Pros And Cons Of Old Shipwrecks

The Majority Opinion: Fair Wind and Fair Award

The majority paused deliberatively before deciding between a course of salvage or finds law. Citing Hener, the court recognized the appropriate circumstances in which to apply the expeditious but potentially acrid law of finds, and those to which the traditional surety of salvage law should apply. The court properly concluded that on the facts of an allegedly abandoned shipwreck, salvage law must apply when an owner appears to assert his interest in the res.

In cases of ancient shipwrecks, the resolution of ownership may produce the same result, whether applying the law of finds or salvage. The choice, in the narrow sense of abandoned treasure, is either to apply the law of finds after a factual finding

In Rickard, the court held sixty years on the seabed constituted abandonment of a steamer, particularly its recovered propeller. In Wiggins v. 1100 Tons of Italian Marble, sixty-six years constituted abandonment of a ship with known location and cargo. But time and non-use alone are insufficient to constitute abandonment. Ultimately, the court must evaluate the facts of each case, and after careful deliberation, reasonable persons will differ in their findings. According to the majority in Columbus- America Discovery Group v. Atlantic Mutual Ins., "should an owner appear in court and there be no evidence of an express abandonment, the law of salvage must be applied." Selecting salvage law allows the court full discretion to weigh the strength of the alleged ownership in accordance with the evidence and to fashion an award considering, among other factors, the strength of the ownership claim. Otherwise, a finder may find himself entirely dispossessed of recovered articles when a true owner is