Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;afantiques, post: 2218410, member: 71234&quot;]Salvaged stuff still belongs to the heirs and assigns of whoever lost it. </p><p><br /></p><p>Drop a dollar coin on the beach, it&#039;s still yours, and you pick it up. Drop it in the surf and you may or may not find it but it&#039;s still yours. The practicalities of getting it back from some body builder type who finds it first I leave to you, but it is still your coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>You might be the Spanish government and you&#039;d still own the wrecked treasure from 300 years ago. The practicalities of retrieving it are the tough part, but you&#039;d do a deal with a salvor to share the wealth if any could be recovered, rather than getting nothing.</p><p><br /></p><p>Just like you asking an even bigger body builder to get your dollar back for a 50c share. It&#039;s 50c against nothing.</p><p><br /></p><p>Later wrecks were often covered by insurance, and in these cases, the insurers pay out and own the lost cargo. In most cases, the salvage is worthless, a shipload of turnips is a write off, but if you insured the &#039;Lutine&#039;, you&#039;d still want to be in with a chance at recovering your loss, or some of it.</p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s no more a conspiracy of fat cats claiming everything that anything else is. Stuff is still owned, it&#039;s just that the owners can&#039;t get at it without help. Anything taken without the permission of the owner is theft. </p><p><br /></p><p>Apart from the cash value of retrieved cash, artifacts can be valuable, and are also covered by agreements. </p><p>Most national governments will claim default possession of otherwise ownerless (owners untracable or extinct) wrecks in their waters, and finally, some wrecks are designated as war graves, where there are unrecovered bodies the ship is treated as a tomb. You&#039;d not want a gang of scrap metal dealers cutting up the USS Arizona, yet some seem in favour of looting other ships.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in