CSS Hunley on cnn

I found this sentence curious: "The Hunley, considered a spoil of war, is the property of the U.S. Navy."

I'm guessing they meant this to mean that it's not open for claims by the finders. But it immediately caused me to think, "well, who else would have claim on it? The Confederate Army? The descendants of Horace Hunley?" :laugh:
 
I have to admit, that for a long time, I pretty much ignored the Hunley. Sideshow, I thought. But once I learned more about it, especially the design process through the earlier incarnations (Pioneer, Pioneer II/"American Diver"), the more interesting it became. It looked less like a "stunt" and more like a serious example of naval technological development. Call me a convert. :D
 
All Confederate military property reverted to the U.S. government at the end of the war. The C.S. Army formally seized Hunley soon after its arrival in Charleston in the summer of 1863, but (IIRC) never got around to paying Horace Hunley and his partners for it. Up to that point it had been a private venture.

I don't know specifically how South Carolina defines its "Waters of the State," but the U.S. Abandoned Shipwrecks Act of 1988 transfers all abandoned wrecks lying in waters claimed by the states to those states' jurisdictions, to be dealt with according to relevant state laws. Individual states' laws regarding historic shipwrecks and archaeological sites vary tremendously. In Texas, the Hunley and Housatonic sites would be clearly within the boundaries of state lands, and so protected under the Texas Antiquities Code as well as being claimed by the present-day U.S. Navy, but I don't know about South Carolina.
 
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All Confederate military property reverted to the U.S. government at the end of the war. The C.S. Army formally seized Hunley soon after its arrival in Charleston in the summer of 1863, but (IIRC) never got around to paying Horace Hunley and his partners for it. Up to that point it had been a private venture.

I don't know specifically how South Carolina defines its "Waters of the State," but the U.S. Abandoned Shipwrecks Act of 1988 transfers all abandoned wrecks lying in waters claimed by the states to those states' jurisdictions, to be dealt with according to relevant state laws. Individual states' laws regarding historic shipwrecks and archaeological sites vary tremendously. In Texas, the Hunley and Housatonic sites would be clearly within the boundaries of state lands, and so protected under the Texas Antiquities Code as well as being claimed by the present-day U.S. Navy, but I don't know about South Carolina.

LOL. I'm betting their state waters don't go as far offshore as ours. :) That's a pretty safe bet, IMO.
 

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