Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 23, 1993 TAG: 9303230048
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
TREASURE FINDERS' CASE FOUNDERS
The Supreme Court dealt a defeat Monday to explorers for sunken treasure by rejecting the "finders, keepers" principle in a case involving the most famous shipwreck from the days of the California Gold Rush.In September 1857, the SS Central America, a luxurious sidewheel steamer, was loaded with several tons of gold bars and coins from California destined for New York city when it sank off the South Carolina coast in a heavy gale.
At least 425 people drowned, and the gold treasure was lost under 8,000 feet of water.
Now, however, with the Supreme Court's action, the estimated $1 billion worth of treasure belongs to the British and American companies that insured it 135 years ago, not to the explorers who found the wreck five years ago.
The court Monday let stand a decision of a federal appeals court in Virginia, which ruled that the original owners of sunken treasure retain their rights to it, even if it has been lost for a century or more.
That ruling stunned explorers and treasure hunters, who said it would destroy their burgeoning industry. Without the right to claim ownership, they said, explorers will not undertake costly expeditions to recover lost treasure.
In a separate action, the court also upheld a ruling giving the United States ownership of the ship's bell recovered in 1935 from a Confederate raider, the CSS Alabama, sunk off the French coast in 1864.
The court actions involving the two shipwrecks reaffirm the legal principle that ownership rights are not forfeited when the property is lost at sea.
A low-key but high-tech group of explorers, the Columbus-America Discovery Group, located the Central America 160 miles off the coast in 1987. Using an underseas robot named Nemo, they were able to photograph the site and bring the gold bars to the surface.
But when the word of discovery reached New York, 39 insurance companies claimed ownership rights. They cited, among other things, newspaper accounts from 1857 indicating that their companies had paid claims for the lost gold.
The outcome is not a total loss for the discoverers, however. The appeals court ruled that they are entitled to a substantial salvage award to compensate for the recovery operation. Officials of Columbus-America said that could amount to half of the treasure.