treasure diving
- Thread starter Jman13
- Start date
SeaJayInSC
New member
Sure... But I don't think anyone's going to tell you. 
They want it all to themselves.
What do you consider "treasure?"
They want it all to themselves. What do you consider "treasure?"
philter4
New member
I know a lot of people who do it, you have to turn over anything you find here to the state, and they decide what to do with it, sometimes you get some money, usually a % of what you find, other times they give you some of the artifacts back, again a % of what you find. Most of my friends find jewelry that was lost by swimmers rather than artifacts or gold from wrecks.
Barracuda1
New member
Well theres always international waters and as long as no one's got an insurance claim or there is undeniable proof it is theirs, maratime laws states its yours (meaning if its got a serial number, file it off )
)
SeaJayInSC
New member
We've got them here in South Cackalackey. State waters reach out 3 miles - Federal waters reach out 10. Everything else is "international waters."
We've also got four other things going for us: Lots and lots of history starting from the early 1500's (which includes a ton of wrecks from the Civil and Revolutionary Wars), the lay of the land which offers lots and lots of places for ships to founder, seasonal hurricanes which caused a lot of wrecks, and low-vis inland waters that give divers the impression that they'd be better off driving to Florida than diving here... Which means that a lot of this stuff is still undiscovered.
Check out our dive from this past weekend: The "City of Savannah," a 200-foot double-masted steamer that sunk during the Hurricane of 1893. She was built before the Civil War and is still full of all kinds of good stuff. She's virtually undived.
A photo of our side-scanner, as we're over the wreck: http://www2.snapfish.com/slideshow/...6533160486/a=153836367_153836367/t_=153836367
A photo of a piece of the wreck sticking out of the water: http://www2.snapfish.com/slideshow/...6533160476/a=153836367_153836367/t_=153836367
Interestingly, this piece - a part of the control system for the rudder of the boat - hasn't always stuck out of the water like that... It's raised up and is now sticking out as the wreck has settled after a hundred-plus years of corrosion. Apparently the other end of it is somehow levering this end up into the air, making the wreck really obvious.
With regard to the laws - on paper I will tell you to obey your local, state and national laws regarding shipwrecks and historical items. Off the record, I will tell you that submerged items are simply being torn apart by the ocean, pretty much every day, so take what you can before it's gone forever. If you have the opportunity to salvage something, do it, and do it with the commitment that you may have to conserve the item in order to keep it from turning into a pile of rust weeks after you remove it from the water.
When I do this, the things I've found are nobody else's business, as far as I'm concerned. I have never, nor will I ever, "notify" anyone of my finds under any circumstances. The idea that they have the right to "demand" something of my time and effort - then confiscate the item (and in some cases go back to the site to put it back) is amazing to me. These laws - and the thought processes that make them - are made by people who have zero understanding of history, "historical significance," the concept of "owership," and what happens to the item if it's left in place. When I'm asked about things I've recovered, the only response I give is, is "The answer is no." This is the response I give regardless of the question.
My experice with the abuse of these laws has left me with a deep distain for individuals who try to obtain my finds by hiding behind legalese. At best, I've seen items end up in a box in the basement of some random museum (usually for a fat donation to the "government"), on the attorney's mantle, or... Get this... In the garbage. The worst I've seen is the government paying one of their own officials to "go back to the site and return the item" to the bottom of the ocean. In one case I actually saw this happen, followed by a law passed two weeks later that allowed divers to pluck artifacts from the site legally. Thus, the item that they made such a huge legal stink about ended up in a Canadian tourist's pocket. Last I heard, the individual - not knowing it's historical significance - no longer knew the whereabouts of that particular artifact - a set of shackles from a slave ship sunk sometime around 1800.
If you find things, I suggest you do with it as you wish - display it, conserve it, sell it, auction it... Otherwise, keep your mouth shut about it or it'll bite you in the tail and leave you very, very disgruntled.
The truth is, on the ocean, regardless of juristiction, the only law is the law of nature, and the individual with the biggest gun wins. Period.
'Nuff said. Find your treasure and don't tell a soul.
We've also got four other things going for us: Lots and lots of history starting from the early 1500's (which includes a ton of wrecks from the Civil and Revolutionary Wars), the lay of the land which offers lots and lots of places for ships to founder, seasonal hurricanes which caused a lot of wrecks, and low-vis inland waters that give divers the impression that they'd be better off driving to Florida than diving here... Which means that a lot of this stuff is still undiscovered.
Check out our dive from this past weekend: The "City of Savannah," a 200-foot double-masted steamer that sunk during the Hurricane of 1893. She was built before the Civil War and is still full of all kinds of good stuff. She's virtually undived.
A photo of our side-scanner, as we're over the wreck: http://www2.snapfish.com/slideshow/...6533160486/a=153836367_153836367/t_=153836367
A photo of a piece of the wreck sticking out of the water: http://www2.snapfish.com/slideshow/...6533160476/a=153836367_153836367/t_=153836367
Interestingly, this piece - a part of the control system for the rudder of the boat - hasn't always stuck out of the water like that... It's raised up and is now sticking out as the wreck has settled after a hundred-plus years of corrosion. Apparently the other end of it is somehow levering this end up into the air, making the wreck really obvious.
With regard to the laws - on paper I will tell you to obey your local, state and national laws regarding shipwrecks and historical items. Off the record, I will tell you that submerged items are simply being torn apart by the ocean, pretty much every day, so take what you can before it's gone forever. If you have the opportunity to salvage something, do it, and do it with the commitment that you may have to conserve the item in order to keep it from turning into a pile of rust weeks after you remove it from the water.
When I do this, the things I've found are nobody else's business, as far as I'm concerned. I have never, nor will I ever, "notify" anyone of my finds under any circumstances. The idea that they have the right to "demand" something of my time and effort - then confiscate the item (and in some cases go back to the site to put it back) is amazing to me. These laws - and the thought processes that make them - are made by people who have zero understanding of history, "historical significance," the concept of "owership," and what happens to the item if it's left in place. When I'm asked about things I've recovered, the only response I give is, is "The answer is no." This is the response I give regardless of the question.
My experice with the abuse of these laws has left me with a deep distain for individuals who try to obtain my finds by hiding behind legalese. At best, I've seen items end up in a box in the basement of some random museum (usually for a fat donation to the "government"), on the attorney's mantle, or... Get this... In the garbage. The worst I've seen is the government paying one of their own officials to "go back to the site and return the item" to the bottom of the ocean. In one case I actually saw this happen, followed by a law passed two weeks later that allowed divers to pluck artifacts from the site legally. Thus, the item that they made such a huge legal stink about ended up in a Canadian tourist's pocket. Last I heard, the individual - not knowing it's historical significance - no longer knew the whereabouts of that particular artifact - a set of shackles from a slave ship sunk sometime around 1800.
If you find things, I suggest you do with it as you wish - display it, conserve it, sell it, auction it... Otherwise, keep your mouth shut about it or it'll bite you in the tail and leave you very, very disgruntled.
The truth is, on the ocean, regardless of juristiction, the only law is the law of nature, and the individual with the biggest gun wins. Period.
'Nuff said. Find your treasure and don't tell a soul.
Last edited:
2t2_crash
New member
dont dive for treasure off of Okinawa. When you go to dig for whatever your metal detector went nuts over you might just get blown into chum by an old UXO.
always dive safe and know a general history of the area you are diving... IE is there/was there military ordinance desposed or dispensed in the area at one point in time.
always dive safe and know a general history of the area you are diving... IE is there/was there military ordinance desposed or dispensed in the area at one point in time.
SeaJayInSC
New member
Laws vary from locale to locale, but generally, if he follows the correct steps, he can apply for and obtain Salvor's Rights (often called "Salvage Rights") using Admiralty Law. More general information can be found here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_salvage - and here - http://law.freeadvice.com/admiralty_maritime/admiralty_maritime/1899/ . However, there's a lot of "ifs"... Usually it's difficult to even know where to start or who to ask for rights - then nine times out of ten, they don't even know what steps to begin to take in order to grant rights, even if they want to.
Obtaining the correct paperwork and rights - assuming that they're granted - STILL doesn't guarantee a thing... On more than one occasion, I've seen law enforcement officials stop a salvage process and actually comfiscate boats and gear and anything salvaged, even when the correct permissions have been granted. In one case, I watched a SC State official halt and comfiscate artifacts, gear, and two boats involved in the salvage of a wreck more than 11 miles offshore - out of the State's juristiction. The funny part is that the divers doing the salvage had actually been granted salvor's rights by the federal government! Here's the funny thing... 11 miles offshore is actually out of federal waters too - so neither the State nor the Feds actually had any juristiction whatsoever over the wreck in question - it was technically in international waters! Still, the Feds had granted permission anyway (like they owned it), and the State comfiscated everything. Nothing was ever returned to the divers - not even their gear and their boats. "How is that legal," you may ask? Well, it's not. But there's so much confusion surrounding the whole deal that nobody knows what the heck to do - so they simply follow their instincts - and listen to the guy with the biggest gun (sound familiar?)
...Which is precisely why your buddy in Puerto Rico shouldn't have said a word about the doggone thing, and done his own salvage, quietly and discreetly. Save what he can, learn about the wreck, and tell their story so that history may live. There is no nobility in allowing the artifacts, the history and the stories of those souls perish permenantly. Leaving it there is forever losing their stories and their identity... And there is no nobility in giving all of the finds to some nebulous entity like "the government." THEY certainly won't tell the story so that these people may be remembered... It's up to you to do that.
Accept the responsibility yourself for what you've found, take what is now yours and pay back the dead by letting their stories live on. Learn the history and tell the story. If you don't, it's likely that these people will forever be forgotten.
"Because 'the government' said so" is a poor excuse for letting the history die right there in your hands.
Obtaining the correct paperwork and rights - assuming that they're granted - STILL doesn't guarantee a thing... On more than one occasion, I've seen law enforcement officials stop a salvage process and actually comfiscate boats and gear and anything salvaged, even when the correct permissions have been granted. In one case, I watched a SC State official halt and comfiscate artifacts, gear, and two boats involved in the salvage of a wreck more than 11 miles offshore - out of the State's juristiction. The funny part is that the divers doing the salvage had actually been granted salvor's rights by the federal government! Here's the funny thing... 11 miles offshore is actually out of federal waters too - so neither the State nor the Feds actually had any juristiction whatsoever over the wreck in question - it was technically in international waters! Still, the Feds had granted permission anyway (like they owned it), and the State comfiscated everything. Nothing was ever returned to the divers - not even their gear and their boats. "How is that legal," you may ask? Well, it's not. But there's so much confusion surrounding the whole deal that nobody knows what the heck to do - so they simply follow their instincts - and listen to the guy with the biggest gun (sound familiar?)
...Which is precisely why your buddy in Puerto Rico shouldn't have said a word about the doggone thing, and done his own salvage, quietly and discreetly. Save what he can, learn about the wreck, and tell their story so that history may live. There is no nobility in allowing the artifacts, the history and the stories of those souls perish permenantly. Leaving it there is forever losing their stories and their identity... And there is no nobility in giving all of the finds to some nebulous entity like "the government." THEY certainly won't tell the story so that these people may be remembered... It's up to you to do that.
Accept the responsibility yourself for what you've found, take what is now yours and pay back the dead by letting their stories live on. Learn the history and tell the story. If you don't, it's likely that these people will forever be forgotten.
"Because 'the government' said so" is a poor excuse for letting the history die right there in your hands.
