At some point removing artifacts from a sunken ship becomes Archeology. At another point in time it becomes a non-issue. Who would not pick up a souvenir form a ship that sunk 500 years ago with all hands? It seems to be a matter of time and of not disturbing the remains. I would agree that removing articles that belonged to war dead could constitute grave robbing, but I would disagree that removing something bolted to a ship containing war dead is. Souvenirs including personal possessions were routinely collected from battlefields (by both sides) in every war in history and Archeologists routinely remove artifacts (and human remains) from tombs. Museums around the world are full of artifacts collected this way.

It seems to be all right for archeologists to do it because they are “preserving history”. As a North Carolina wreck diver myself, I know that most WWII era shipwrecks are deteriorating rapidly. In not too many years there will be no physical history to preserve. Additionally, almost all of the wreck divers I know that have taken artifacts from WWII era shipwrecks proudly display them for everyone to see. In a number of cases they have gone to great lengths to preserve them and their historical significance. No one would have seen them had they been left where they were found. Dive shops on the East Coast display them for the public to see. I have friends who have donated theirs to museums.

I have given this matter a lot of thought over the years. I have dived on a number of merchant ships sunk by U-boats that went down with crew onboard as well as the U-85 and the U-352 (both sunk off the North Carolina coast during WWII). I have been inside both U-boats. The last time I dove the U-352 there were still remains there.

My dad was a merchant seaman during WWII and he was torpedoed twice. He survived both attacks but not by much. He died from Cancer several years later. We could easily have been talking about artifacts removed from a shipwreck containing his remains. After considerable thought, I came to the conclusion that I would not have a problem with someone removing artifacts from his war grave (had he died in the war) as long as they didn’t belong to him and his remains were not disturbed in the process. As far as selling artifacts taken from a shipwreck containing my dad’s remains under those conditions, I would probably not be happy to see them for sale on the Internet but I would be one of the bidders and would pay whatever it took to buy them. I loved my dad very much and I honestly don’t think he would mind. In his particular case, I don’t think he would mind having his remains disturbed, but I would. Everybody draws a line somewhere.

Aside from the moral issue there is also a legal one. I think I read somewhere that warships (unlike merchant ships) remain the property of their governments no matter where they are sunk (including international waters). If that is the case there are no salvage rights involved, the artifacts would belong to the current German government. I would be interested in hearing someone in the legal profession address this aspect, as well as the disturbing a war grave aspect. What are the laws, what are the penalties and who enforces them?

I think archeologists feel that scientific methods must be used to excavate shipwrecks in order to properly preserve the historical perspective, and of course they are correct. The problem is that there is no money available to do this for every shipwreck in existence. The bottom line in this regard is that for most of these wrecks, if it weren’t for wreck divers none of their artifacts would be preserved for posterity. I would also like to hear from an archeologist on this point.

I can understand how someone could have a problem with all of this, it is a very complicated and personal issue. I just don’t share their point of view and I couldn’t leave this issue on the forum with just one side of the argument. Like most issues, it does have at least two sides.

If I could help translate those tags, I would. Unfortunately, I don’t read German.