COURT CALLS FOR EXPERT TO SUPERVISE SS CENTRAL AMERICA ARTIFACTS

Court Orders SS Central America Artifacts to Remain in Custody of US Marshal Norfolk, June 4, 2014: Chief United State District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith Monday ordered Recovery Limited Partnership (RLP), at its expense, to provide an expert to supervise the US Marshal’s handling of artifacts it has recovered from within an injuncted area of the Atlantic where the sidewheel steamer SS Central America sank during an 1857 hurricane.

Judge Smith’s order, attached, says the artifacts “shall remain in the custody of the US Marshal,” and directs RLP to contact the US Marshal “forthwith” to make necessary arrangements.

Columbus-America Discovery Group (CADG), first finders of the SS Central America in 1987, previously had asked the court to order federal marshals to seize all items recovered to date by RLP and its contracted salvor, Odyssey Marine Exploration.

CADG originally located the wreck site in the Atlantic about 160 miles off the Carolina coast and subsequently recovered thousands of gold coins and hundreds of gold ingots. CADG was awarded salvor in possession status by the Norfolk federal court, and maintains it still has that court-granted exclusive right to the site to retrieve gold and artifacts.

In 2013, following lengthy litigation brought by two investors, an Ohio court appointed a receiver, Ira O. Kane, to handle business affairs of RLP and another company, Columbus Exploration. Kane contracted with Odyssey Marine and, without federal court approval, Odyssey began recovery of artifacts within the area protected by the CADG permanent injunction. CADG was not a party to the Ohio litigation.

"Columbus-America achieved discovery and recovery breakthroughs in the deep ocean for five years,” said Milt Butterworth, president of CADG. “We located a deep ocean shipwreck no one else had ever found. We invented a recovery vehicle and techniques to recover artifacts very carefully, which no one else had ever done,” he added.

“For example, the SS Central America was a US Mail steamship,” Butterworth said. “We always felt we would find mail. We avoided an area where we thought it might be to prevent any harm before we were confident we could recover it without damage,” he added.

“Then we were sued by 39 insurance companies,” Butterworth added. “Federal courts protected our work by awarding us a permanent injunction. After 5 years at sea and 23 years in court, we want to go back to the SS Central America and finish the job,” he said.

"Now we are asking the court to uphold our original permanent injunction, and allow us to fulfill our purpose: to protect the site and recover the treasure of the SS Central America, and deliver a return to our investors," Butterworth added.

To read earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
ODYSSEY MARINE TO ATTEMPT SS CENTRAL AMERICA SALVAGE (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n10a20.html)
COLUMBUS-AMERICA GROUP SUES ODYSSEY (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n21a10.html)

Wayne Homren, Editor

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