading authorities in respect to salvage, in the various cases of derelict, recapture, rescue and distress, are collected and classified by Mr. Perkins, the American editor, in Abbott on Shipping, 5th Am. edit. Boston, 1846, p. 666. If the owner has voluntarily and fairly entered into a contract for a fixed or reasonable compensation, the service rendered in a maritime case of distress is still a salvage service; but the contract is not held binding upon the owner, unless it appears that no advantage was taken, and that the rate of compensation was reasonable. The Schooner Emulous, 1 Sumner, 207. One sixth is the usual allowance of military salvage under the general law of nations, as practised in the English and American courts, where the case is not marked with any extraordinary circumstances of difficulty or danger. Opinions of the Attorneys General, vol. i. 436.

L'Esperance, 1 Dod. Rep. 46. But in a case of extraordinary salvage merit, in bringing in a derelict, the court have not only allowed a moiety for salvage, but they have charged the costs upon the other moiety. The Frances Mary, 2 Hagg. Adm. Rep. 89. The Reliance, ibid. 90, note. In the Charlotta, ibid. 361, the court gave the original salvors the salvage of

by the court in Mason v. The Ship Blaireau," and no instance was found in which salvors were allowed beyond a moiety of the value. The court, in that case, reduced the allowance made in the court below to the salvors, from three fifths of the net proceeds of the ship and cargo, to two fifths thereof. In general, neither the master, nor a passenger, seaman or pilot, is entitled to compensation, in the way of salvage, for the ordinary assistance he may have afforded a vessel in distress, as it is no more than a duty; for a salvor is a person who, without any particular relation to the ship in distress, proffers useful service, and renders it without any pre-existing contract making the service a duty. But a passenger, or an officer acting as such, for extraordinary exertions beyond the line of his duty, has been deemed entitled to a liberal compensation as salvage. So, also, in a case of extraordinary peril, it

The Fortuna, 4 Rob. The Blendonhall, ibid. 1 Mason's

two fifths of the whole value. It was a case of derelict, and of great merit. In cases of derelict, the rule limiting the salvage to a moiety seems to be the fixed rule in the English admiralty and in our own. Adm. Rep. 193, and L'Esperance, 1 Dod. Rep. 46. 414. 421. The Elliotta, 2 ibid. 75. Rowe v. The Brig Rep. 372. The Henry Ewbank, Am. Jurist, Nos. 23. 67. 1 Sumner, 401. S. C. Property is derelict, in the maritime sense of the word, when it is abandoned without hope of recovery, or without an intention of returning. Ware's Rep. 43.

• Cranch's Rep. 268.

b The Neptune, 1 Hagg. Adm. Rep. 236. Hobart v. Drogan, 10 Peters, 108. 122.

Wash. Cir. Rep. 80.

Bond v. The Brig Cora, 2

⚫ Newman v. Walters, 3 Bos. & Pull. 612. Case v. Le Tigre, 3 ibid. 567. The Branston, 2 Hagg. Adm. Rep. 3, note. The general rule is, that a salvage remuneration is given only to the persons actually occupied in the salvage service. The Vine, ibid. 1. But where the service has been performed at some risk to the property of the owners, a portion of the remuneration has been allotted to them. In cases of civil salvage, the courts of admiralty do not recognise the rule of proportion, but award an equitable remuneration. Though the master and crew are in strict language the only salvors, yet the owners of

is admitted, that great exertions and personal hazard may exalt a pilotage service into something of a salvage service, and salvage will be allowed. And if a ship has been abandoned, so as to discharge a seaman from his contract, yet if he subsequently contributes to the preservation of the vessel, he will be entitled

to salvage. As the duty of the seamen ceases *247 by capture, any exertion subsequently and successfully made to recover and rescue the captured ship, will entitle them to recompense. The case will then be withdrawn from the operation of the general, if not universal principle, that so long as the person, be he a seaman, pilot or other person, is acting within the line of his duty in the given case, he has no valid claim for a salvage remuneration.

The subject of salvage was largely discussed in our

the salvor or saving ship are also allowed salvage, and one third has been established as the suitable proportion under ordinary circumstances. The Blaireau, 2 Cranch's Rep. 240. The Brig Harmony, 1 Peters' Adm. Rep. 34, note. The Cora, 2 ibid. 361. 2 Wash. Cir. Rep. 80. The Ship Henry Ewbank, 1 Sumner, 400. The Salacia, 2 Hagg. Adm. Rep. 262. Underwriters may be entitled as owners to salvage, after an accepted abandonment. The Ship Henry Ewbank, supra. The act of New-York, of Feb. 19th, 1819, c. 18. sec. 19, (and which act was not repealed by the New-York Revised Statutes of 1830,) authorizes the Board of Wardens of the port of New-York to allow to branch and deputy pilots a reasonable reward for extra services for the preservation of vessels in distress. Vide supra, 176,

note.

• Sir William Scott, in the Joseph Harvey, 1 Rob. Adm. Rep. 257. Phil. edit. The Frederick, 1 Robinson, 16.

Mason v. Ship Blaireau, 2 Cranch's Rep. 240. Hobart v. Drogan, 10 Peters U. S. Rep. 108. In this last case it was decided, that seamen and pilots may, in extraordinary cases beyond the appropriate line of duty, per. form salvage service, and be entitled to compensation as salvors. But pilots or engineers of steamboats do not come within the exception, though the rules of the marine law relative to disasters at sea, apply generally to navigation by steamboats. Mesner v. Suffolk Bank, U. S. D. C. Mass. 1838.

• The Two Friends, 1 Rob. Adm. Rep. 271. The Beaver, 3 ibid. 292.

courts in a case of recapture. The District Court of New-York allowed as salvage one half of the value of the ship. The Circuit Court reversed the decree, and denied all salvage. The Supreme Court of the United States corrected both decrees, and allowed one sixth part of the net value, after deducting the charges. The court, in that case, admitted the rule to be, that a neutral vessel, captured by a belligerant, was entitled to be discharged without paying salvage, on the ground that no beneficial service was thereby rendered, as the neutral, acting properly, would, of course, be discharged by the courts of the sovereign of the captor; and they admitted, likewise, the exception to the rule, when belligerant captors and courts were notorious for their unprincipled rapacity. This rule, and the exception, have been frequently declared in the English admiralty.b The rule of British jurisprudence in respect to recaptured property, and salvage thereon, is to give the benefit of the rule applicable to recaptured property of British subjects to allies, until it appears that they act upon a less liberal principle, and then the allies are treated according to their own measure of justice. The same *248 rule has been *adopted by statute in this country, and is founded on the immovable basis of recipro

cal justice.

Though the contract of seamen be not dissolved by shipwreck, and it be their duty to remain and labour to preserve the wreck and fragments of the ship and cargo, yet they may be entitled to recompense, by way of sal

Talbot v. Seaman, 1 Cranch's Rep. 1.

The War Onskan, 2 Rob. Adm. Rep. 299. The Carlotta, 5 ibid. 54. • The Santa Cruz, 1 Rob. Adm. Rep. 42. The British editor, Sergeant Shee, in Abbott on Shipping, 5th Am. edit. p. 699, says that this case, the Santa Cruz, is a most finished model of judicial eloquence. See, also, supra, vol. i. 112.

Act of Congress, March 3d, 1800, c. 14. sec. 3.