5. Damage to Ship.—
The owner of a ship wrongfully injured by collision is entitled to complete restitution. If the loss is total, he recovers her value, with interest from the date of the loss. If the loss is partial, he will recover the cost of full and complete repairs and if such repairs make the vessel a better and stronger one than she was before, he is entitled to that benefit; he will also recover demurrage or compensation for the loss of use of his ship during the time occupied by the repairs.
It frequently happens that the ship is not an absolute total loss, in the sense of being completely destroyed or sunk beyond possibility of recovery, but so injured that the cost of repair will exceed the value at the time of collision; the owner may then treat her as a constructive total loss and claim from the wrongdoer the same amount as if the destruction had been complete. In other words, when the ship is so injured that a prudent business man would not repair, the owner abandons the wreck and claims a total loss. If he recovers, the title to the wreck passes to the wrongdoer.[21]
Expenses incident to the collision are also included in the ship's damage, such as the owner's disbursements in looking after his property; the cost of protest and survey; the wages and board of the crew while necessarily kept on board, the costs of superintending repairs and securing a new rating.
Loss of freight is also an item of damage.