Salvor6 said:
This has been posted many times on Tnet but I'll post it again for the newbies. A chart that shows the leases betweek Queens Jewels LLC and JWI.
I wish to clarify an important point:
What we have with the Jupiter Shipwreck Site is an Up Held Federal Admiralty Arrest and Award by the U.S. Federal Courts of the Southern District. If you look closely at the chart printed you will see the word "agreement", where the Jupiter Shipwreck is mentioned. Our ownership rights to this shipwreck stem from the Federal Court Award based upon the merit and risks of our efforts to both research and recover this shipwreck site and educate the public about our historic maritime past, pro-actively since 1987.
For over 20 years, we have a unique "agreement" to work with the State of Florida and other agencies so we may jointly accomplish this objective, acting as a "bridging corporation" of sorts. Government in our county is not suppose to compete with free enterprise and the private sector. Government's role is to protect the general welfare of its people and to educate them as well. As of 1988. the role of accomplishing this objective within the three mile limit includes protecting cultural resources embedded in state lands . JWI and the State have agreed for over two decades to accomplish this "jointly" for the public benefit.
Hence the word agreement. Many folks and new comers on both sides of this issue don't understand this.
Again, We don't lease anything! We do have a "use agreement from DEP similar to any Dredge and Fill or beach nourishment project that allows us to move overburden so as to search for the remains of this shipwreck that has been awarded to us. These do have to be periodically renewed as this is an on-going research and recovery effort. "I"'s have to be dotted and "T"'s have to be crossed in a timely manner, by both sides. The Federal Government awarded the Shipwreck to JWI before passage of the Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1988 and thus we were grandfathered in. The State and we have agreed to work in
partnership {some people don't like that word} so as to protect the actual historic integrity of the site and prove that it is possible for private / public sector partnerships to work - still in America
I stand tall because for over two decades... and although I have taken a few"hits", I continue to believe in free enterprise and that government's purpose is to serve and protect the peoples' interests.
They work for us. We don't work for them.
This is no poke in the eye to government.
It is the way it is.
Capt Dom
