cooper42
Jr. Member
Hello all.
This is my first post here on the boards, and I'm sure this is probably a naive question, but please bear with me.
My father found a ship buried in river sediment on the west coast of Florida many years ago, but never told anybody. He tells me that he was skinny-dipping in the river shortly after a series of hurricanes and saw the deck of the ship (which is usually completely buried in silt). He visually saw part of the deck (largely intact and angling down into the silt), took a large, blue plate and sold it to a collector, but then he never did anything else with the find. I know this probably doesn't sound believable, but 10-15 years ago, he confided in a close friend of the family who then went down to the river and confirmed the find.
I don't remember nor do I want to embellish the dimensions of what they found, but apparently they measured a large area of metal under the river, with smaller pings of metal out to a reef past the mouth of the river. My dad's friend told me that he even stood on a wood deck, buried under some muck and not even chest deep in the water. They also found no record of a wreck in this particular river.
Apparently, their negotiations with Florida didn't go well at all, so the ship still sits there these many years later. Now that I'm an adult and can do something about it, I'm ready to act on this information. My question is simple...what should I do first?
I don't want to get in trouble with the law, and I'd even be willing to take a small percentage from the state just for telling them where it is. Is this a naive view? Who should I contact, and is it just wishful thinking that the state would even bargain with me? I don't have a lawyer, an archaelogist, or anything of the sort. I simply know where a (treasure?) ship lies and want to do something about it.
In a perfect world, I could find an honest salvor who has some sort of standard contract to sign, I could give them the info and let them work the details with Florida, and at the end of the day I'd have the satisfaction of proving to myself that this is real (as well as a percentage of any profits). Is there anybody out there who I can trust, who will give me the time of day? I don't have the expertise to do this alone.
This is my first post here on the boards, and I'm sure this is probably a naive question, but please bear with me.
My father found a ship buried in river sediment on the west coast of Florida many years ago, but never told anybody. He tells me that he was skinny-dipping in the river shortly after a series of hurricanes and saw the deck of the ship (which is usually completely buried in silt). He visually saw part of the deck (largely intact and angling down into the silt), took a large, blue plate and sold it to a collector, but then he never did anything else with the find. I know this probably doesn't sound believable, but 10-15 years ago, he confided in a close friend of the family who then went down to the river and confirmed the find.
I don't remember nor do I want to embellish the dimensions of what they found, but apparently they measured a large area of metal under the river, with smaller pings of metal out to a reef past the mouth of the river. My dad's friend told me that he even stood on a wood deck, buried under some muck and not even chest deep in the water. They also found no record of a wreck in this particular river.
Apparently, their negotiations with Florida didn't go well at all, so the ship still sits there these many years later. Now that I'm an adult and can do something about it, I'm ready to act on this information. My question is simple...what should I do first?
I don't want to get in trouble with the law, and I'd even be willing to take a small percentage from the state just for telling them where it is. Is this a naive view? Who should I contact, and is it just wishful thinking that the state would even bargain with me? I don't have a lawyer, an archaelogist, or anything of the sort. I simply know where a (treasure?) ship lies and want to do something about it.
In a perfect world, I could find an honest salvor who has some sort of standard contract to sign, I could give them the info and let them work the details with Florida, and at the end of the day I'd have the satisfaction of proving to myself that this is real (as well as a percentage of any profits). Is there anybody out there who I can trust, who will give me the time of day? I don't have the expertise to do this alone.
