What is "general average"

Gross \Gross\, a. [Compar. Grosser; superl. Grossest.] [F. gros, L. grossus, perh. fr. L. crassus thick, dense, fat, E. crass, cf. Skr. grathita tied together, wound up, hardened. Cf. Engross, Grocer, Grogram.]

1. Great; large; bulky; fat; of huge size; excessively large. ``A gross fat man.''
   --Shak.

   A gross body of horse under the Duke.
   --Milton.

2. Coarse; rough; not fine or delicate.

3. Not easily aroused or excited; not sensitive in perception or feeling; dull; witless.

   Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear.
   --Milton.

4. Expressing, or originating in, animal or sensual appetites; hence, coarse, vulgar, low, obscene, or impure.

   The terms which are delicate in one age become gross in the next.
   --Macaulay.

5. Hence: Disgusting; repulsive; highly offensive; as, a gross remark.

6. Thick; dense; not attenuated; as, a gross medium.

7. Great; palpable; serious; vagrant; shameful; as, a gross mistake; gross injustice; gross negligence.

8. Whole; entire; total; without deduction; as, the gross sum, or gross amount, the gross weight; -- opposed to net.

   Gross adventure (Law) the loan of money upon bottomry, i. e., on a mortgage of a ship.

   Gross average (Law), that kind of average which falls upon the gross or entire amount of ship, cargo, and freight; -- commonly called general average.
   --Bouvier.
   --Burrill.

   Gross receipts, the total of the receipts, before they are diminished by any deduction, as for expenses; -- distinguished from net profits.
   --Abbott.

   Gross weight the total weight of merchandise or goods, without deduction for tare, tret, or waste; -- distinguished from neat weight, or net weight.

The law of general average is a legal principle of maritime law according to which all parties in a sea venture proportionally share any losses resulting from a voluntary sacrifice of part of the ship or cargo to save the whole in an emergency (for instance, when the crew throws some cargo overboard to lighten the ship in a storm).

In the exigencies of hazards faced at sea, crew members often have precious little time in which to determine precisely whose cargo they are jettisoning. Thus, to avoid quarreling that could waste valuable time, there arose the equitable practice whereby all the merchants whose cargo landed safely would be called on to contribute a portion, based upon a share or percentage, to the merchant or merchants whose goods had been tossed overboard to avert imminent peril. While general average traces its origins in ancient maritime law, still it remains part of the admiralty law of most countries.