More than 450 years ago, a three-masted ship sank in a hurricane off the coast of Florida, taking with it France's hopes of colonizing the peninsula."If there had not been this hurricane, who knows?"
Or less incentive to talk about their discoveries publicly. I suspect future hunters will just loot the wreck, destroying much of the archeological value and then offload the artifacts on unregulated markets, further degrading any historic benefit.
I don't think the current government of France is the same as the one that lost the ship. Pretty sure they lost a lot of heads of government at some point.
Standing in the way of GME is the Sunken Military Craft Act (SMCA), a law signed by then-president George W. Bush in 2004 which recognizes the sovereignty of a country over its former warships.
Seems like this would remove most of the incentive to look for them.
I get it, treasure hunters want to be compensated for finding wrecks but understand that if you do find one, that does not make you its owner. If it belonged to France when it sank, the wreck still belongs to France. "Finders keepers" is not a game you want to play with archaeologists.
Not sure if you're genuinely interested, but for purposes of international law, yes. The idea of "France" is actually a series of successor states who retain certain rights and obligations, including ownership of military assets.
I don't see how that's relevant. France as a sovereign nation still exists regardless of what form the government takes. The ship belongs to France, not the government of France.
Standing in the way of GME is the Sunken Military Craft Act (SMCA), a law signed by then-president George W. Bush in 2004 which recognizes the sovereignty of a country over its former warships.