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Shipwreckers
More on the Sea Hunt saga, now before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in
Richmond. I expect Sea Hunt to be fully vindicated on appeal and salvage
rights under admiralty law enforced against a sovereign claiming ownership to
a longlost shipwreck site.
One error in the article: it is the US, not Great Britain, which has filed a
brief in support of Spain and against the Commonwealth of Virginia and Sea
Hunt, the US finder of the shipwrecks. Let your Congressman know how much
you appreciate the use of your tax dollars to try to give valuable shipwrecks
in US waters back to the foreign government that abandoned them more than 200
years ago.
Peter Hess
From Archaeology Magazine:
NEWSBRIEFS
Volume 52 Number 6, November/December 1999
SPAIN'S DAY IN COURT
he 1763 treaty ending the French and Indian Wars proved to be the
pivotal legal document in an ownership battle
between Spain and the salvage firm Sea Hunt, Inc., over two
centuries-old Spanish frigates recently discovered off the
Virginia coast.
A federal judge in the Eastern District Court of Virginia ruled in
April that Spain was the rightful owner of the Juno, a frigate
that sank in 1802 while carrying more than 400 passengers and Spanish
gold coins.
The judge also ruled that Spain holds no claim to the frigate La
Galga, which sank in 1750, citing the 1763 Treaty of Paris
which ceded "all that Spain possesses on the continent of North America,
to the East or South East of the river Mississippi" to
Great Britain. Spain plans to appeal the La Galga decision, arguing that
the 1763 treaty did not include sunken ships and that a
previous treaty, signed in 1667 by Great Britain and Spain, declared that
neither side would take ownership of its opponent's
sunken vessels. Great Britain has filed a brief with the court supporting
Spain's position.
Ben D. Benson of Sea Hunt, Inc., obtained permits in 1996 from the
Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) to
survey two areas off of the Assateague National Seashore where be
believed the wrecks of Juno and La Galga were located.
The permits required that the state receive 25% of the proceeds from the
sale of any treasure recovered.
Officials from the National Park Service, which objects to the private
salvage of historic wrecks, and the Justice Department
alerted the Spanish government to the potential salvage operations. A
Spanish naval attache subsequently notified the VMRC
that the remains of the Juno belonged to Spain, and requested that
operations on the "grave site" cease immediately. Sea Hunt,
Inc., asserts that "not a single human bone" has been found in or near
the wreck identified as the Juno, according to counsel
Anthony F. Troy.
Following the judge's April ruling, Spain's victory in this case may
be merely the initial battle in a long-term, comprehensive
legal and diplomatic offensive to protect its cultural heritage. Many
experts argue that it would be cheaper for the Spanish
government to conduct its own galleon excavations, rather than continue
to rent or purchase artifacts found in Spanish
shipwrecks by private treasure hunters. In a particularly telling
incident, Spain had to rent artifacts discovered on a privately
salvaged galleon for an exhibit on the discovery of the Americas at the
Seville Expo in 1992. "Spain is actively considering
further steps to protect historic vessels," said Jim Goold, a lawyer for
the country.--KRISTIN M. ROMEY
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