We know stolen s*** when we see it and that's OUR stolen s***!
Oh, and we want reperations from Canada for cooperating in the totally unjustified looting of our country. How about.... $100 billion dollars?
Posted on 11/27/2005 2:37:52 PM PST by wagglebee
Nearly 200 years after it foundered near Prospect, a British naval ship could spark an international incident if treasure hunters are allowed access to it before archeologists, a Halifax documentary filmmaker says.
Earlier this year Nova Scotia issued a treasure trove licence to a group seeking to recover the potential loot raided from the White House in the War of 1812 and sent to the bottom of the sea when a fleet of British ships went down in a storm before it reached the friendly port of Halifax.
Arcadia Films producer John Wesley Chisholm has applied to the province for a heritage research permit that would allow him access to the site to see what might be there without bringing anything to the surface.
"Normally when you hear of treasure hunting in Nova Scotia, it’s somebody looking for Spanish galleons or French treasure off Louisbourg," he said. "And often it’s very difficult to get people interested in who this stuff rightly belongs to.
"Because (this) is loot plundered from the White House and Capitol buildings in Washington, as it starts to appear, I really don’t think anyone’s going to be confused about who it rightfully belongs to."
The brig HMS Fantome was leading a convoy of ships back to Halifax after successful raids on Washington, including the burning of the original White House, when a storm sank the vessels on the night of Nov. 24, 1814.
No one knows how many ships are on the fairly shallow ocean floor near Prospect or what spoils they might contain.
Mr. Chisholm says only two artifacts are known to have survived the ransacking of the White House — a painting of George Washington rescued by then-first lady Dolley Madison and a jewelry box returned to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 by a Canadian man who said his grandfather took it from Washington. Any other goods or documents that had been in the president’s residence at the time may have gone down with the ships.
The treasure trove licence gives the province the right to 10 per cent of anything recovered and allows the finders to do what they like with the rest.
Mr. Chisholm learned of the claim by chance last month, while working on another film, when he bumped into some divers involved in the hunt.
He’s interested in making a documentary about the Fantome — he said he’s ready to hit the water Monday if given permission.
But he said he’d be pleased if the province cancelled or suspended the treasure licence and sent its own marine archeologists to the site.
"Let’s just stop and figure out the right thing to do here before the treasure hunters leave with this stuff, whatever it is," Mr. Chisholm said.
"I would suggest to you that even if it’s nothing more than silverware taken from the White House, it’s still going to generate extreme interest in the United States."
No one from the White House could be reached for comment.
"I would suggest to you that even if it’s nothing more than silverware taken from the White House, it’s still going to generate extreme interest in the United States."
And all this time I thought the only plundered White House silverware in existence was in Chappaqua.
GGG Ping.
White House loot is in Arkansas, silly.
:)
Be on the lookout for Hillary Clinton to take diving lessons.
In any case, I doubt whether this treasure horde could possibly equal the vans full of stuff that the clintons took with them.
LOL my first thought when I read the headline was "the Clintons were in a shipwreck?".
Except that it was used by the likes of Adams, Jefferson and Madison, not by some hillbilly grifters from Arkansas.
Oh, you rascally FReepers you :)
True, although I venture to guess that the clinton's took more out of the White House than they put in.
I look forward to learning what they turn up in the shipwreck. Presumably it must be a lot of the nicer stuff if the Brits of that time thought it was worth stealing.
I would militarize the site, and make sure we get everything.
But what if the Canadians tried to prevent that? . . .
Okay, I get it now.
Nah, she will send "the swimmer/lifeguard kennedy" after it...
Ha. Actually, I was being slightly sarcastic. First, I would ask them for complete access, and if they didn't give it to us, then I would send in the warships.
Hell, a Boy Scout troop could handle it!
We know stolen s*** when we see it and that's OUR stolen s***!
Oh, and we want reperations from Canada for cooperating in the totally unjustified looting of our country. How about.... $100 billion dollars?
Washington was burned in retaliation for our burning York (now Toronto) Canada.
Bush is to blame.
Well.... hah!.... uh... so there!
Yeah, that's the ticket!
(just to be serious for the briefest moment, my views of the Revolution, the loyalists and Canada have been strongly shaped by the novel Oliver Wiswell. I think Canadians would be heartened by that book)
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