The Legalities of Treasure Hunting

What child hasn’t dreamed of discovering hidden treasure. Oftentimes the story plays out with the discovery of map that leads to a buried chest filled with riches and jewels. X marks the spot. Of course the likelihood of there actually being any chest full of gold medallions centuries buried on some Caribbean island yet to be discovered is very very slim. However, piracy on the open seas was a very real thing for centuries. Naval ships would often be boarded and robbed by gangs of swashbucklers and there is no way of telling where all the shipwrecks of old may be and what might be found on them. In Maritime Law we refer to this as treasure salvage.

Of course it isn’t always as exciting as all that. Ships and boats sink in the open sea in modern times too pulling down with them different assortments of property and valuables. While mariners are expected to save the lives of other people on the high seas without expecting a reward, there are quite a few maritime law codes and standards regarding the rescue of property. The recovery of property lost at sea is generally referred to as salvage.

There are two main types of salvage; contract salvage and pure salvage. Contract salvage is what it says; a matter of contracts. The owner of the property lost at sea enters into a contracted agreement with the salvor to begin salvage operations on a vessel lost at sea. All the property is returned to the property’s original owner, while the salvor is paid an agreed upon fee mentioned in the contract. As with many forms of contracts, these contracts are considered invalid if made under duress or under false pretenses, as well as a number of other circumstances that could invalidate any other land bound contract. Perhaps the most common salvage contract is referred to as Lloyd’s Open Form, a type of standardized legal document published by Lloyd’s of London that serves as a popular form of salvage contract.

Treasure salvage, also known as pure salvage, has no contract between the owner of the property and the person or persons recovering them, with the relationship being implied by admiralty law. The person or group who act as the salvor of pure salvage property must bring their claim to a maritime court, where, depending on the strength of the case of both parties, the court will grant salvage rights and rewards based on the value of the property and the difficulty of the salvage operation.

In a “high order” salvage claim, the salvor put themselves and their crew at risk of injury or risked loss or damage of their equipment in order to salvage the damaged ship. This also applies to raising sunken ships as these endeavors are generally quite difficult. “Low order” salvage claims are generally low or non-existent risk situations for the salvor and tend to carry smaller rewards as a result, usually much smaller rewards.

The rewards for both types of salvage will seldom exceed half the value of the property recovered. The main exception to this rule comes in the case of treasure salvage, sunken treasure that has generally been lost for decades, if not centuries.

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