I’ve found a wreck and I need advice.

[cpt. George]

I am a yacht captain / scuba diver.
During a dive in a remote area of the Caribbean I came across a wreck.
Strewn across the sea bed are ivory tusks.

After local discrete enquires I found that the wreck is unknown but I’m guessing that it must have been a slave ship 1700/1800.
There are a considerable number of ivory tusks that have been underwater for a long time.
If I declare the wreck, even after a legal battle which I can’t afford, I will get almost nothing.

So my dilemma is, and I’m hoping somebody out there has some serious advice:

What is my best course of action to make some real money out of it?

 

[Lee Taylor]

Sounds like two choices to me.

Go get em legaly

or

Go get em illegaly

 

[cpt. George]

Lee,
Thank you for the reply but you have to believe I have considered both your suggestions very seriously for about a year now.

A. If I declare them I will end up with a Mel Fisher situation.

B. It I try to lift them, what am I going to do with about a hundred Ivory tusks each weighing about a hundred pounds? And, even if I had a boat big enough, which I don’t, where would I sell them anyway?

Old Ivory is legal if you can prove where it came from, which I wouldn’t be able to do!

Can you imagine me pulling into Miami with a boat load of Ivory tusks?

 

[iztok]

I think your best bet is to contact Ray @ Sundiver (in California) and talk to him. Tell him I've sent you and if it works out you owe me one of those tusks

 

[Rhone Man]

I smell a troll, but I'll play.

A few questions worry me about this scenario.

• Slave ships didn't transport ivory from Africa, they transported slaves and nothing but slaves. Why do you say it is a slave ship?
• Ships from the 1700-1800s were universally made of wood. In the Caribbean there would be nothing left after this length of time except metal fixtures and fittings. Pretty hard to make a positive ID from that.
• Most elephant tusks weight less than 50 lbs. Tusks that weigh more than 100 lbs are very rare indeed.
• I would also expect after 300 years for any tusks to be so covered with coral as to be unrecognisable. If stacked together, they would also have fused.
• Mel Fisher's legal disputes arose because there was a question of whether the Atocha was located in US waters, and the US claims Federal jurisdiction over old wrecks. You indicated that this wreck was located in a remote area of the Caribbean?
• Most treasure hunting expeditions that I have had anything to do with (admittedly, not many) what is normal is that the treasure seeker negotiates with the Government whose waters the treasure is supposedly in ahead of time, and they agree how the proceeds of salvage will be split and who will bear the expenses. It is pretty unrealistic to assume you can salvage and export treasure without local government cooperation, and you would run a high risk of committing a criminal offence.

If you really have found a fortune in Ivory at the bottom of the Caribbean sea, the only sensible thing (to my mind) would be to engage a professional treasure salvor (no shortage of them - HowardE on Scubaboard can probably put you in touch with one if you can't find anyone else independently), hire a local lawyer, and open up negotiations with the relevant Caribbean government.

 

[ZenDiver.3D]

If it walks like aduck and quacks like a duck, it's probably a troll.

 

[cpt. George]

I understand your skepticism. I guess I would be suspicious of a treasure map also.

If I can add a little background perhaps it will help.
I am 68 years old and coming to the end of my diving / sailing career. I sail and live alone on a 34’ sailboat. Last year I was casually diving, alone, searching for lobster at the edge of the reef at about 40ft.
Southern Caribbean.

The visibility was good about 60’ - 80’. I looked out towards the empty sand and a mound caught my eye. I thought it was a coral outcrop and worth inspecting.

On closer inspection it wasn’t coral at all but a mound of ivory tusks. I tried to part them and managed to pry one off but I could only lift one end. They were not encrusted or fused together just covered with algae which rubbed off easily. I didn’t find any boat remains but then I didn’t spend that much time searching. They could be there. I’m not a treasure hunter or a wreck diver. I wouldn’t know what to look for. But there were more mounds and loose tusks as well. Each one as big as me, I’m guessing at a hundred and I’m guessing at the weight as I couldn’t lift it.

I did a bit of research and slave ships in that area did indeed carry ivory as well as slaves. The only wreck I have been able to possible associate with this is the report I found of a slave ship that went down some fifty miles from my position but was never located and it was carrying slaves and Ivory.

I was hoping that by posting here on a treasure salvers site I would get some real advice but it seems I will have to go the legal route and be at the mercy of lawyers and government, which at my age is not a profitable prospect.
Thank you all for your time.

 

[Peter_C]

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More information can be found there. Everyone dreams of finding treasure!

 

[RandyOrr]

I would say Rhone Man gave you some very good advice. I don't know what you expected to hear. It sounds like you don't have the equipment or manpower to raise them all and nobody to buy them. You will definitely need the assistance of a pro salvor. The lawyer is also a necessary evil. They will protect your rights to the claim. Yes paying them will cost you, but 70% of something is better than 100% of nothing.

Now me personally, I would bring them in a few at a time. Then worry about the rest when you get them all back to the states. That leaves the foreign govt in question out of the equation.

 

[diver21085]

Ctp. George
you bring these pcs. up clean them up and then you worry about what to do with them
belive me if they are what you said are its very easy let them go @ very GOOOD price
A friend.