In  Asfar  v.  BlundeU  («'),  the  Court  of  Appeal,  affirming
Mathew,  J.,  held  that  destruction  of  the  merchantable  character  of
the  goods  was  sufficient  to  extinguish  the  liability  for  the  freight
upon  them.  The  ship,  carrying  dates,  had  been  sunk  in  the
Thames,  and  the  dates  were  saturated  with  water  and  sewage
matters.  They  were  condemned  as  unfit  for  human  food,  and
were  unmerchantable  as  dates ;  but  they  were  valuable,  and  had
been  sold  for  a  considerable  sum  for  distilling  purposes.  No
freight  was  payable.  Lord  Esher  said  that  the  test  is  whether
"  the  nature  of  the  thing  is  altered,  and  it  becomes  for  business
purposes  something  else,  so  that  it  is  not  dealt  with  by  business
people  as  the  thing  which  it  originally  was."

In  Dickson  d.  Buchanan  (k),  a  ship  carrying  some  wire  fencing
from  Liverpool  for  Brisbane  put  into  Falmouth,  as  a  port  of  refuge,
after  a  collision.  The  wire  was  found  to  be  damaged ;  and  it  was
given  up  to  the  shipper  on  his  undertaking  to  pay  freight  for  the
voyage  if  he  would  be  legally  liable.  It  was  foimd  that  most  of
the  wire  could  only  be  used  as  scrap  iron,  and  that  if  carried  on
it  would  have  rusted  to  such  an  extent  as  to  be  neither  wire  nor
scrap  iron  when  it  reached  Brisbane.  The  remainder  of  the  wire
could  be  made  serviceable  by  a  treatment  more  costly  than  the
result  would  be  worth,  but  only  for  small  articles,  not  as  fencing
wire.
