224 ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



No. 5. Sayward, seized in 1887: 



Claims fur earnings in coasting trade in fall of 1887 $1, 200 



Earnings for season of 1888 6, 000 



No. 6. Grace, seized in 1887: 



Claims for probable earnings in fall of 1887 2, 000 



Claims for probable earnings in season of 1**8 7. 000 



No. 7. Anna Beck, seized in 1887: 



Claims for probable earnings in coasting trade in fall of 1887 2,000 



For probable net earnings in season of 1888 6, 000 



No. 8, Dolphin, seized in 1**7: 



Claims for probable earnings in fall of 1887 2,000 



Claims for probable net earnings in season of 18*8 7, 000 



No. 10, Ada, seized in 1**7: 



Probable earnings in fall of 1887 2, 000 



Probable earnings for season of 1888 6.000 



Total 7L200 



These items it will be noticed are in addition to the items of " prob- 

 able catch," or "estimated catch" for the seasons in which the respect- 

 ive vessels were seized. 



Nothing can more fully illustrate the wholly speculative character of 

 this class of claims than a consideration of these items in the light of 

 the indisputable facts. 



The Carolina, Thornton, Onward, Grace, Anna Beck, Dolphin, and Ada 

 were seized and decrees of forfeiture rendered against them by the 

 United States district court for the district of Alaska, and the Caro- 

 lina, Onward, and Thornton were left to go to pieces in the harbor of 

 Onalaska; 1 and the Dolphin, Grace, Anna Hid;, and Ada were sold 

 under decrees of that court, while the Sayicardw&s released on a bond 

 given by her owners a year or more after the decree of forfeiture was 

 entered. 



These seizures were in effect a conversion of. these vessels at the time 

 of the seizure, and, with the exception of the Sayward, their capacity 

 to earn anything for their owners ended with the seizure. The measure 

 of compensation to the owners was therefore the value of the property 

 taken at the time it was taken, perhaps with interest from the time 

 of taking. The owners were dispossessed by the seizure, and their 

 interest in the property merged in their claim for compensation, if they 

 have any such claim; and no claim can therefore accrue to them for 

 the possible future earnings of the vessels. 2 



1 Declarations of James Donglas Warner, Case of Her Majesty's Government, 

 Schedule of Claims, pp. 3, 0, 12. 



-Sedgwick on Measure of Damages, 6th ed. 583; Conrad r. Pacific Insurance 



C pany, 6 Peters IT. S., 262-282; The Ann Caroline, 2 Wall., 22 U. S. 538; Smith 



et. <iJ. r>, Coudry, 1 How. U. S., 28-31; Wood's Mayne on Damages, 3 Fug. and 1st 

 Am. ed., p. ISO. 



