US treasure hunters ready to snatch gold from the jaws of Victory

The Telegraph ^ | Jan 5, 2013 | Victoria Ward

[KeyLargo]

US treasure hunters ready to snatch gold from the jaws of Victory

US treasure hunters should be banned from raising the wreck of one of Britain’s greatest warships and taking some of the millions of pounds of gold coins she is believed to contain, leading archaeologists and descendants of the crew demand today.

By Victoria Ward

8:00AM GMT 05 Jan 2013

They said that allowing HMS Victory, predecessor to Nelson’s flagship, to be exploited for commercial gain would be a “flagrant breach” of the military covenant and an “appalling betrayal” of more than 1,000 Royal Navy sailors who died.

The wreck was discovered by the US company Odyssey Marine Exploration in 2008, 264 years after it sank in a storm off the Channel Islands. Experts believe it may contain gold worth hundreds of millions of pounds as well as 100 bronze cannon.

The Ministry of Defence concluded that recovery could go ahead under the auspices of a charity. Lord Lingfield, formerly Sir Robert Balchin , a descendant of Admiral Sir John Balchen , the ship’s commander, founded the Maritime Heritage Foundation for the purpose.

The foundation has submitted its plans to the MoD and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and signed a contract with Odyssey which would give the Florida-based firm 80 per cent of the value of coins and bullion recovered and 50 per cent of the value of cultural

[Hot Tabasco]

Tell that to Mel Fisher.

Nah, I'm just telling it to you since you brought it up.........

[DNME]

The salvage crew gets to keep a nice percentage of what they find, and the Brits get to keep some — especially the cultural stuff.

Sounds like a pretty fair deal all around.

[Hot Tabasco]

The Brits could easily have avoided the whole thing had they been willing to fund the exploration........but they didn’t.

[Charles Martel]

You honestly telling me no Americans would have a problem with a UK company raising the wreck of a famous American ship which lay right off the coast of the United States and keeping most of the loot?. Yeah right.

Fair point. Did the UK have any role in authorizing the search, or does the wreck lay in international waters? I'm not sure how that works where the Channel is concerned.

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks KeyLargo. ...leading archaeologists and descendants of the crew... said that allowing HMS Victory, predecessor to Nelson’s flagship, to be exploited for commercial gain would be a “flagrant breach” of the military covenant and an “appalling betrayal” of more than 1,000 Royal Navy sailors who died... discovered... in 2008, 264 years after it sank in a storm off the Channel Islands... gold worth hundreds of millions of pounds as well as 100 bronze cannon... Lord Lingfield, formerly Sir Robert Balchin , a descendant of Admiral Sir John Balchen, the ship’s commander, founded the Maritime Heritage Foundation for the purpose [of recovery] Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[SunkenCiv]

/bingo

[SunkenCiv]

> The Channel Islands are in British territory.

Actually, no they’re not. The UK handles their foreign policy, which is basically non-existent, apart from little inconveniences such as the German occupation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_Islands

[snip] They are considered the remnants of the Duchy of Normandy, and are not part of the United Kingdom. [/snip]

[Pilsner]

Finders keepers. Those that could would. Go suck a lemon.

International law holds that title to the wreck of a warship remains in the Sovereign whose flag it flew, it is very different from merchant ships.

[SunkenCiv]

http://www.visitchannelislands.com/

[Scoutmaster]

Mel's dead anyway, so we can keep it between ourselves.

At least the part that the State of Florida didn't get.

[Pharmboy]

Thanks for the ping. Seems to me that this is the Brits’ property.

[colorado tanker]

Everyone should read the article.

1. A British charity is conducting the salvage pursuant to a plan approved by the British government.

2. The British charity hired a U.S. company to do the salvage. The arrangement is basically a contingency fee. If the company finds enough value, it makes a profit. If it finds nothing, it has lost millions. The Brits get cultural artifacts and what of the ship that can be salvaged.

3. I doubt there is a company in the UK that has this kind of highly specialized expertise.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks ct!