HMS Fowey tour in HD

[silverking]

I have mixed feelings about the NPS determination that the HMS Fowey is "safe" in place and in no need of salvage, and being a pirate at heart I have a hard time with the fact that the NPS has closed allaccess off to this wreck, to the point where if you're in a glass bottom boat in the vicinity, you're likely getting charged and perhaps your boat confiscated.

HOWEVER, having said all of that, the NPS keeps the Fowey covered with sand most of the time, so this video (a couple of years old and in HD) is an excellent look at the Fowey in her glory as she sits on the bottom at Legare Anchorage today.
Note how our host indicates that she'll be completely covered with sand (intentionally) when they're done their survey.

If you're a "shipwreck guy", and even though this is an NPS production ... it's a fantastic video. If its been posted here before, I've not seen it despite my belief that I've read every thread in this forum.

 

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[Darren in NC]

Interesting. Years ago Gary Gentile sued to have access as a diver to the ironclad Monitor, even though all access had been restricted. He said there's no way you can stop someone from looking at it. I am sketchy on the details, but I remember he won his case. I wonder if such precedent might apply here.

 

[silverking]

Darren, this document: http://www.nps.gov/bisc/learn/management/upload/Supt-Compendium-Jan-2011.pdf
would seem to indicate that one couldn't (legally) get anywhere near the Fowey or the Legare Anchorage, in that the document specifies:

1) No anchoring
2) No swimming, diving, or snorkeling
3) No underwater viewing devices, including - face masks, glass bottom boats, glass bottom buckets, underwater cameras of any kind.

Combined with the fact that any boat even slowing down (let alone stopping) in the Legare Anchorage seems to attract attention of assorted government patrols would make it appear that one would have to indeed take the case to court and attempt to plead such that honest citizens simply wanting to look at their National Park artifacts have every right as citizens to do so.

I would suspect that, looking at the video above, they appear to have been very successful over the years (rightly or wrongly) at keeping folks away from the Fowey.

 

[Denniss]

Thanks,, I always wondered what was down there at Legare Anchorage, now I know. In the back of my mind with all the restrictions, I thought it might have been a galleon down there

 

[Au_Dreamers]

Interesting. Years ago Gary Gentile sued to have access as a diver to the ironclad Monitor, even though all access had been restricted. He said there's no way you can stop someone from looking at it. I am sketchy on the details, but I remember he won his case. I wonder if such precedent might apply here.

Haha That was my first thought reading the post. I believe Gentile won as it was a restriction on his, life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.

 

[Au_Dreamers]

Darren, this document: http://www.nps.gov/bisc/learn/management/upload/Supt-Compendium-Jan-2011.pdf
would seem to indicate that one couldn't (legally) get anywhere near the Fowey or the Legare Anchorage, in that the document specifies:

1) No anchoring
2) No swimming, diving, or snorkeling
3) No underwater viewing devices, including - face masks, glass bottom boats, glass bottom buckets, underwater cameras of any kind.

Combined with the fact that any boat even slowing down (let alone stopping) in the Legare Anchorage seems to attract attention of assorted government patrols would make it appear that one would have to indeed take the case to court and attempt to plead such that honest citizens simply wanting to look at their National Park artifacts have every right as citizens to do so.

I would suspect that, looking at the video above, they appear to have been very successful over the years (rightly or wrongly) at keeping folks away from the Fowey.

...land of the free...

OK it's cool, because I like history and shipwrecks.

Multiple incidences of divers, especially the narrator kneeling on the structure, touching coral.

An underwater museum?!!? That nobody but grubbermint people can visit? So how is this preserved "for the people"?

Hey American citizens we're spending thousands upon thousands of your tax dollars for a select few individuals that think history and shipwrecks are cool to go explore one but you can't and won't be able to, EVER!!

Ok so in the coming years how long before that deadeye deteriorates?

So did the federal grubbermint declassify this sovereign immune vessel? Or are they just confused?

"Legare Anchorage Shipwreck. This wooden British merchant vessel, named H.M.S. Fowey, wrecked in 1748. Her scattered remains are buried in Biscayne National Park. Owned by the U.S. Government, National Park Service. Listed in the National Register as part of an archeological district, this wreck is nationally significant."

NPS Archeology Program: Abandoned Shipwreck Act Guidelines

"National Park Service Signs Agreement with Great Britain to Protect 18th-Century Shipwreck"

"An 18th-century British warship that sank in 1748 near present-day Miami is now protected by the National Park Service under terms of an international memorandum."

National Park Service Signs Agreement with Great Britain to Protect 18th-Century Shipwreck - Biscayne National Park (U.S. National Park Service)

"...this wreck is nationally significant" How?