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WET & HOT NEWS ! > Illegal Recoveries
Not the proper authorizations...Divers steal from Holland 5 submarine off Sussex coast
The 01 Sep. 2010 at 18:53Illegal Recoveries
From BBC News
Thieves have targeted a historically important submarine wreck lying in the English Channel, it has emerged.
English Heritage said divers stole the torpedo tube hatch of the Holland 5, which sank six miles off Eastbourne in East Sussex in 1912.
The theft was discovered during a licensed dive by the Nautical Archaeology Society (NAS) in June and confirmed during a dive last month.
The NAS described the wreck as a "remarkable piece of naval heritage".
Sussex Police and English Heritage have appealed for help to catch the perpetrators, who may have struck up to two years ago. Experts said a group of people would have been behind the theft but that the hatch carried very little monetary value.
Police said removing the hatch and accessing the site without a licence was illegal under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973. The Holland class of submarines were the first submarines to enter service in the British Navy following extensive trials, English Heritage said.
The class of submarine became obsolete in the early 20th Century and in 1912 the Holland 5 was destined for scrap.Government Investigating Foreign 'Treasure Hunter' After New Discovery
The 28 Apr. 2010 at 18:30Illegal Recoveries
By Markus Junianto Sihaloho - Jakarta Post
The government said on Wednesday that it had launched an investigation into the activities of alleged treasure hunter Michael Hatcher, who has a lengthy history with Indonesia and is believed to again be operating on a new discovery.
Aji Sularso, an official with the National Committee for Salvage and Utilization of Valuable Objects from Sunken Ships (Pannas BMKT), said it had established a joint investigation team comprising related government institutions.
“We are investigating the case,” Aji said.
Aji was responding to complaints by the Consortium for Rescuing National Assets (KPAB), which alleged the ministry had not responded to its report regarding Hatcher, who may hold both British and Australian passports.
Speaking during a news conference in Jakarta, Endro Soebekti Sadjiman, a member of the consortium of nongovernmental organizations, said they believed Hatcher and his associates had been operating in Indonesia since 1986 and had surfaced in a “secret mission in Blanakan waters” near Pamanukan, Subang, West Java.
“The government must arrest him,” Endro said.
Daniel Nafis from Inside Indonesia, another member of the coalition, said Hatcher began operating in Indonesia salvaging the Vec De Geldermalsen shipwreck in East Bintan waters, Riau Islands province.
Items from the ship reaped $15 million during auction at Christie’s Amsterdam, he said.
It was this incident that led the government to establish Pannas BMKT to supervise any further salvage missions, Daniel said.
In 1999, Hatcher allegedly discovered the Tek Sing shipwreck near South Sumatra waters. According to some Internet accounts, the vessel is described as the “Titanic of the East,” given the loss of life associated with the sinking in 1822.
It has been described as one of the most important antique shipwrecks ever discovered.Wrecked and buried, now stripped and sold
The 28 Mar. 2010 at 07:09Illegal Recoveries
By Chris Kamalendran - The Sunday Times
A racket involving the illegal salvaging of ship wrecks in the territorial waters of Sri Lanka and selling them off as scrap iron has surfaced, but officials appear to be lost at sea as loopholes in the law and political patronage have made things smooth sailing for the racketeers.
The Sunday Times learns that since the conclusion of the war, a group based in Colombo together with operatives in the north east and area politicians are behind the vandalising of sunk vessels.
More than 80 vessels, including foreign ones and those that once belonged to the defeated LTTE are known to have sunk off the northern and eastern seas in the past few years. Legally the state owns these wrecks.
However, well-organised racketeers, with powerful backing have begun salvaging these wrecks with the expertise of master divers and high-tech equipment. The iron is later sold off as scrap for millions of rupees in the open market.
The racket surfaced recently following the arrest of a group of people in Ampara along with a large stock of scrap iron. It was later revealed that these had been salvaged from a sunken ship off Ampara coast.
The group had carried out their operations armed with a document purportedly issued from the Coast Conservation Authority, endorsing the salvaging of the ships. However, the CCA does not have the mandate to issue such a permit, the Sunday Times learns.La factura del «Caso Odyssey» será millonaria
The 03 Mar. 2010 at 06:33Illegal RecoveriesC.D.Carrón / G. Pajares - La Razon.es
La justicia fallará en breve, pero el Gobierno español ya ha presupuestado 1,6 millones de euros desde 2007 para pagar a la asesoría jurídica, encabezada por James Goold, y cuyo coste podría superar los cinco millones
El «Caso Odyssey» parece encaminarse hacia un final, que previsiblemente podrá ser feliz, pero no han faltado los momentos de tensión durante estos años de litigio con la todopoderosa empresa «cazatesoros» que dirige Greg Stemm. El bufete de James Goold ha sabido, una vez más, diseñar la estrategia adecuada y parece ser cuestión de meses que el suntuoso botín, cuyo valor se elevaría por encima de los cuatrocientos millones de euros, vuelva a casa.La factura, como era de esperar, también será cuantiosa. El Gobierno tuvo que buscar una fórmula legal para proceder al pago de la operación y lo hizo a través de la partida 448 de los Presupuestos Generales del Estado correspondiente al Ministerio de Cultura: «A Spain-USA Foundation para defensa de intereses españoles en los buques hundidos en aguas norteamericanas».
Se aprovechó este enunciado, que tenía dotaciones económicas muy inferiores, a pesar de que nada tiene que ver con el caso de esta embarcación, ya que naufragó frente a las costas del Algarve portugués y no en Norteamerica, como sugiere el enunciado presupuestario.
«Anticipos sucesivos»
En 2006 la dotación era apenas de 60.000 euros, lo mismo que en 2007, año en que Odyssey comunicó el hallazgo de la embarcación hundida (fue en el mes de mayo). En 2008, con el litigio en curso, ya se presupuestaron 300.000 euros (cinco veces más que en el ejercicio anterior), 500.000 al año siguiente y 800.000 para el presente ejercicio de 2010. «Los gastos derivados de los bufetes de abogados han sido muy fuertes y muy elevados.Sin embargo, las cantidades a pagar no eran las mismas, como es lógico deducir, al comienzo del proceso, en 2007, que a medida que ha ido avanzando, de ahí que la provisión de fondos en cada partida presupuestaria haya ido aumentado», asegura a este diario una persona que ha participado directamente en las negociaciones del «Caso Odyssey». Según esta fuente, la cuantía se ha dividido en «sucesivos anticipos.
De las fases preliminares se ha pasado, a medida que el pleito se ha ido alargando en el tiempo, al pago por los servicios prestados». Como se recordará, el bufete de James Goold está especializado en este tipo de casos. El letrado ya representó a nuestro país en el litigio que enfrentó a España con una empresa de búsqueda de tesoros por los navíos «Juno» y «La Galga», hundidos frente a las costas de Virginia, cuyo final se resolvió a favor de nuestro país.
La sonada victoria de aquel año fue acompañada, además, por la distinción al abogado de la Orden de Isabel La Católica. Era el año 2000 y el dinero que podría haber recibido el abogado, según ha podido saber este diario, habría sido de más de 1,5 millones de euros.
Dentist Leads Tongan Police to Sunken Ship
The 17 Feb. 2010 at 11:59Illegal RecoveriesFrom New Tang Dynasty Television
What does a shipwreck and dentistry have in common ?
It's a riddle that's just been unraveled by Tonga police. Suspicions were aroused when people began turning up to this dental practice with lumps of gold to be melted.
[Teisi Taimani, Dental Surgery Assistant]:
"From last year to this year many people were coming in with it. The end of each side, you see it's like it's gold there, because its shiny on the edge where they cut it."
The pieces being brought in were mostly too big to be melted. Police issued search warrants for five suspects.
[Chris Kelley, Tongan Police Commander]:
"The addresses yielded items and objects as well as the quantity of ammunition which we were also very interested in."
The recovered booty led authorities to a previously unknown shipwreck off the Tonga coast. Four people, including the older man seen here, have been charged with taking items from a sunken vessel.
[Chris Kelley, Tongan Police Commander]:
"Shipwrecks within the territorial waters are government property."
But all that glitters is not necessarily gold - tests are yet to determine whether the yellow metal is the real thing.Shipwreck found in Tonga may have gold
The 15 Feb. 2010 at 09:15Illegal Recoveries
From TVNZ
Police have found a shipwreck in Tonga after large numbers of people started turning up at dentists wanting to melt down gold items.
The ship is a mystery but four men have been charged with removing items from a wreck and not reporting it.
One of those four is navigator Tuakalau Loufau, who along with three others, has been charged with finding a shipwreck and taking items from it.
The police were tipped off about the mystery shipwreck off the main island of Tongatapu, when people started turning up to dental surgeries wanting to melt down what appeared to be gold.
"From last year to this year many people were coming in with it&the end of each side it's like gold there because it's shiny where they cut it," dental surgery assistant Teisi Taimani said.
The gold-like tubes measured up to 12 centimetres.
"When they came in we can't do anything with it. It's too big, we told them we cant do anything," says Taimani.
But when the police heard - they did do something, issuing five search warrants.
"Shipwrecks within the territorial waters are government property and so you're required when you find one to notify authorities and not to remove any items from that wreck," says Tongan Police Commander Chris Kelley.Divers in Tonga facing charges for removing treasure from ancient shipwreck
The 09 Feb. 2010 at 03:48Illegal RecoveriesFrom Radio New Zealand International
A group of divers in Tonga is facing charges after allegedly removing items from a ship which sank more than a 150 years ago.
Our correspondent reports that police have confiscated what are believed to be gold pieces from the Nuku’alofa homes of the divers.
Mateni Tapueluelu says the divers, all Tongans, had allegedly been removing the materials from the ship, which sank in 1853, for quite some time before police became aware of their activity.
“It is yet to be tested officially but these men have been charged and are due to appear in the Magistrates’ Court on Thursday. They have been charged with illegally removing materials that belong to Government from the oceans [around] Tonga.”"Pirates" plunder shipwreck safe
The 06 Feb. 2010 at 05:59Illegal Recoveries
By Matt Deans - The Coffs Coast Advocate
Expert divers have plundered the 123-year-old shipwreck of NSW’s worst peacetime maritime disaster.
The SS Keilawarra, off North Solitary Island, collided with another steamer in 1886, killing at least 40 people. In a modern-day act of piracy on a sophisticated scale, one of the safes aboard the Heritage-listed wreck has been cut open 75 metres down and its contents stolen.
Commercial shipwreck salvagers are believed responsible for the crime given the difficulty of using underwater oxy-cutting tools at such a depth. Experienced local divers who discovered the heist have notified authorities but it’s still unclear exactly how and when the safe was ‘cracked’.
“Usually if treasure or anything of precious value is found on a shipwreck and illegally taken there’s scuttlebutt that passes around diving circles – but up until now we haven’t heard any rumours,” Coffs Harbour diver Mark Spencer said.
Leading maritime archaeologist, NSW Heritage Branch deputy director Tim Smith, said the government was waiting on further evidence from the site.
“This is significant. Of the 1800 shipwrecks in NSW, only 10 per cent have been discovered and this was the only wreck we know of with a safe onboard,” Mr Smith said.
Under Federal and State laws, divers caught tampering with shipwrecks face fines of between $100,000 and $1 million.Divers suspected of stealing artifacts
The 27 Nov. 2009 at 11:21Illegal Recoveries
By Timothy O'Hara - Keys News.com
The remains of hundreds of shipwrecks line the Florida Keys reef tract. Their stories are the history of the Keys.
Some wrecks have been identified, but many have not. The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and state archaeologist have spent thousands of dollars investigating the wrecks to determine their origin. The remains have become living museums the sanctuary chooses to leave in the waters so divers can enjoy them in their natural state, as opposed to removing them and putting them in a facility on land.
The sanctuary has established a Shipwreck Trail, running from Key West to Key Largo, to showcase the wrecks and educate people on their history and importance.
Sanctuary officials are reminding divers not to take or move anchors, ballast stones and small trinkets found along the reef, as they could be the clues that lead to a wreck being identified.
The reminder comes after sanctuary divers discovered nine Crown patent fuel blocks, a mixture of coals that have been molded into briquettes, stacked on top of each other on a sand patch on Horseshoe Reef off Key Largo in August. Two researchers, who routinely work underwater in that area, observed the newly formed piles of blocks, sanctuary spokeswoman Karrie Carnes said. Sanctuary officials fear someone was trying to take them as souvenirs.Andalucía apoya la intervención de la Armada en defensa del Patrimonio
The 22 Nov. 2009 at 08:17Illegal Recoveries
By Jesus Garcia Calero - ABC.es
Han bastado 48 horas. Ya nada impide que el convenio de los Ministerios de Cultura y Defensa se ponga en marcha y se permita a los buques cazaminas de la Armada colaborar con los arqueólogos para que no se vuelva a repetir un expolio como el que Odyssey pudo cometer en aguas del Estrecho de Gibraltar.
Como ya publicó ABC, Defensa y Cultura acordaron en julio realizar intervenciones arqueológicas en colaboración con las Comunidades Autónomas. Su voluntad era comenzar por Andalucía antes de acabar el verano, pero la Junta, tal vez mal asesorada, impugnó el acuerdo y amenazó con un conflicto de competencias, mientras catalogaba pecios que no podría proteger en solitario.
Ayer, en una rápida reacción, la Junta de Andalucía, por decisión de su presidente, José Antonio Griñán, ha enterrado esta beligerancia y ya ha comunicado que se muestra de acuerdo en la colaboración de la Armada en la defensa del patrimonio sumergido, con el simple añadido de una adenda al convenio interministerial que reconozca su papel en el proyecto.
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