A wreck in Dahab!

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Terrible news. The owners want her back :(

This email has been sent to dive centers in Dahab:

==========================
Dear Dive Centres and Dive Guides

Last week, a 13m sailing boat, the Samadhi, hit the reef in Dahab and sank. Aboard was a family with their children who safely got back to shore. They were unfortunately unable to stay in Egypt and had to return to Switzerland.

In Dahab, they are now represented by Mr Galal from Ganet Sinai, who is now officially responsible of the boat, until it is returned to their owners. They also have the help of Madame Christina from Christina Hotel and Residence, who is the representative in Dahab for the Swiss Embassy.

The owners, as well as Mr Galal, are doing their best to organise for the boat to be retrieved and the owners are hoping to get their boat back with ALL their personal belongings. Please note that removing anything from the boat is ILLEGAL, as the boat still belongs to the Swiss family and is now under the custody of Mr Galal.

If you plan to dive at the location of the Samadhi, please make sure you and your divers are aware that the boat will not stay and will be removed and returned to their owners. Please ensure that NOTHING is taken from the boat and ask them to kindly avoid entering the boat. How would you feel if your front door was broken and you were away and people came everyday in your house to look at your belongings? This is how the owners must be feeling at the moment.

If you have, or you know anyone who has removed items from the Samadhi, please realise that these items are STOLEN and should be returned to their owners. You can either drop them off at the Christina Hotel and Residence (attention of Madame Christina, concerns the Samadhi) or at Ganet Sinai Hotel (attention of Mr Galal, concerns the Samadhi). All items will be collected together by Madame Christina, who will then organise to have them sent back to their owners in Switzerland.

If you would like to report people who have stolen items from the Samadhi and not returned them, please contact Mr Galal, who will take the necessary steps against the thieves.

Finally, if you would like to offer your help to take the boat out, please contact me or Mr Galal, stating how you can help. Financial contributions are by the way more than welcome, to help cover the costs of removing the boat from the water.
==========================
 
Done some more digging but can't get any answers, the email isnt be any sort of official body so carries no weight at all.

What EXACTLY are salvage rules in Egypt? Do they have a "receiver of wreck" or similar to declare lifted articles to or not? Or do just the standard maritime laws apply? The threatening tone of the email seems to have no basis in law.
 
Another message to the dive centers has been sent lately:

==========================================
Dear Divers and Dive Centres

First of all I would like to thank the people who have rescued
personal items belonging to the family who lost their sailing boat on
the 13th July in Dahab, and have returned them.
...
I realise there was a big misunderstanding in the diving community
after the boat "Samadhi Basilea" sank, as most people believed that it
would stay in the water. Therefore, they thought that the ship was
officially abandonned and that it was thus fair game for the divers.
However, this was not the case. As you know, the boat is to be
officially taken out of the water soon.


Since I announced that taking items from the boat was stealing,
many people got in touch with me to let me know that when a boat has
sunk, it is fair game for the divers.. So I went to look for official
information about this and the laws on this subject are quite
complicated and tend to vary from a country to another but here are some
extracts that I have found from different websites:


1. "As a general rule, non-historic civilian shipwrecks are
considered fair game for salvage." "Anyone who finds the wreck can then
file a salvage claim on it and place a lien on the vessel, and
subsequently mount a salvage operation." "The unauthorized salvage of
wrecks is called wrecking." "In the United Kingdom under the Merchant
Shipping Act 1995, jetsam, flotsam, lagan and all other cargo and
wreckage remain the property of their original owners. Anyone, including
recreational divers and beachcombers, removing those goods must inform
the Receiver of Wreck to avoid the accusation of theft."

Source: Wikipedia

2. "The goods still belong to their owners, whether they are stuck
in containers on the stricken vessel, or washed up on the shore."
Source: BBC News: "Can you keep ship-wrecked goods?" on BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | Can you keep ship-wrecked goods?

There are other examples but the sources are not as strong so I will not mention them here.

In the end, Dahab has as usual its own laws, and indeed people
would probably get away with having taken things from the boat and kept
them for themselves. However, I would like to encourage people to have
some compassion for the family who lost their boat. They are grateful to
be alive but are of course very saddened by the loss of their boat
which they have had for 25 years. This is why it would be a nice gesture
from the diving community to help them recover some of their
belongings. The Dahab diving community here is not being blamed for the
wreckage of the boat as there was obviously a misunderstanding in the
first place and as it seems that some commercial diving activities have
been happening on the boat since it sank 2 weeks ago and as many items
were removed from the boat during those non-recreational dives.


Any recovered items can be handed over to Madame Christina from the
Christina Hotel, Mr Galal from Ganet Sinai or to me (Jessica), so that
they can be returned to their owners.

Finally, please note that the D.E.S.C. is not getting involved with
the fine which could result from the damage to the reef, when the
collision originally happened. The National Parks were notified about
the event when it happened and a diving team was officially asked by the
EEAA to go down and assess the situation.


Sincerly,
Jessica Bouwmeester
D.E.S.C. Dahab Environmental Support Centre


==========================================
 
So she's backtracking after firstly accusing people of theft despite not having a clue what she was talking about.
 
So she's backtracking after firstly accusing people of theft despite not having a clue what she was talking about.

In all fairness, IF this had happened to you, wouldn't you want people to be compassionate to return your possessions to you, I'm guessing this is a non-diving family, as well as they had to leave the country on very short notice and so were not able to recover their property themselves....
 
In all fairness, IF this had happened to you, wouldn't you want people to be compassionate to return your possessions to you, I'm guessing this is a non-diving family, as well as they had to leave the country on very short notice and so were not able to recover their property themselves....


"Want" doesnt come into it. There are clearly defined salvage laws.

What i take exception to is the clueless 3rd party sending out emails accusing people of theft despite not knowing what the hell she was on about.
 

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