Is NOAA lying about shipwrecks?

[Darren in NC]

Interesting article from NOAA News website...

NOAA team discovers two vessels from WWII convoy battle off North Carolina

Edit: No, they are not lying. I can't seem to change the title to the thread. I jumped the gun, and thought I was looking at an AWOIS database. It wasn't, and I didn't realize the coords had two zeroes at the end. That usually means the coords were reported in a general area, but never actually found or confirmed. Thanks to SeekerGH, he pointed out my oversight.

 

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[seekerGH]

The newly identified wrecks are protected under international law.

I dont think it is about discovery, but identity.

 

[seekerGH]

I understand. The press has always been a bit challenged in these regards.

In reading the article together, at least to me, it seems that they were going over archival material, hence they knew of a wrecksite, and now futher dives by the Okeanos Explorer have been able to determine ID.

In the ID, it begins to tell more of a story than just a shipwreck location.

Very interesting blurb at the end from the Germans and sovereign immunity.

“In legal succession to the former German Reich, the Federal Republic of Germany, as a rule, sees itself as the owner of formally Reich-owned military assets, such as ship or aircraft wreckages,” said the German Foreign Office in a statement. “The Federal Republic of Germany is not interested in a recovery of the remnants of the U-576 and will not participate in any such project. It is international custom to view the wreckage of land, sea, and air vehicles assumed or presumed to hold the remains of fallen soldiers as war graves. As such, they are under special protection and should, if possible, remain at their site and location to allow the dead to rest in peace.”

United States policy on sunken state vessels, such as these, reaffirms sovereign government ownership of the wrecks, including German ownership of U-576. As stated in the 2001 Presidential Statement on United States Policy for the Protection of Sunken State Craft the wrecks are not considered abandoned nor does passage of time change their ownership.

 

[Darren in NC]

Very interesting blurb at the end from the Germans and sovereign immunity.

I agree it should be respected. I do have a problem with calling wrecks a war grave. That's a different rant, though. ;-)

 

[seekerGH]

I agree with your comments, but as NOAA is a huge government organisation, there would certainly be a disconnect between the actual field work, and their press corps.

Not sure of your database, but there are many instances of wreck locations that are simply from the war records, and have not actually been located. In the internet search for U-576, I see there were attempts to locate the wreck, albeit unsuccessful, in 2013. For example: "unsuccessful attempt to locate the sunken vessel off Cape Hatteras was documented in the National Geographic TV documentary, Hitler's Secret Attack on America (2013)"

It is far better for a government agency to 'discover' something, than to just ID the wreck. It looks like there was dialog with the Germans, (which on the surface does not look that friendly) so one can be certain that was not just an email back and forth.

I really dont think they are hiding or lying about anything, but simply touting work by the Okeanos Explorer program (for funding?)

 

[Darren in NC]

Wise man, seeker...wise man. As a researcher, I should have caught that. I thought my source was AWOIS, but it was a similar declassified database. There are double zeros at the end of each coord for both wrecks - a classic sign of reported (but unconfirmed) locations. I jumped the gun on this one. Thanks for hanging in there with me and playing it cool. I'll see if I can change the title to this post and edit my responses accordingly. Well done.

 

[seekerGH]

No worries Darren...it is great to have spirited conversations in these matters, and add to the research. It would be best to leave it all stand, so that it all can be used as key details and potential pitfalls in research database material.

Cheers

 

[seekerGH]

Just so you know, if you really want to edit the title, when you select edit post, select go advanced..in that mode, you can edit the title.