Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/591

 584 FEDERAL REPORTER. �lost by the sînking of the Briha. The master finds from the evidence that there were on board of the Briha, at the time of collision, 32,000 cod-fish, salted down in the hold of the vessel, averaging 45 quintals to the thousand, making 1,440 quintals of fish; the quintal being the French quintal of 55 kilograms, equal to about 114 pounds. �The value of these fish the master finds to be 25 francs, (say five dollars per quintal.) �The testimony shows that in September, 1878, the price of cod-fish at Bordeaux, in France, green from the fishing ves- sels, coming from the Grand Banks, was 28 francs per quin- tal, (about $5.50.) The testimony further shows that it is not unusual for the French fishing vessels to sell their first catch of the season at the French island of St. Pierre, o3 Newfoundland, near where the Briha was fishing when sunk, and that during the season of 1878 some of the French fish- ing vessels sold their first catch there at 16 francs per quin- tal, (about three dollars,) and that St. Pierre is a market for cod caught by French vessels, and that they are shipped thence to France. �The testimony of numerous witnesses of great experience in the principal fishing ports of New England and Canada, nearest to Newfoundland, proved that in those markets, in which cod-fish is an important article of commerce, $1.75 per 100 pounds was the full value of such fish as were on board the Briha at the time of the collision. �The general rule is now well established that the value of a cargo lost by collision is to be ascertained by taking the cost of the cargo at the place of shipment, and adding the cost of loading it on board, and the cost of navigating the vessel to the place of collision. This is held to be the value of the cargo at the time and place of loss. �No matter how near the vessel may have reached to her port of destination, the market price at the port of destina- tion is not allowed to enter into the estimate of the value, and ail profits or probable benefits which would bave resulted from the termination of a voyage almost completed, are rig- orously excluded. The Aviiable Nancy, 3 Wheat. 546; Tha ����