[Friday Seminar Recap]
Chinese
Shipwrecks, Treasure Hunters and the History of Underwater
Cultural Heritage Regimes
Speaker: Steven
Gallagher (Associate Professor,
Associate Dean (Teaching & Learning), The Faculty of Law, CUHK)
Time: 1:00 - 2:30 pm, 1st November 2019 (Friday)
Venue: Rm.115, Humanities Building, New Asia College,
CUHK
Text: Melody Tan (Mphil student, Department of Anthropology,
CUHK)
Shipwrecks
are testimonies to maritime trade of an era and their treasures prove the glory
of it. The issue on shipwrecks and their treasures have since become a widely
discussed topic –Who owns them? And how can we protect them. In this Friday seminar,
Prof. Steven Gallagher, Associate Professor and Associate Dean (Academic
Affairs) of the Faculty of Law gave as an introduction to the history of salvage
as well as the laws that protect the underwater cultural heritage (UCH).
Shipwrecks
Salvage
Salvage
was made possible by the invention of Diving Bell in 1682, with Sir William
Phipps recovered almost 200,000 pounds’ worth of treasure. Future invention of
the replenishable diving suits allowed the retrieval of cannon guns of Royal
George which sank in 1782. Today, wrecks salvage can be categorised as pure
salvage and contract salvage. Pure salvage, or treasure hunting, allows
treasure hunters to search for unidentified, unclaimed or abandoned wrecks. Forrest
suggested that for the protection of cultural heritage, salvaging should not be
permitted (Forrest 2009).
“The code is more what you’d call ‘guidelines’
than actual rules.” – Hector Barbossa
The
Law of Salvage was likely to be developed after the tragic wreck of the White
Ship, through the Rules of Oleron (circa 1266). The modern Law
of Salvage advocates the ‘salving’ of lives, the ships and their cargoes
through rewards to the salver. This Law of Salvage is applicable to most of the
jurisdictions in the world today.
As for the ownership of these wrecks and their
treasures, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982),
states that “Coastal States exercise sovereignty over their territorial sea
which they have the right to establish its breadth up to a limit not to exceed
12 nautical miles”. Prerogative rights and the Law of Finders (“finder keepers,
loser weepers”) could also claim ownership of these wrecks. However, wrecks
with unidentified owners recovered in the high seas can be claimed by those
“treasure hunters”.
To protect and prevent commercial exploitation of the
salvage, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) adopted the Convention on the Protection of UCH in 2001. The
convention did not meet with good response – the salvaging projects of the
Odyssey’s Black Swan (2007) and Belitung Wreck (1998 – 1999) still continued.
Recent WWII Naval Ships in Southeast Asia, especially those in Java, are being recovered
as scrap metals as well as their value of being used in medical and physics
equipment.
“Not
all treasure’s silver and gold, mate.” – Jack Sparrow
Ceramics,
specifically blue and white ones, were the new silver and gold found in
abundance in the seas of Southeast Asia. These newly discovered made-in-china
porcelains in 1985 on the Hatcher Wreck triggered a development in China’s law and
policy with regards to UCH. Since then, China showed extensive effort in
protecting and preserving their UCH. In 2007, Southern Song dynasty wreck – Nanhai No. I – was raised from the
South China seabed for the first time ever indoor underwater excavation. The
Maritime Silk Route Museum was built in purpose of it, making an impactful
political statement. China now finance many international archaeological
excavations, along the route of maritime silk route to develop their political
agenda.
Looking
Forward
There
will be many more treasures found, and it is our duty to protect these common
cultural heritages. On Hong Kong’s part,
Prof. Gallagher quoted from a proposal co-authored by Dr. Bill Jeffrey and the
Hong Kong Maritime Museum (HKMM): to create “an inventory of all the Hong
Kong’s UCH, the identification of significant UCH archaeological sites of
interest and if appropriate, nominate sites as monuments under Antiquities and Monuments
Ordinance; correlating special exhibitions at HKMM that focus on the
territory-wide survey outcomes; a community awareness campaign with the goal of
attracting more recreational divers to become certified in UCH, and the
development of a 3-year strategic plan.”