Current Events Poll: Ethical excavation of shipwrecks and Underwater C

[hitman]

Has anyone else read the book Dragon Sea by Frank Pope? It's a great look at an attempt to do a profitable, well documented, archeologically sound recovery of an ancient shipwreck. To me it pretty much sums up the whole of the under water salvage / archaeology debate and much of the human condition as well. A legal and an illegal salvor go after two different wrecks neither makes a profit and the world at large knows next to squat about either wreck cause the archeologist in charge of the legal wreck won't print his report unless he can get a giant pile of cash to print it just the way he wants it in order to sooth his bruised ego. Now as an outsider who quite frankly does NOT have a college degree (bite me) but has, as a fan of history been hearing these arguments for a long time now I'd like to throw in my two cents.

1. Either do it or shut up about it! Archaeologists have been moaning about treasure hunters since the idea of archaeology was conceived and to an extent rightly so. This does not however prevent archaeologists from finding wrecks themselves. The primary obstacle is (as I have been led to believe and this thread would appear to confirm) funding. If archaeologists are so fired up then work for free. Supply your own boat and crew (couple buddies and a fishing boat will do in most cases) and go wreck hunting. Follow Clive Cussler's techniques (go after wrecks you can find, don't bring a floatilla to hunt down a row boat, etc.) Don't have access to highly trained divers or expensive kit? In a world where hobbiests build autonomous aircraft to film themselves doing extreme sports in HD don't tell me a simple unmanned submersible can't be made in a garage. In addition Clive Cussler mentions repeatedly in The Sea Hunters that he and his buddies use a home made MAD unit.

2. The idea that men will for any reason short of a gun to their head stop hunting treasure is patently insane. Pass all the laws you want no one cares if there is enough money to be made. If you want the history you will have to go get it! Further more the idea of tourisim paying off long term is only valid so long as people wish to visit which given the sad state of intellectual discourse in this moderen era is relatively difficult to believe. (in any volume that is)

3. The fact that other countries have signed a treaty you happen to endorse and the US hasn't doesnt make them right, the US wrong, or the rest of humanity any more likely to obey.

4. A couple of closing thoughts from two different men. (note these are paraphrased not direct quotes) Everyone I meet tells me how to fix this country but none of these plans involve them what made 'em doing anything other than what they are already doing!" Jerry Clower

"Sometimes you have to work for free. I've done films for less than two dollars a day because I believed in them!" Don Cheadle

Finally as a bit of advice from one southerner to another, I've never met an idealist who's ideals survived without physical action. Like muscles unused they atrophy and die.

[Commodore Swab]

Well said

[Mission]

Ha ha ha! (Don't you realize the wrecks belong to all of us Hitman? You don't understand collectivism at all; she's gonna' start calling you 'sir' if you don't watch it.)

[hitman]

TY Commodore, Mission I freely admit that collectivism is not in my wheel house LOL. Though Sir Hitman does have a ring to it.