thieves raid 350-year-old protected London ship wreck

[sailingk8]

The Enquirer :: Two men arrested after theives raid 350-year-old protected ship wreck

Two men arrested after theives raid 350-year-old protected ship wreck

HMS LondonPOLICE have arrested two men after thieves raided a protected shipwreck in the Thames Estuary.

Officers from Essex and Kent moved quickly to arrest two individuals from Kent on Tuesday after a cannon and other items were taken from the wreck of HMS London, a warship that exploded and sank off Southend in 1665.

Local diver Steve Ellis was in shock when the Enquirer broke the news to him on Tuesday afternoon - just weeks after he had been granted a year-long licence to protect and explore the wreck.

“We had only been diving the wreck this weekend so it’s shocking to think something like this could have happened,” said the 46-year-old from Westcliff.

“It certainly seems a planned attack as you cannot just lift cannons off a wreck of that size. It’s just a shame that people will go out of their way to smash a wreck and steal anything of value. The items on the wreck have huge historical value - only time will tell what permanent damage has been done.”

HMS London was a 90-cannon warship that blew up accidentally in peacetime in 1665, just a year after its launch, killing 300 people.

After outrage following an earlier dive to recover a bronze cannon at the wreck, it was handed ‘protected’ status in 2008 making it an offence to tamper with, damage or remove any objects from the wreck.

Tuesday’s arrests were conducted with help from English Heritage and the Receiver of Wreck using ‘intelligence’ gathered by police over a period of time.

In a day of coordinated action, a 44-year-old man, from Ramsgate, was arrested at a commercial address in Dover. A search was carried out at a residential address in Ramsgate and a number of items were seized.

A 54-year-old man from Dover was also arrested on a boat at a marina in Gravesend.

As the Enquirer went to press both men were being interviewed at a police station in Kent.

Date published: 07/04/2011 10:23:46

 

[SnorkelLA]

My dad once told me that there is nothing he hates worse than a thief. He calls them the scum of the universe. A historical artifact of that much importance and history should be researched and shown to the public without disturbing it. This act is in my opinion blatant disrespect for those who died the day it sunk. All for the proposition of getting away with it and striking it rich. They disgust me. How deep of water was it in? I wouldn't imagine that deep as by the context I would assume it went down in a bay or harbor. Maybe 100' max my guess. Would be a bit difficult to get a crane to reach any deeper underwater with such obstacles. Must have had some manpower to coordinate this.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

They brought it up with lift bags and strapped it to bottom of there boat and took to marina to slowly bring it out of seawater to prepare it for surface air. At least thats what the DSSTT told me.







Happy Diving

 

[Diver0001]

HMS LondonPOLICE have arrested two men after thieves raided a protected shipwreck in the Thames Estuary.

Good news, I'm glad they got them.

Why was this wreck protected, actually? Was it considered a war-grave or was it protected for archaeological research?

R..

 

[Searcaigh]

The canon should be returned to the wreck with these two reprobates tied to it!

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Sadly, there are scuba divers out there who think nothing of destroying monuments ... and even gravesites ... in their quest for "souvenirs". We had a similar bit of vandalism out here on a car that had been discovered (with the remains of its passengers) after resting on a steep slope in Crescent Lake at about 170 feet. The story made the news, because it solved the mystery of this couple's disappearance after more than seven decades. Within a year, the car had been stripped of virtually everything that could be pulled off of it.

Disgusting ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Kiwi303]

well, to be honest NW-G_D, I don't see much similarity between an historical artefact with a protection order and a busted car... I mean, once the local police or state dive team have retrieved the remains for Identification and a proper burial, the car is nothing special. A year is plenty of time for the estates executor or the family of the people in it to have contracted a salvage company to recover it if they wanted the car.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

kiwi, The car looked really cool all intact, a few years before it became public it was a great dive to go see it, I took my wife to wash off the saltwater and do some deep diving on doubles, It was her first dive with twin tanks, on the way back up from a deep dive we come across it.

My first thought was Bonnie and Clyde, When ever you discover something it will be up for taken. I am sure that the parts would go for a good amount of cash, yet some took for trophy I am certain.
When I was younger the way to go dive wrecks was to go salvage, It did not matter to me I was in it for the deep wreck diving, I learned a lot from It, and salvaged things in the water people wanted back.


I never tell of wrecks now, I have a few that are all to me for now, to be the one that has found it to be somebody of fame or Importance, That ship has sailed long ago.




Happy Diver

 

[jmasin]

well, to be honest NW-G_D, I don't see much similarity between an historical artefact with a protection order and a busted car... I mean, once the local police or state dive team have retrieved the remains for Identification and a proper burial, the car is nothing special. A year is plenty of time for the estates executor or the family of the people in it to have contracted a salvage company to recover it if they wanted the car.

It's the principal of it, and I just don't understand.

So I go home with a piece of a car that two people died in... is that really a memento/souvenir? People are weird...

(that's not directed at you Kiwi)

 

[Diver0001]

It's the principal of it, and I just don't understand.

So I go home with a piece of a car that two people died in... is that really a memento/souvenir? People are weird...

(that's not directed at you Kiwi)

Wrecks are subject to some rules

A wreck can have an owner.

A cargo can haven an ower.

A wreck can be insured.

A cargo can be insured.

A wreck can be given by a government, a special status, like war-grave or archaeological site.

Wrecks go through various stages before they become "derelicts"

First, when a wreck sinks then the owner of the ship has a certain period of time in which to salvage the wreck

If the owner declines then the insurance company has a certain period of time in which to salvage the wreck

The same applies to the cargo. The cargo also has an owner and an insurance and the owner and the insurance company both have their time to salvage it.

assuming a sufficiently long time has passed that neither the owner/insurer of the wreck and/or the owner/insurer of the cargo decides to salvage it....

Then we're not done yet.

There are two things that can still create problems. Within territorial waters the government can claim ownership of a derelict wreck (routinely done in Canada, for example) or the govenment can declare the wreck "off limits" for various reasons (ie. it was a war wreck, or has some historical or archaeological value)

When does a wreck become a derelict (free for all)?

Only when

- the owner doesn't want it
- the insurance company of the owner doesn't want it
- the owner of the cargo doesn't want it
- the insurance company of the cargo doesn't want it
- the government with jurisdiction doesn't want it
- there is no historical signficance
- there is no archaeological signficance
- it has no special status such as "war wreck" = (grave site)

THEN it is a derelict and it can salvaged/plundered/picked-clean by anyone who wants.

R..