I think the question should have been phrased “If your crate of bananas was recovered, and I lost a couple Ferraris, presumably you don't owe me a Ferrari now?”

It seems like the “fair” thing to do would be to pretend the entire cargo was lost, and the value of the remaining cargo is distributed in proportion to the value of each person’s cargo.

So if $500,000 of Ferraris were lost and $500 of bananas were recovered the Ferrari guy would get $499.50 and the banana guy would get $0.50.

Yeah, I’m not doing a great job of explaining it but that’s more or less how it works. I think the way it actually happens is that the banana guy pays $499.50 and gets his bananas back, but that’s effectively the same thing. Also there are administrative costs and the value of this ship is also involved in the calculation, but that’s a bit in the weeds.

Makes sense, thanks!