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From: chuck
Category: Shipwreck Research
Date: 29 Nov 2004
Time: 15:00:55
Remote Name: 68.22.70.46
Florida Department of State Glenda E. Hood Secretary of State NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release Contact: Ryan J. Wheeler (rjwheeler@dos.state.fl.us) October 29, 2004
Florida Wins Landmark Shipwreck Case Tallahassee, FL -- A United States District Court reversed an earlier decision and confirmed the State of Florida’s title to an unnamed eighteenth century sailing vessel. The August 17, 2004 decision settles a case, begun in November 2002, when a Florida corporation, Historical Recovery Specialists, Inc. (HRSI), asserted a claim under federal admiralty law for title to the wreck lying in state waters. The State of Florida filed an injunction against HRSI, citing state statutes and case law that would protect the wreck from unauthorized salvage. The unnamed shipwreck was believed to be a Spanish ship, sunk in a storm off the eastern coast of Florida in the seventeenth or early eighteenth century. The Treasure Coast shipwrecks of the ill-fated 1715 Spanish Plate Fleet have been the subject of treasure hunting dating back to the 1930s, with extensive private salvage operations conducted in the 1960s-1980s under agreements with the State of Florida. The 2002 admiralty arrest included an area subject to at least two active exploration and salvage agreements between the state and private companies.
Assistant State Attorney General Eric Taylor argued that Florida owned historic shipwrecks located on state sovereignty submerged lands. Loss of the case by the state would have put in jeopardy hundreds of Florida shipwrecks, many associated with the Spanish Colonial period. However, United States District Judge K. Michael Moore’s ruling confirmed Florida’s ownership of the shipwreck and upheld the Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987. This federal law gives the states clear title to historic shipwrecks within their waters and helps coastal states protect and manage these resources. In the decision, Judge Moore accepted the recommendation of United States Magistrate Judge Frank J. Lynch, Jr., who determined that the federal court had no jurisdiction in the case, since title to historic shipwrecks rested with the state and that the state had not consented to become party to the federal court case. The ruling is consistent with other court decisions around the country and affirms the validity of the Abandoned Shipwreck Act.
According to Ryan J. Wheeler, Chief of the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research, “the court decision is important in the protection and management of Florida’s historic shipwrecks.” He pointed out that since 1987 the underwater archaeology program of the Bureau has developed a statewide system of underwater parks featuring historic shipwrecks, which allow divers and snorkelers to visit underwater sites and promotes in-place conservation of these sites. Wheeler credits the recent win to Taylor, the Department of State General Counsel staff, and Florida’s underwater archaeology program staff Roger C. Smith, Della Scott-Ireton, and Jennifer McKinnon. For more information on the Bureau of Archaeological Research’s underwater archaeology program, visit http://www.flheritage.com/archaeology/underwater # # #