What would happen when a shipwreck is found?
It sounds a little silly, yes, but my question goes a little further. If say, the man who found EL CAZADOR in the Gulf of Mexico and found all the silver Reals, shouldn’t he have kept them either in secret or in public (he found it, not like it belongs to someone after 200 years)? If it was I, yeah, I would keep them. Maybe give some to a museum but definitely would keep it. Thousands of 1/2 real coins werefound. He should have kept them in a chest in the living room. Thats what id do. I am a coin collector (antiques too) and if saying I was to find some of the scrolls from the Library of Alexandria, definitely keeping them (perhaps donate 1-2 to a museum) But since I found them, they are rightfully mine, yes?
“But since I found them, they are rightfully mine, yes?”
Um, NO.
If the shipwreck was found within the territorial waters of any nation (that’s usually within 20 miles from shore, at a minimum; some nations claim as far out as 200 miles from their shorelines), then the finds from that wreck belong to the government of that nation. You need to contact that nation’s relevant authorities to get a permit to conduct salvage operations before removing anything from the site. If you do remove anything, you have to account for every bit of it to the governing authority. Most nations allow you to keep a certain percentage of your salvage as a finder’s bonus, but the lion’s share goes to the government.
If the ship, its fittings, and/or its cargo were insured, AND the shippers made a claim on the loss of the ship which the company paid out, then those goods belong to the insurance company, if it’s still in business (some few are, hundreds of years later). Yes, there are cases of insurance companies re-claiming salvaged items from the salvagers, even though the insurance company may not even have known that anyone was trying to salvage “their” wreck. Yes, there are cases of insurance companies re-claiming salvaged items from the salvagers, even when the lost ship went down as much as 300 years earlier. Again, the companies usually do award a percentage of the value to the finder(s), but not always.
There is a recent case (“recent:” sometime within the last 5 years or so) of a commercial salvage outfit discovering and salvaging an ancient Greek vessel that went down a couple of thousand years ago, in the deeps of the eastern Atlantic (open waters, obviously an un-insured vessel and cargo). When the salvage company announced their find, and invited the world’s press to come and take photos before the individual items were disposed of in various ways (sale, donations to museums, shared out amongst the crew, etc), the Greek government suddenly stepped into it, claiming that as Greek antiquities, EVERY item the salvagers had found really belongs to the Greek government/ Greek people.
This kind of claim is one the Greeks are particularly sensitive to, and have been pushing heavily for at least the last 40 years, because so many of their land-discovered antiquities were stolen from the nation by foreigners in the 18th-19th centuries, when Greece was in turmoil, politically and militarily. The case of the salvaged ship is still being wrangled over in international courts, years later. It’s enough to bankrupt legitimate commercial salvagers.
If you ever go diving and exploring, and actually discover a big find, be VERY careful to get proper permissions, dotting all the i’s and crossing all the t’s perfectly. People who thought as you do, who have found old wrecks and valuable salvageable bits who DIDN’T “do it right” have been penalized heavily, and hounded by many kinds of government agencies until they paid the penalties in full.
A few of them have even had assets seized and search warrants executed on their properties (including business safes and bank safe-deposit boxes), looking for the salvaged items, or for sources of financial compensation in the absence of the items. The legal penalties and warrants haven’t always “stuck,” but it’s an expensive exercise to just keep your salvage-coins and such when you have to be sneaky and nasty-clever about hiding your finds.
Shipwrecks in the incontrovertibly open ocean are fair game, in international law: always try to find out what the wreck was, if there is any chance whatsoever that someone will be legally able to claim some or all of your find for themselves, or for anyone they represent. Unfortunately, the territorial waters issue prevents casual divers and hobbyist salvagers from legally keeping much, if any, salvage. Deep-water salvage means huge expense.
There is something about people finding “sunken treasure” that sets everyone in an uproar. Even governments and businesses that may never actually gain anything by creating the uproar. I don’t know why. 
Does this answer your question? Sorry to be such a downer about it all.
….
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City And School In Late Antique Athens And Alexandria by Edward J. Watts… $23.95 |
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