who owns shipwrecks

[funkymoped]

along and around the coast of britain ???
(excluding official grave sites)
there must be a small fortunes worth of shipping thats rusting into the sea.
why not recylce the stuff ? i know some ships are in difficult to reach areas, but some are in easy reach of man and machine !
:-)

[Jugglering1]

Hey, what a brilliant question.

I thought the owner of the ship itself owned the wreck unless they had claimed on their insurance, in which case it became the property of that insurance company (or their underwriter). One site I found that had a bit more info is :-
http://www.mcga.gov.uk/c4mca/mcga-environmenta l/mcga-dops_row_receiver_of_wreck/mcga-dops_ro w_salvage.htm

J awaits more info from the clever folk......

[dot.hawkes]

There are designated dive sites that are used by padi dive schools, the syclla is a site sunk to create a reef for dive clubs to use.
someone has found a wreck just outside british waters that purports to have salvage of �2m value, but it is being kept a secret lol

[funkymoped]

thanks Juggler..
nice site. will short cut it and save it to my faves !
:-)

Dorothy you wanna go havles on a decent pair of flippers and a snorkle ???
:-)

[mrs_overall]

All shipwrecks are owned by someone, and quite often the cargo can be owned by someone else.
I had some friends who clubbed together and bought a shallow wreck that is popular with divers. They couldn't stop anyone diving on this wreck but they were out there every weekend, terrified that someone would rob a bit of scrap metal from their wreck. A visiting diver found a gold fob chain and a gold sovereign on the wreck and the owners kicked up a fuss and tried to claim it. It eventually went to court and the finder won, as it was deemed to be "lost personal property" rather than part of the wreck.