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Hudson River Shipwrecks Secretly Mapped
jonerik writes "According to this article in the New York Times (registration required) more than 200 shipwreck sites lying beneath New York's Hudson River have been mapped by sonar. In fact, scientists feel confident that the location of every Hudson shipwreck between Manhattan and Troy has now been pinpointed, adding that the nearly oxygen-free mud of the Hudson nearly guarantees that many of the wrecks and their contents are almost perfectly preserved. The hitch? For the time being the maps - paid for as part of the $186 million Hudson River Estuary Plan - are not being published since state officials are nervous about the prospect of so many shipwrecks suddenly being opened up to salvagers on one of the U.S.'s busiest rivers. 'We don't want to ring the dinner bell for people who have ulterior motives and don't behave responsibly,' says Mark L. Peckham, a historic preservation coordinator at the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. In the meantime, state officials are now attempting to determine the historical significance of the wrecks and how they might be protected, which should hopefully lead to the publication of the Hudson River maps at some future date."
they don't want to publish the areas of the shipwrecks, but anyone with the money or power to go dig up ships has some ethics in them.
also, who is to say these ships now 'belong' to the state of NY ? i never understood that, it should be finders keepers.
Runnin' On Empty
The government should make the bottom of the river a national park. This would ensure that the ships are preserved as long as our country. Imagine if the Greeks or Egyptians had done this.
It's a serious disappointment that society has arrived (not recently) at a state where truly worthwhile information is rightfully withheld because we, as humans, can't treat things with respect.
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Inventor of the term 'pardon my French'.
Any sort of technology that is available to the upper echelon eventually trickles its way down to the common person wishing to use it for "ulterior motives."
I should think that a more prudent way of handling this project would have been to map all of the ships, catalogue them, survey them individually (with divers, remote subs, or the like), and only then proclaim a successful project. At the same time, you could publish the maps without a problem.
To announce to the world that you have maps simply invites people to use whatever means at their disposal to procure them--social engineering, hacking at computers storing the maps, or good old-fashioned information leaks.
The insurance companies may have standing to intercept any salvage operation of the wrecks.
Once the insurance company pays out the claim they own the ship and cargo. If a salver raises the ship or cargo then the insurance company can collect on the find.
I think that from a historical significance perspective, this is not a Bad Thing(tm). Allow the museums etc first shot at those wrecks of historical interest before the vultures descend.
this is getting old and so are you
blog
1) Map Bottom of Hudson River Don't release information to the Public
2) Give "rights to salvage" to political contributors
3) Profit
The Titanic was/is in international waters. The Hudson is in NY state. BIG jurisdictional difference.
Not sure what the right answer to this is, but keeping it under wraps for the time being seems to be the wise course of action.
Jon
Bah. This is just another case of a government made up of people, not trusting the people that pay it's bills.
Rediculious.
"Thoughts are more powerful than any weapon, and I don't even let my people own guns." --Joseph Stalin
There are other solutions to this than to simply hope nobody leaks the maps, which is what they're doing (actually, what they're doing is akin to telling people you have $10,000 buried in a can somewhere in your nice garden, but you won't tell them where. Tomorrow the garden will be gone...)
For instance, they could provide the information, along with notices that disturbing the PCB laden sediment is hazardous, as well as illegal. Then go and actually bust the people who decide it was worth the risk (use the map data to see where to catch them)
In the end, I suppose the decision has to be made based on whether the government thinks it can beat back the blithering idiot masses who don't care.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
Sorry, you're too late. The people with ulterior motives who don't behave responsibly have already been elected, and were the ones that directed the study to be done. They now have the information, and aren't giving it to the rest of us.
Pound! Bang! Bin! Bash! is this a shell script or a Batman comic?