Article

2007-05-31 -Short Attention Span Theater-

Edwards Sued by Spain Over Treasure Ship

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Posted by Glenmore 2007-05-31 07:25|| || Front Page|| [8 views ] Top

#1 Maybe the Breck Girl will be able to channel the Dread Pirate Roberts to sway the jury.

Posted by doc 2007-05-31 08:10|| 2007-05-31 08:10|| Front Page Top

#2 It'll last as long till the corporation gets the Adams-Onis Treaty entered into the record.

Article II

His Catholic Majesty cedes to the United States, in full property and sovereignty, all the territories which belong to him, situated to the eastward of the Mississippi, known by the name of East and West Florida. The adjacent islands dependent on said provinces, all public lots and squares, vacant lands, public edifices, fortifications, barracks, and other buildings, which are not private property, archives and documents, which relate directly to the property and sovereignty of said provinces, are included in this article. The said archives and documents shall be left in possession of the commissaries or officers of the United States, duly authorized to receive them.

Since it sunk before the treaty, it would be under the 'property and sovereignty' clause.

Posted by Procopius2k 2007-05-31 08:25|| 2007-05-31 08:25|| Front Page Top

#3 Why would any U.S. Federal Court have jurisdiction over any of this? It clearly took place outside our waters. Is that communist bastard so hard up for cash?

Posted by bigjim-ky 2007-05-31 09:17|| 2007-05-31 09:17|| Front Page Top

#4 Oh the irony....
I hope Spain rapes him. Really.

Posted by DarthVader">DarthVader 2007-05-31 09:56|| 2007-05-31 09:56|| Front Page Top

#5 ...known by the name of East and West Florida.

But this shipwreck was off the coast of Europe, nowhere near Florida.

Posted by Angie Schultz 2007-05-31 10:18|| 2007-05-31 10:18|| Front Page Top

#6 He gonna start bitchin about the Two Spains now?

Posted by tu3031 2007-05-31 10:42|| 2007-05-31 10:42|| Front Page Top

#7 ~~Odyssey~~ HMS Besoeker spokesman announced two weeks ago that it had yet to discovered a shipwreck containing 500,000 gold and silver coins somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.

Silly wonks announcing!

Posted by Besoeker 2007-05-31 10:46|| 2007-05-31 10:46|| Front Page Top

#8 discovered a shipwreck...somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. [T]he site was outside any country's territorial waters ...

There is some statute of limitations after which it would be considered abandoned property, I think... if not exactly flotsam and jetsam. And certainly the middle of the Atlantic has never belonged to Spain, even if certain of the territory bordering it did until Napoleon Buonoparte decided to conquer Spain for the greater glory of his French empire.

Posted by trailing wife 2007-05-31 10:49|| 2007-05-31 10:49|| Front Page Top

#9 Don't salage laws make shipwrecks fair game?

Posted by gorb 2007-05-31 12:34|| 2007-05-31 12:34|| Front Page Top

#10 salvage

Posted by gorb 2007-05-31 12:35|| 2007-05-31 12:35|| Front Page Top

#11 mmmmmmmmmmmmm.....salage.....

Posted by ChunkyLover 2007-05-31 13:03|| 2007-05-31 13:03|| Front Page Top

#12 Lawyers must be hard up for business if they are sueing each other now.

Posted by JohnQC 2007-05-31 13:06|| 2007-05-31 13:06|| Front Page Top

#13 It is obviously a ship from Atlantis. Spain should be ashamed!

Posted by 3dc 2007-05-31 13:27|| 2007-05-31 13:27|| Front Page Top

#14 Also, if it was a Spanish treasure ship - how many died for Spain to collect the treasure?

Doesn't Socialist Spain see the moral quandary here?

Perhaps it better to have less tainted hands than Spanish ones touch the gold?

Posted by 3dc 2007-05-31 13:30|| 2007-05-31 13:30|| Front Page Top

#15 Not a problem, 3dc. No doubt the European Union will stand up to take rightful possession of its "cultural and historical heritage". Just as soon as Spain takes its ~~pound~~ kilo of flesh out of the Odyssy shareholders' backsides.

Noble, nuanced EU will easily remove the taint of all that filthy lucre.

Posted by Seafarious">Seafarious 2007-05-31 16:18|| 2007-05-31 16:18|| Front Page Top

#16 That deserves a short but serious reply.

I suggest "Finders keepers. Neener neener."

Posted by mojo">mojo 2007-05-31 16:40|| 2007-05-31 16:40|| Front Page Top

#17 Hey Spanish, gimme back my gold!

Posted by Atahualpa 2007-05-31 17:11|| 2007-05-31 17:11|| Front Page Top

#18 Yeah! What HE said!

Posted by Moctezuma">Moctezuma 2007-05-31 17:34|| 2007-05-31 17:34|| Front Page Top

#19 Trade the gold for Cuba's freedom.

Posted by anonymous2u 2007-05-31 17:43|| 2007-05-31 17:43|| Front Page Top

#20 give 'em Edward's share

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2007-05-31 18:10|| 2007-05-31 18:10|| Front Page Top

#21 Late reporting district changes the outcome. And we not talking hanging chads.

"This in rem admiralty action concerns the sovereign rights of the Kingdom of Spain to two of its Royal Naval vessels, LA GALGA and JUNO, which were lost off the shores of present-day Virginia in 1750
and 1802 respectively. Pursuant to the Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987 (ASA), 43 U.S.C. § 2101-06 (1994), Virginia has asserted ownership over the shipwrecks and has issued Sea Hunt permits to conduct salvage operations and recover artifacts from the wrecks. These efforts resulted in the discovery of two wrecks believed to be LA GALGA and JUNO. Sea Hunt filed an in rem admiralty complaint, and the district court ordered an arrest of the shipwrecks, appointing Sea Hunt the exclusive salvor. Spain filed a verified claim asserting ownership over the shipwrecks. The district court found that Spain retained title to JUNO, but had expressly abandoned LA GALGA in the 1763 Definitive Treaty of Peace. See Sea Hunt, Inc. v. Unidentified, Shipwrecked Vessel or Vessels, 47 F. Supp. 2d 678 (E.D. Va. 1999). The district court also denied Sea Hunt a salvage award. As sovereign vessels of Spain, LA GALGA and JUNO are covered by the 1902 Treaty of Friendship and General Relations between the United States and Spain. The reciprocal immunities established by this treaty are essential to protecting United States shipwrecks and military gravesites. Under the terms of this treaty, Spanish vessels, like those belonging to the United States, may only be abandoned by express acts. Sea Hunt cannot show by clear and convincing evidence that the Kingdom of Spain has expressly abandoned these ships in either the 1763 Treaty or the 1819 Treaty of Amity, Settlement and Limits, which ended the War of 1812. We therefore reverse the judgment of the district court with regard to LA GALGA, and affirm the judgment of the district court concerning JUNO and the denial of a salvage award."
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=4th&navby=case&no=992035P
US Court of Appeals. SCOTUS refused to take petition on appeal. So if the company is organized under and subject to US law, then this case finding would imply that the 1905 Treaty is in effect, if it is a Spanish ship.

Posted by Procopius2k 2007-05-31 20:22|| 2007-05-31 20:22|| Front Page Top

#22 Interesting that Shepherd Smith didn't mention the Breck Girl's connection.

Posted by anonymous2u 2007-05-31 20:38|| 2007-05-31 20:38|| Front Page Top

#23 oops! Coordinates lost! Damaged by seawater....damn

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2007-05-31 21:51|| 2007-05-31 21:51|| Front Page Top

23:57 Zenster
23:44 Barbara Skolaut
23:43 Zenster
23:33 DarthVader
23:28 Mike N.
22:52 DMFD
22:51 3dc
22:50 RD
22:46 DMFD
22:25 Barbara Skolaut
22:23 trailing wife
22:12 Alaska Paul
22:05 Frank G
22:01 Captain Lewis
21:59 Mike N.
21:51 Alaska Paul
21:51 Frank G
21:45 SR-71
21:43 Nimble Spemble
21:37 Jan
21:37 Mike N.
21:32 DarthVader
21:30 Jan
21:26 borgboy2001