Posted by Brendon Baillod on November 02, 19103 at 09:22:45:
In Reply to: Need insight regarding laws regarding obtaining treasure from sunken ships. posted by Tony Van on November 01, 19103 at 22:29:08:
Hi,
If you check my last post, I put up a website with all the Federal & State laws concerning Great Lakes shipwrecks. I also included links to several articles that detail various court cases concerning Great Lakes wreck salvage. Some were won, some lost. The page should give you a good idea of the laws.
My read on it is as follows. If a wrecks is under 50 years old or for some other reason isn't eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places, you can make a claim to it under either the Law of Finds or the Law of Salvage, depending on whether or not another party can already claim title to it.
If the wreck is over 50 years old, meets all the eligeability criteria for the National Register and is in inland/coastal waters, you can still make a claim under the Law of Salvage if you can find a living title holder or their legal successor (usually the origianal insurer from back when the wreck happened.)
However, if a wreck is over 50, eligible for the National Register, in coastal/inland waters and you can't find any titleholder or successor, the wreck is an abandoned historic US vessel. All such vessels are explicitly covered under the Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987 and as such, are held in public trust by the State. Nobody has ever made a successful claim on such a vessel. They've either found a legal title holder and worked with them or they've proven that the wreck wasn't covered by the Abandoned Shipwreck Act or that they recovered artifacts before the Act was enacted.
The Abandoned Shipwreck Act was made law by an Act of Congress and signed by Ronald Reagan. Judges will not simply overrule it or completely disregard it. It is very specific as to what it covers and excludes.
The States have the responsibility for enforcing it.
: HI. I thoroughly enjoy reading about about old ships that travelled the Great Lakes long ago, sunk, and reportedly had a strongbox or safe containing valuables. I eventually want to attempt to locate some of these ships, but I constantly read about protected areas, and scuba divers not removing anything fom a sunken ship. I understand and respect the historical value of any ship, and would never do anything to leave a historic site (land or in the water) not in the same condition as previous. But, if a ship does have the potential for a strongbox or safe what are the the legal options that someone has to explore and such a ship? If anyone has any ideas on this please write back to me, and I would like to coordinate with others with my interest. Thank -you. Tony