Underwater Admiralty Services, Inc.,

Underwater Admiralty Services, Inc.

Underwater Admiralty Services, Inc. Legal

Throughout time man has attempted to unlock the secrets of the ocean. One aspect of this quest has been the betterment of sub-sea technology. Working in the underwater world has always been a challenge. Long ago, our ability to explore and work was limited to around a hundred feet. In the recent past that range was extended to a few thousand feet. Today, we have the ability to operate at depths reaching twenty thousand feet.

The improved capability has opened much of the world’s ocean bottom to exploration. A natural extension of this exploration is the retrieval of lost artifacts. Retrieval benefits many including the collectors of antiquities, scholars of the past, and society in general. Retrieval opens the door on history providing a glimpse of society often forgotten. These artifacts tell the story of the human quest to explore our planet, establish trade, and sometimes conquer new lands.

But with these new capabilities have come many questions, questions of ownership. If a ship is lost at sea, does it have an owner? If the insurance was paid and the insurance company no longer exists, is the ship still owned? How many years after an incident does an owner of a ship have the right to claim possession, five, fifty, five hundred, a thousand, or longer? If a ship was lost in battle, can the victor claim rights centuries later? Can a country founded after a shipwreck incident claim rights based solely on the wrecks location in territorial waters?

These are some of the issues confronting us as the law races to catch up with technology, which itself is in a race to discover the past.

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