Marine Salvage
Clarke Kiernan
Marine Salvage
In general there are two levels of importance for Salvage.
There are those cases where the Lloyds standard form is used. This tends to be used universally where the action is urgent. It saves having to stop and negotiate terms where lives and/or the environment are at risk.
On the other hand there is the finding by avocational divers of wreck on the seabed or perhaps by members of the public finding items washed up ashore. These situations are not governed by any contract but instead are subject to the International Convention on Salvage 1989
and the Merchant Shipping Act 1995. It is in this latter area where people are most likely to find they fall into error.
Finding wreck
There is very little case law to assist people with rights and obligations in respect of finding items on the seabed or washed ashore but the case of David Knight
helps to warn people of their obligations if they want to insist on their rights as well as avoiding falling foul of the criminal law.
Sections 236
and 237
of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 will surprise the casual finder of wreck as it imposes and obligation on you to report the finding to the Receiver of Wreck and failure to do so can result in consequences that might be very expensive as well as creating a criminal record for the finder that will impact on employment prospects. The Act sets out not only the obligations on the finder but also the obligations on the RoW with a duty to try to find the owners of the wreck and a system for selling and then rewarding the finder. Most items of little if any historic or intrinsic value will usually be offered back to the finder in lieu of it being sold by the RoW. Often no owner comes forward where the item found is hundreds of years old.
After finding and bringing ashore of items needs to be reported quickly. The RoW works to a period of 28 days being reasonable for such reports to be made. There is a form
on the Receivers web that is normally used.
If the item is of a value =>£5,000 the Receiver might ask you to deliver it up. Alternatively you may be asked to keep the item to the Receiver's order. The Receiver will quickly report to Lloyds and the owner will have a full 12 months to come forward before anything else happens. The danger is that you will need to complete the whole transaction with the Receiver before 2 years expires else you might lose any right to a payment.