Mailing List Archive

Mailing List: techdiver

Message Display

> From:	IN%"rnf@sp*.tb*.co*"  "Rick Fincher"  7-JUL-1994 11:56:55.59
> Subj:	Old news (wrecks)

> >A judge has granted a Mr. Moyer exclusive rights to anything he
> >finds on the 1956 wreck of the luxury Italian vessel, the Andrea Doria,
> >which he discovered in '82, and has made some 56 dives on.

> This is also odd. The Andrea Doria didn't have to be discovered. There are 
> numerous pictures of its sinking. It seems like I read an article in a scuba 
> mag about a diver taking pictures of it two days after it went down for LIFE 
> magazine. People have been diving it for years.

I believe the story is that he has been granted exclusive *access* to 
the Doria, prohibiting other divers from interfering with him while he 
dives it.  (I am assuming that "Mr. Moyer" here is the diver known for 
having spent more time on the Doria than almost anyone else, and who 
has made a kind of personal archaeological study of the wreck; such a 
person was in the news a few months ago with a court case like this.)  
The story was that he had encountered other divers on the wreck on 
several occasions, who had interfered with him by badgering him and 
touching or moving his penetration line, etc.  He also cited a number 
of deaths from entanglement which had occurred on the wreck, as proof 
of the need for noninterference from lesser-trained divers.  The court 
recognized him as having essentially a special position on the wreck, 
in view of his detailed study of it and the fact that he had *not* 
removed any artifacts, and granted him protection from other divers 
while he is there; other divers may, I believe, still dive the wreck 
freely when he is not there.  He has not been granted salvage rights, 
since he was not requesting them and explicitly cited the fact that he 
does not salvage the wreck in support of his petition for free access. 
I don't know which court this was in, but I believe it was in New 
York.  I also don't know what legal doctrine this falls under; seems 
strange to me, but at any rate it is not a case of salvage rights.

Kevin T. Keith
keithk@gu*.ge*.ed*

Navigate by Author: [Previous] [Next] [Author Search Index]
Navigate by Subject: [Previous] [Next] [Subject Search Index]

[Send Reply] [Send Message with New Topic]

[Search Selection] [Mailing List Home] [Home]