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Post subject: Possible White House loot at centre of shipwreck dispute
 Posted: Sep 21, 2006 - 11:03 PM
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Puffer
Joined: Dec 31, 1969
Posts: 73
Status: Offline
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Possible White House loot at centre of shipwreck dispute
By ALISON AULD
September 21, 2006
cnews.canoe.ca
HALIFAX (CP) — A stash of loot possibly stolen from the White House in the
early 1800s is at the centre of an international dispute over who owns the
bounty that now rests in a watery grave off the Nova Scotia coast.
An American exploration company has laid claim to the bounty on what it
suspects is the HMS Fantome, a navy brig that was loaded with goods British
and Canadian soldiers made off with after ransacking the White House and
Capitol buildings during the War of 1812.
The company, Sovereign Exploration Associates International Inc., has
conducted dives on the site off Prospect, N.S., and planned to recover some
of the thousands of coins and other historic artifacts it has seen on the
ocean floor.
But the pursuit of the plunder was stalled recently when the British
government claimed that it owns the famed naval vessel that went down in a
fierce storm in November 1814.
“These two particular warships are under international law, considered
property of the British government,” Elizabeth Whiting, a spokeswoman with
the British High Commission, said Thursday in reference to the Fantome and
HMS Tilbury, another wreck off Cape Breton.
“Anything on the ship would be British.”
The British are arguing that the United Nations Convention on the Law of
the Sea gives them title to the Royal Navy warships and that the Nova
Scotia government cannot hand out licences to companies hoping to dive on
the sites.
Curtis Sprouse of Sovereign said his company is rejecting the claim that
international law gives ownership to the British.
“We’ve been advised by our attorneys that there’s very little substance to
their position and our attorneys are very confident that our rights to the
vessel will be upheld,” Sprouse said from his office in Wakefield, Mass.
“We expected that this might happen.”
The company had applied for a special permit that would allow it to recover
material from the site of the Fantome shipwreck, but it was rejected by the
province when the British filed their objection.
The province issues the permits and licences under the Treasure Trove Act,
a unique piece of legislation that allows people to dive on and recover
material taken from historic shipwrecks.
Wendy Barnable, a spokeswoman with the provincial Department of Tourism,
Culture and Heritage, said the company’s bid to obtain a permit was turned
down because of Britain’s opposition to the project.
Barnable said it’s now up to Sovereign Exploration to consult with British
officials to resolve the matter, adding that she wasn’t aware of this
happening in the province before.
Barnable said the company still holds a licence that allows it to dive on
the site, but that it can’t recover anything from it.
According to a preliminary report by Le Chameau Explorations Ltd., the
company which holds the permits to explore the site, divers have already
recovered cannon and musket shot, copper buttons bearing the Royal Navy
symbol, pottery, tools, and ships’ nails and bolts.
Divers also recovered copper sheathing, embossed with a distinctive English
marking that indicates military or Crown property.
Under provincial law, a company can retain items that are deemed to be
treasures, but must pay a 10 per cent royalty on them. Any artifacts
recovered from a site must be handed over to the province.
Sovereign Exploration hasn’t confirmed whether the vessel is the Fantome,
but said recovered material fits the time frame and there is debris from
several other vessels in the area.
The Fantome was leading a convoy of ships back to Halifax after British and
Canadian troops routed their enemy, sending them fleeing while the invading
army looted and then torched the president’s house, the capital and all
other public buildings.
The substantial haul was loaded on to a handful of boats that set sail for
Halifax, a busy British garrison at the time.
The Fantome ran into a vicious storm on Nov. 24, 1814, and was thought to
have gone down after accidentally heading into a shallow shoal.
Only two artifacts from the White House raid have been recovered — a
painting of George Washington, rescued by then-first lady Dolley Madison,
and a jewelry box returned to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1939
by a Canadian who said his grandfather had taken it from Washington.
John Wesley Chisholm, an independent filmmaker, said deferring to the
British doesn’t protect sites that are open to plundering by treasure
hunters interested in making a profit off historical relics.
“The wreck of the HMS Fantome brings into sharp focus the problems of
looking after and protecting underwater treasure sites,” he said Thursday.
“Once you leave the shore, and especially once you go underwater, the ocean
is like the wild west of the 21st century. We really should get out there
in an organized way and see what the heck is going on.”
Copyright © 2006, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved. |
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