Meyer

The defendant issued its policy of insurance to the plaintiffs in the sum of nine thousand five hundred dollars against an actual total loss of certain merchandise, consisting of coke, coal, soda-crystals, and soda-ash in the ship Melanesia on her voyage from Newcastle-on-Tyne to San Francisco, and also five hundred dollars on commissions and freight profits. The risks against which the insurance was made were the perils of the sea, barratry of the master and mariners, and other perils usually insured against in a policy of marine insurance. The Melanesia sailed from Newcastle on the twenty-first day of December, 1884, and on the 21st of June following, in consequence of having sprung a leak, she proceeded to Montevideo, where she was repaired and put in a fit condition to proceed on her voyage, and on the 17th of October, 1885, she sailed from Montevideo for Akyab, in India, where she arrived January 4, 1886. Upon her arrival at Montevideo the master discharged the soda-ash and soda-crystals from the vessel, and sold them at public auction. The coke and coal were sold by him upon the vessel before they were discharged. Other portions of the cargo were sold by him, and the voyage…