In The Schooner Adeline, (73) for example, the Court applied an act of Congress specifying the mode of valuing a ship's cargo in order to ascertain the amount that
recaptors could recover as salvage.
The earlier statute, enacted by Congress on June 28, 1798, provided: That whenever any vessel the property of, or employed by any citizen of the United States, or person resident therein, or any goods or effects belonging to any such citizen or resident shall be re-captured by any public armed vessel of the United States, the same shall be restored to the former owner or owners, upon due proof, he or they paying and allowing, as and for salvage to the
recaptors, one eighth part of the value of such vessel, goods and effects, free of all deductions and expenses.