11–20 of 96 posts
It's a really interesting story, but I don't get the general slant. Doesn't it make more sense for us to recover high quality steeel that's sitting there unused instead of carving up yet another mountain and burning tons of coal to make it from scratch?
I am personally with the salvagers. They are making good use of an economic resource for themselves and for others. They are also cleaning the ocean of old debris, not getting lost in some misplaced sense of sentimentality. If the home countries of these vessels want them so bad they should simply salvage them themselves. It's stupid that we have laws that protect stuff that sunk over a few decades ago. If you can't…
Most of the ships are final resting places for the crew that went down with them. You don't disturb them for personal economic gain. Just like you don't steal a 100 year old stone from a graveyard.
It's a really interesting story, but I don't get the general slant. Doesn't it make more sense for us to recover high quality steeel that's sitting there unused instead of carving up yet another mountain and burning tons of coal to make it from scratch?
Sunken warships are graves (graveyards maybe, not a sailor myself). So stealing them is grave robbing.
The first thought that came to my mind was that the scavengers are cleaning up a small part of the pollution in the oceans.
I am personally with the salvagers. They are making good use of an economic resource for themselves and for others. They are also cleaning the ocean of old debris, not getting lost in some misplaced sense of sentimentality. If the home countries of these vessels want them so bad they should simply salvage them themselves. It's stupid that we have laws that protect stuff that sunk over a few decades ago. If you can't…
The Neolithic stone circle at Avebury, Wiltshire, had several stones removed by local villages who wanted stone to build cottages. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury
In the centre of this screen, just south of Tunnel House In, you can see a square outline in a field. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Coates,+Cirencester/@51....
That's a Roman camp. It's been ploughed over (it's just a field) and unscrupulous metal detectorists have plundered the site: http://www.bgas.org.uk/tbgas_bg/v119/bg119083.pdf
People taking this metal from sunken ships aren't just cleaning up a mess, they're destroying historical information.
And who knows what stuff is on the ships (oil, fuel) that isn't being properly cleaned up, just dumped into the ocean?
I am personally with the salvagers. They are making good use of an economic resource for themselves and for others. They are also cleaning the ocean of old debris, not getting lost in some misplaced sense of sentimentality. If the home countries of these vessels want them so bad they should simply salvage them themselves. It's stupid that we have laws that protect stuff that sunk over a few decades ago. If you can't…
I agree. I think it would be best to legalize this sort of salvage operation. It's kind of cool that anyone can make this sort of operation pay. More power to them. One issue that does deserve some attention is what should be done to any human remains in the wrecks. But if the salvage operations themselves were legal, so the recovery operations didn't have to operate on the sly, it should be possible to get them to o…
I am personally with the salvagers. They are making good use of an economic resource for themselves and for others. They are also cleaning the ocean of old debris, not getting lost in some misplaced sense of sentimentality. If the home countries of these vessels want them so bad they should simply salvage them themselves. It's stupid that we have laws that protect stuff that sunk over a few decades ago. If you can't…
Most of the ships are final resting places for the crew that went down with them. You don't disturb them for personal economic gain. Just like you don't steal a 100 year old stone from a graveyard.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sunken warships are graves (graveyards maybe, not a sailor myself). So stealing them is grave robbing.
Wouldn't the sailors have a grave elsewhere? I don't think place of death (or last known location since many would abandon ship prior to death) qualifies as a grave. The first thought that came to my mind was that the scavengers are cleaning up a small part of the pollution in the oceans.
As to cleaning up the oceans, I'd love it if someone could do some back of the napkin type calculations on how much pollution is caused by these sunken warships as opposed to commercial shipping or industrial runoff. I would assume this is negligible in the grand scheme of things.
It's a really interesting story, but I don't get the general slant. Doesn't it make more sense for us to recover high quality steeel that's sitting there unused instead of carving up yet another mountain and burning tons of coal to make it from scratch?
Sunken warships are graves (graveyards maybe, not a sailor myself). So stealing them is grave robbing.
Our ability for self-deception is breath taking.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sunken warships are graves (graveyards maybe, not a sailor myself). So stealing them is grave robbing.
So when westerners dig up mummies in Egypt, cart them to the Louvre and sell tickets for the privilege of visitation, that's historical research but when folks in poorer countries dig up metal from abandoned ships to sell, it's grave-robbing. Our ability for self-deception is breath taking.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wouldn't the sailors have a grave elsewhere? I don't think place of death (or last known location since many would abandon ship prior to death) qualifies as a grave. The first thought that came to my mind was that the scavengers are cleaning up a small part of the pollution in the oceans.
I'm certainly no expert on maritime disasters but I would think that if a ship goes down, particularly as a result of war, there may be significant numbers of the crew trapped inside. As to cleaning up the oceans, I'd love it if someone could do some back of the napkin type calculations on how much pollution is caused by these sunken warships as opposed to commercial shipping or industrial runoff. I would assume this…