Yukon Recovery, l.l.c.,plaintiff-appellant v. Certain Abandoned Property, in Rem, Ocean Mar, Inc., Claimant-Appellee

REAVLEY, Circuit Judge:

This is a contest for salvage rights to gold cargo in a shipwreck lying for a century on the bottom of the inland passage near Juneau. Yukon Recovery, L.L.C. (Yukon) appeals the judgment in favor of Ocean Mar, Inc. (Ocean Mar) granting rights to salvage the SS Islander. Yukon asserts that the district court applied the wrong standard of proof, erred in its ruling on abandonment, and erred in granting exclusive salvage rights to Ocean Mar. We affirm.

HISTORY OF THE CASE

The following facts are undisputed. The Islander sank in 1901 near Juneau en route from Skagway, Alaska…