52 INTERNATIONAL ANDNATIONAL LAWSRELATING TOARCHAEOLOGYUNDERWATER
particularly as the companies had destroyed all evid-
ence such as bills of lading and insurance policies. The
Admiralty Court initially ruled that the insurance com-
panies had indeed abandoned ownership. This decision,
however, was overturned by the Court of Appeal in 1992,
which ruled that abandonment can only be proved by
clear and convincing evidence, and that the salvors had
not done so in this case. The insurance companies were
therefore considered owners of the gold. As salvage law
was applied in this case, the salvors were entitled to a
liberal salvage award. The US court took the then-
unique step of taking into account the extent to which
the salvors had followed appropriate archaeological
practice during the excavation. The court finally awarded
the salvors over 80 per cent of the value of the gold as
the salvage award.
Case study: The Nuestra Señora de Atocha
The Nuestra Señora de Atocha, the vice-flagship of a
Spanish Fleet bound for Spain, was lost off the coast of
Florida in 1622. The salvage firm Treasure Salvors Inc.
searched for the wreck for a number of years before
finding the ‘mother lode’ in 1985. Large numbers of arte-
facts, and large amounts of gold and silver were recov-
ered. Because the site was in international waters, being
approximately 50 km (27 nautical miles) off the Florida
Keys, the state of Florida and the US Government were
not able to exert ownership over the wreck. Spain made
no claim of ownership and so the Admiralty Court ruled
that the wreck had been abandoned and that the law of
finds was to apply, rendering the salvors owner of the wreck
and artefacts.
Case study: The Doddington
The Doddington, a British East Indiaman carrying a ship-
ment of gold belonging to ‘Clive of India’, foundered off
the coast of South Africa in 1755. The wreck was dis-
covered in 1977. The South African National Monuments
Act 1969 applies to all vessels which have been under
water for more than 50 years, and prohibits, among other
things, the export of artefacts without an export permit.
In 1997, a London Auction House advertised 1200 gold
coins for sale as having come from the Doddington. As the
South African Government had not issued any export
permits for items from the Doddington, it was concluded
that the gold must have been exported illegally. The South
African Government has subsequently applied for the
restitution of this gold and it has now been taken off
the auction listings. However, few states will enforce the
public laws of another state, which includes export laws,
so the South African Government may have to rely on other
rights in order to obtain possession of the gold. Such rights
might include ownership rights.Case study: The Geldermalsen
The Geldermalsen, a Dutch East Indiaman, sank in the
South China seas in 1751 while carrying a consignment
of Chinese porcelain for the European market. In 1985,
the site was discovered and excavated by salvors, paying
little regard to appropriate archaeological standards.
Once the porcelain was recovered, it is rumoured that the
salvors destroyed the remains of the site in order to hide
its position. Two possible positions have been suggested.
The first is that the site lay on the continental shelf of China.
As China regulates underwater cultural heritage on its
continental shelf, the site would have been subject to
Chinese jurisdiction. China, however, had no knowledge
of this recovery operation – hence the need to hide the
site. The second possibility is that the site lay in the ter-
ritorial waters of Indonesia. The Indonesian Government
brought a lawsuit against the salvors, which remains
unresolved. The porcelain was sold at Christie’s Auction
House in Amsterdam.FURTHER INFORMATION
Brice, G. and Reeder, J., 2002 (4th rev. edn), Brice on Maritime
Law of Salvage. London.
Caminos, H., 2001, Law of the Sea. Aldershot.
Dromgoole, S., 1996, Military Remains on and around the Coast
of the United Kingdom: Statutory Mechanisms of Protection,
International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law 11 .2, 23–45.
Fletcher-Tomenius, P. and Forrest, C., 2000, The Protection
of the Underwater Cultural Heritage and the Challenge of
UNCLOS, Art Antiquity and Law 5 , 125.
Fletcher-Tomenius, P. and Williams, M., 2000, When is a
Salvor Not a Salvor? Regulating Recovery of Historic
Wreck in UK Waters, Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law
Quarterly 2 , 208–21.
Forrest, C. J., 2000, Salvage Law and the Wreck of the
R.M.S. Titanic, Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
1 , 1–12.
Kennedy, W. and Rose, R., 2002, The Law of Salvage.
London.O’Keefe, P., 2002, Shipwrecked Heritage: A Com-
mentary on the UNESCO Convention on Cultural Heritage.
Leicester.
Williams, M., 2001, Protecting Maritime Military Remains: A
New Regime for the United Kingdom, International Maritime
Law 8 .9, 288–98.
Zhao, H., 1992, Recent Developments in the Legal Protection
of Historic Shipwrecks in China, Ocean Development and
International Law 23 , 305 –33.