These activities may include desertion, illegal scuttling, theft of the ship or cargo, and any act carried out against the best interests of the shipowner.
[citation needed] The U.S. Supreme Court case Patapsco Insurance Company v. Coulter explored the meaning of barratry in detail.
[6] National Union Fire Insurance Co. v. Republic of China et al. considered how the law of barratry applies during periods of civil war and insurrection.
The court ruled that the ships had been lost to barratry, not mutiny, since the captains themselves had ordered their crews to hoist the flag of Communist China.
In 1885, her final owner, Captain G. C. Parker, was accused of barratry for deliberately running her aground and burning her off the coast of Haiti and then making an exorbitant insurance claim for a nonexistent cargo.
Despite the obvious attempt at insurance fraud and clear evidence of his guilt, five of the twelve jurors refused to convict Parker to avoid condemning him to death.