The Florida based deep-sea exploration firm, Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. has filed objections to a June 3, 2009 Report and Recommendation in the “Black Swan” Admiralty case. The judges recommendation… that Odyssey Marine give the 17 tons of gold that they found at a 200 year old shipwreck site back to Spain – the believed owners of the sunken vessel. The treasure is worth an estimated $500 million.
In May 2007, Odyssey Marine announced the discovery of the “Black Swan,” a Colonial period site located in the Atlantic Ocean. Yielding over 500,000 silver coins weighing more than 17 tons, hundreds of gold coins, worked gold, and other artifacts, it is believed to be the largest collection of coins ever excavated from a deep-ocean site. While there is no coherent vessel located at the “Black Swan” site, it is believed to be remains of the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, a Spanish galleon which exploded in battle and sank in the Atlantic Ocean west of Portugal in 1804, claiming the lives of 200 people. [Continue Reading →]
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Tags: · admiralty law, exploration, treasure hunters
The Guardian tells us:
A Chinese cargo ship believed to be carrying 77 tonnes of small arms, including more than 3m rounds of ammunition, AK47 assault rifles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, has docked in the South African port of Durban for transportation of the weapons to Zimbabwe, the South African government confirmed yesterday. It claimed it was powerless to intervene as long as the ship’s papers were in order.
Copies of the documentation for the Chinese ship, the An Yue Jiang, show that the weapons were sent from Beijing to the ministry of defence in Harare. Headed “Dangerous goods description and container packing certificate”, the document was issued on April 1, three days after Zimbabwe’s election. It lists the consignment as including 3.5m rounds of ammunition for AK47 assault rifles and for small arms, 1,500 40mm rockets, 2,500 mortar shells of 60mm and 81mm calibre, as well as 93 cases of mortar tubes.
The carrier is listed as the Cosco shipping company in China.
The structure of shipping companies is a complicated one. Each vessel must be registered (flagged), insured, classed, managed and crewed. For reasons of liability, tax avoidance, media relations and general profit motives ship owners will often use purpose build corporations with storefronts located in the countries offering the best terms or amicable laws. The end result is purpose built complexity. This is the reason why the Cosco is not liable for the clean-up of oil spilt by the Cosco Busan and will likely deny ties to the shipment of these arms. To find the truth would require a large scale investigation well beyond the scope of this blog, or even a well funded news group.
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Tags: · admiralty law, arms, Maritime Law
The law of general average is a legal principle of maritime law according to which all parties in a sea venture proportionally share any losses resulting from a voluntary sacrifice of part of the ship or cargo to save the whole in an emergency.In the exigencies of hazards faced at sea, crewmembers often have precious little time in which to determine precisely whose cargo they are jettisoning. Thus, to avoid quarreling that could waste valuable time, there arose the equitable practice whereby all the merchants whose cargo was on board would be called on to contribute a portion, based upon a share or percentage, to the merchant or merchants whose goods had been tossed overboard to avert imminent peril.
Source: Wikipedia
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Tags: · admiralty law, admiralty law firm, cargo loss, cargo shipping, Jones Act, law, Maritime, Maritime Law, maritime lawyer
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