Who Owns Abandoned Shipwrecks?
Wreck diving isn’t new. It goes back to before the time of Christ, when salvors practiced breathholding to recover goods from sunken merchant vessels. They were paid according to working depth, much the same as today. As long as man has been plying the waves he has been losing ships. And as long as valuables have been lost, divers have been willing to hazard the risks to recover them. Today, with increased technology, the danger has been reduced to an inconsiderable level, and there are millions of divers exploring the oceans. Not all of them are interested in hard-core salvage, but hardly any can conceal a certain degree of fascination with the lore of shipwrecks. Add to this man’s insatiable desire for possession, his fascination with the collection of rarities, his predilection for accumulating wealth and garnering mementos of his accomplishments, and we have an instinctive urge to assemble and exhibit the fruits of man’s labor and to vaunt his prowess. Souvenir shops thrive on thes
