this week to review the salvors' claims that Spain abandoned the wrecks,
thereby allowing individual states to grant salvage rights to commercial
enterprises. Saturday, February 24, 2001
Publication: Daily Citizen
SHIPWRECKS: A Matter of Lost...and Found
Supreme Court may help with Spain's claim to return booty
BY MANDY BOLEN
Citizen Staff Writer
Countless lives and legends have been lost over the centuries in treacherous seas. Spanish ships and their cargo have been under sand and saltwater for hundreds of years -- now Spain wants them back, and the United States Supreme Court is willing to help.
But American salvors, who have spent years delving through
archives, diving on the wrecks and excavating the remains, say they are
appalled at the highest court's refusal
this week to review the salvors' claims that Spain abandoned the wrecks,
thereby allowing individual states to grant salvage rights to commercial
enterprises.
The ruling, handed down Tuesday, was in answer to Key West attorney David Paul Horan's request for a certiorari review of two different verdicts involving Spanish shipwrecks and the complex concept of abandonment.
The Fourth District Court of Appeals ruled in July 2000 in favor of Spain, stating the wrecks La Galga and Juno off the coast of Virginia belonged to Spain.
The appeals court said that Spain had never expressly abandoned the wrecks, and was, therefore, still entitled to ownership and salvage rights.
But the 11th District Court, which includes the state of Florida, had previously ruled in favor of implied abandonment, allowing salvors to infer abandonment of a vessel based on the amount of time that has passed since its demise and the fact that no recent attempt has been made to locate or salvage the vessel.
Salvors in the Florida Keys have been following the implied abandonment principle while invoking the Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987 that allows the state whose waters contain the shipwreck to own the wreck if it has, at any time, been abandoned by its country of origin.
Again, the concept of expressed or implied abandonment becomes central to the issue.
Horan's request for a review of the discrepancy asked specifically for a uniform definition of abandonment.
That request was denied, and all salvage permits must now be submitted to the Kingdom of Spain, or any other country, before work can begin on a foreign shipwreck in American waters.
"Now every state with an action based upon the Abandoned Shipwreck Act is out of luck," Horan said Thursday. "The archaeological and historical heritage of the coastal states is lost."
Local shipwreck salvors say they are worried about the ruling and its implications for past, present and future salvage operations, such as those happening at the legendary wreck of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha.
Treasure Salvors, Inc., founded by the late treasure hunter Mel Fisher, has been continuing the search for gold and other valuables on the 1622 wreck, and is ready to submit a permit request to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to continue its search. That request will now have to be approved by Spain, said Pat Clyne, vice president of the company.
"This is opening up a can of worms that will take all the cultural heritage out of our hands and put it into the hands of countries who don't have the money, technology or wherewithal to do anything with it," he said.
But technological improvements are one of the reasons Spain has decided to lay claim to its ships decades after American salvors began probing the depths and identifying the ships, said Jim Goold, lead counsel for the Kingdom of Spain in shipwreck litigation.
"With the tremendous advancements in technology, there is really no vessel that can not be found," he said from his Washington, D.C., office. "And many of the historically significant Spanish ships that sank in Florida have been salvaged and turned into curios and souvenirs."
The Spanish government is interested in preserving the integrity of the ship and the dignity of the passengers who lost their lives on a Spanish ship in American waters, Goold said. But he declined to comment on Spain's next move regarding ships that already have been found and salvaged such as the Atocha and Santa Margarita.
"It is premature to comment on whether further legal actions will include previously-salvaged vessels," Goold said. "We recognize that many of these ships reflect the shared cultural and historical heritage of Spain and the Americas and should be treated in a way that serves everyone's best interest."
But people, such as Clyne, feel the latest ruling will serve only the best interests of Spain and other countries who have lost ships in U.S. waters.
Goold refused to answer Clyne during the proceedings when Clyne asked whether the government of Spain had plans to claim the Atocha and other wrecks that have already been located, and where work continues.
"I can't honestly think of how they could try to get back the treasure of the Atocha," Clyne said. "I think they would be biting off a hell of a lot more than they can chew."
Goold acknowledged that Spain would not want to claim every identified wreck.
"We're not looking to bring back to Spain everything that ever belonged to the Kingdom of Spain."
"This has to be looked at on a case-by-case basis - some are gravesites, some are of great historical value and some are not."
"We have received a lot of proposals and expressions of interest, and are evaluating them," he said.