Canadian Government Merchant Marine, Ltd. v. United States

(after stating the facts as above). It is idle to attempt any hard and fast definition of salvage; it has often been described as a service of benefit to a vessel in distress (e. g. The Menominee [C. C. A.] 300 F. 464). But that is not and does not pretend to be a definition, for that word imports finality, and no branch of marine law has grown more.since printed reports began, and none is growing more now, than salvage.

The classic tests of Clifford, J., in The Blackwall, 10 Wall. 2, 19 L. Ed. 870, are still useful, because they serve as a category of reasons for giving much or little; but…