| Subject: |
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Salvage permits denied |
| Name: |
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Pat Clyne |
| Date Posted: |
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Dec 19, 06 - 12:44 PM |
| Message: |
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Bob, you stated, "I think that private ships that were under contract to Spain at the time of their sinking might differ enough from ships belonging to Spain to produce a different judgment." and that, of course, is a most logical statement and one that most people would agree with. Unfortunately, we are not dealing with most people and the ones we're dealing with don't often allow logic to interfere with their decisions.
The bottom line on this Bob is that our government is slowly chipping away at our rights to salvage shipwrecks. For over 35 years now they have increasingly developed (made up) laws that would outlaw this profession. Since Mel Fisher’s big win in the Supreme Court in 1982, they have been trying every method they can come up with to destroy this business. By the way, Mel Fisher didn’t use the 1965 letter from the Ambassador to win. He won under Admiralty jurisdiction incorporating the “Law of Salvage & Finds.” Which has continued to come under attack from every direction using bogus legal (UNESCO) and environmental excuses that do NOT apply to current laws established by Congress.
Their present misrepresentation of Sovereign Immunity extending to private ships along with the Sunken Military Craft Act (SMCA) which does NOT distinguish the difference between modern military craft and 16th & 17th century wooden Spanish Galleons is their attempt to put the last nail in the coffin of this private sector occupation.
I can’t agree with your apples to apples analogy between the 4th & 11th Circuit decisions and that the 1965 Ambassadors letter of “express abandonment” of Spain’s ships won’t play an important part in any future case in Florida. The Ambassador to the United States from the Kingdom of Spain IS Spain’s ‘mouthpiece’ and legal representative in foreign matters. If He said Spain annexed all their sunken ships to Florida and signed that document in his capacity as the Ambassador of Spain, that’s pretty explicit, legal and of course the most important word in this diplomatic and semantic alphabet soup debacle is that he “EXPRESSLY” abandoned them. Sounds like a slam-dunk to me. But hell, that’s what I get for trying to think logically- In this game of politics that would be the first strike against me. |
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