TREASURE TALK WITH BOB EVANS, EPISODE 4.1

 

I have written before about how I love discovering interesting things and sharing them with people. This was never so true as it was with the S.S. Central America treasure, but it took a while to get there. The late 80s and the entire 90s found the project ensnared in extended legal battles on multiple fronts.

So, I will summarize what I personally feel are some of the important elements of the legal saga in which we found ourselves, having found the "Greatest Lost Treasure in United States History."

I am not an attorney, and so I may not state everything properly according to every legal technicality. But this was my experience. I gave hours of testimony as a fact witness in Federal and State Courts, in admiralty and civil matters. I was subjected to days of depositions by attorneys representing our legal adversaries.

The waves of lawsuits, first from rival would-be salvors, and then from a phalanx of insurance companies, stifled free flow of information, and a full exploration of what we had found. This may have been due to obvious reasons, as well as some less obvious.

The day we arrived at the dock in Norfolk Harbor in October 1989, the treasure was arrested. This is technically what happens in any such case, when filing a claim in Admiralty Court.

As the finder of valuable property, our company brought suit against an "Unidentified, Wrecked and Abandoned Sailing Vessel, its engines, tackle, apparel, appurtenances, cargo, etc., (believed to be the S.S. Central America.)"

 

It seems strange to those not acquainted with such legal maneuvers, but a finder sues the thing he finds in order to gain ownership. This is the first action to assert "finders keepers" in the world of law.

Tommy and Barry and I were taken by boat, like a water taxi, to a press conference that had been arranged at the nearby waterfront Omni Hotel. It was then that I learned from our attorney, Rick Robol, that 39 insurance entities had filed suit saying that they were the owners of the gold we had found and recovered. The moment I heard this, I had slept very little for days and the scene at the dock had been a bit overwhelming. Then I was whisked off to a news conference full of celebration only to learn that powerful forces wanted to take the gold away; OUR GOLD away; MY GOLD away.

Of course it wasn't "mine." But it had been my personal responsibility during the previous months at sea, I suppose leading to my possessiveness. I seethed internally, in 10% of my being, while I was swept back into the triumphant arrival scene.

To read the complete article, see:
Treasure Talk: Episode 4 Part 1 Can we keep it? (https://finestknown.com/treasure-talk-episode-4-part-1can-we-keep-it/)

For the complete series, see:
Category Archives: Treasure Talk with Bob Evans (https://finestknown.com/treasure-talk-with-bob-evans/)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
TREASURE TALK WITH BOB EVANS, EPISODE 1 (https://www.coinbooks.org/v28/esylum_v28n12a12.html)
TREASURE TALK WITH BOB EVANS, EPISODE 2.1 (https://www.coinbooks.org/v28/esylum_v28n13a17.html)
TREASURE TALK WITH BOB EVANS, EPISODE 2.2 (https://www.coinbooks.org/v28/esylum_v28n14a15.html)
TREASURE TALK WITH BOB EVANS, EPISODE 3.1 (https://www.coinbooks.org/v28/esylum_v28n15a16.html)
TREASURE TALK WITH BOB EVANS, EPISODE 3.2 (https://www.coinbooks.org/v28/esylum_v28n17a16.html)

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