
From the U.S. Code Online via GPO Access
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[Laws in effect as of January 2, 2001]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
  January 2, 2001 and January 28, 2002]
[CITE: 10USC7672]

 
                         TITLE 10--ARMED FORCES
 
                    Subtitle C--Navy and Marine Corps
 
                     PART IV--GENERAL ADMINISTRATION
 
                           CHAPTER 655--PRIZE
 
Sec. 7672. Recaptures: award of salvage, costs, and expenses

    (a) If a vessel or other property that has been captured by a force 
hostile to the United States is recaptured, and the court believes that 
the property had not been condemned as prize by competent authority 
before its recapture, the court shall award an appropriate sum as 
salvage.
    (b) If the recaptured property belonged to the United States, it 
shall be restored to the United States, and costs and expenses ordered 
to be paid by the court shall be paid from the Treasury.
    (c) If the recaptured property belonged to any person residing 
within or under the protection of the United States, the court shall 
restore the property to its owner upon his claim and on payment of such 
sum as the court may award as salvage, costs, and expenses.
    (d) If the recaptured property belonged to any person permanently 
residing within the territory and under the protection of any foreign 
government in amity with the United States, and, by the law or usage of 
that government, the property of a citizen of the United States would be 
restored under like circumstances of recapture, the court shall, upon 
the owner's claim, restore the property to him under such terms as the 
law or usage of that government would require of a citizen of the United 
States under like circumstances. If no such law or usage is known, the 
property shall be restored upon the payment of such salvage, costs, and 
expenses as the court orders.
    (e) Amounts awarded as salvage under this section shall be paid to 
the United States.

(Aug. 10, 1956, ch. 1041, 70A Stat. 481.)

                                          Historical and Revision Notes
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            Revised section                      Source (U.S. Code)            
   Source (Statutes at Large)
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---------------------------------
7672..................................  34 U.S.C. 1158 (less last            R.
S. 4652 (less last sentence).
                                         sentence).
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---------------------------------

    In subsection (c) the words ``restore the property'' are substituted 
for the words ``adjudge to be restored.'' A similar substitution is made 
in subsection (d).
    In subsection (d) the words ``foreign government'' are substituted 
for the words ``foreign prince, government, or state''.
    Subsection (e) is derived from the next to the last sentence of R.S. 
4652 which, when enacted, read:
    ``The whole amount awarded as salvage shall be decreed to the 
captors and no part to the United States, and shall be distributed as in 
the case of proceeds of property condemned as prize.''
    The Act of March 3, 1899, ch. 413, Sec. 13, 30 Stat. 1007, repealed 
all laws authorizing the distribution of prize money to captors. 
Accordingly, 34 U.S.C. 1158 states:
    ``The whole amount awarded as salvage shall be disposed of as in the 
case of proceeds of property condemned as prize.''
    As shown in Sec. 7668 of this title, the net proceeds of property 
condemned as prize must be decreed to the United States. Subsection (e) 
is phrased so as to state directly, instead of by reference, the fact 
that the amount awarded as salvage is paid to the government. While this 
is apparently inconsistent with R.S. 4652 as originally enacted, it is 
consistent with the intent expressed by Congress in the provision of the 
Act of March 3, 1899 (supra), which repealed provisions relating to the 
distribution of prize money and bounty to crews. This act, it is true, 
did not mention salvage; and salvage money is still occasionally awarded 
to crews of naval vessels. However, such occasions are rare, and it is 
the general policy of the Department of the Navy not to claim salvage on 
behalf of its personnel. No case appears in which salvage derived from 
prize has been claimed for such personnel. Prize salvage is more closely 
related to prize money than it is to other salvage. The determination by 
Congress that captors should not share in the proceeds of prizes is, 
therefore, as in 34 U.S.C. 1158, carried through the revised section to 
salvage derived from prize. The word ``amounts'' is substituted for the 
words ``the whole amount''.
