The Law!!
Whilst I have the deepest respect for our law and legal system - like everything it has its faults and is sometimes over complicated.
The two key laws which affect technical diving and exploration of wrecks are:
- The Merchant Shipping Act 1995 which deals with salvage and wrecks. It also establishes the responsibilities of, to and reporting obligations to the Receiver of Wreck and her role in the disposal of these 'finds'.
- The Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 which provides for the protection of important or dangerous wrecks and wreck sites.
I'll deal with the other aspects of Law (such as Military) later along with the more esoteric laws pertaining to diving in our seas...
The implications of the Merchant Shipping Act are best described through that of the role of the Receiver of Wreck. Her role is to:-
- Give the legitimate owner the opportunity of recovering their property
- Ensure that law-abiding finders of wreck receive an appropraite level of reward under the terms of the law - this applies whether the owner is found or not.
This gives you a very significant and important point to remember - just because it is at the bottom of the sea bed - and it might have been there for years and years - the implications are clear - from a legal perspective it is lost property and it is therefore still owned (beit the original owner, insurance company or underwrtier, Salvage company, their insurer or State). The term wreck is very loosely defined and covers a wide range of property recovered from the sea or washed up on the shore. It also applies to all property found within UK waters or brought within UK waters. Essentially you have a legal responsibility to report all such finds to the Receiver of Wrecks. Our trade counter has a significant stock of the necessary forms in paper form and a good range of advice sheers on such subjects.
The Receiver has a duty to ensure the finder gets an appropriate salvage payment from either of those owners or the Crown. In some cases this may well be the found property in lieu of said payment. In most cases the Receiver will allow the finder to keep the property whilst the owner is found. If after a year the owner is not found then the Crown has right over the property and will ususally settle for granting over the property in lieu of salvage payment at this stage (if this hasn't already occurred!).
>> more to follow on this subject later... Contact Us for further details
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