DeVilbiss Joins Glosten
Glosten announced the hiring of David DeVilbiss, who will join Glosten’s Marine Construction group as a Senior Marine Consultant.Formerly Vice President of Marine Casualty & Emergency Response at Global Diving & Salvage, Inc., DeVilbiss oversaw all marine casualty and emergency response operations throughout all operating regions. He brings over 25 years of marine industry experience ranging from vessels, marine infrastructure, and the oil and gas industry.DeVilbiss attended Le Tourneau University (Mechanical Engineering)…
ASA hosts Response Training for Houston Authorities
More than 40 U.S. Coast Guard, State of Texas, maritime industry and local emergency responders attended the American Salvage Association’s (ASA) Marine Salvage and Emergency Response training course last month in the Houston-Galveston area presented by the ASA Training Committee. Designed to train students on how to coordinate proactive marine casualty response operations, this two-day program exposed students to a wide variety of course modules led by ASA members and industry experts in salvage law, naval architecture, commercial diving, environmental policy, and emergency response operations. “Since 2003, the ASA has presented a number of Marine Salvage courses every year to Federal…
Salvage & Recovery: Treasure and Artifacts
The recent dispute between Odyssey Marine Exploration and the Kingdom of Spain over the treasure and artifacts Odyssey recovered from the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes has recently been given considerable coverage in the popular press as well as in the maritime press. This has probably reinforced the belief of some people that marine salvage, by definition, is the recovery of sunken treasure. Actually, of course, that is only a small component of marine salvage. It has nonetheless…
Salvage Law: Limitation of Shipowner’s Liability
In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon casualty there have been a number of proposals put before Congress for new legislation or amendments to existing legislation affecting vessel owners and operators. Many of these relate to liability for damages sustained as a result of the casualty or the oil spill that followed. Perhaps the oldest legislation to which amendment and / or appeal is being sought is a statute passed in 1851 to provide vessel owners with limited liability in respect claims brought against them in certain circumstances involving, amongst other things, marine casualties.
Court Rules on Salvage v. Finds
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that the law of salvage rather than the law of finds applies to the on-going work related to the wreck of the RMS TITANIC. The court also overturned the lower court’s actions regarding certain artifacts that had been retrieved and taken to France in 1987, ruling that the court had no in rem jurisdiction over those artifacts. The decision includes a lengthy comparison of the law of salvage and the law of finds. The case was remanded to the trial court with instructions to apply the principles of traditional salvage law to the wreck of the TITANIC in a manner that serves either the owner or, absent an owner, the public interest and at the same time provides an appropriate award to the salvor. RMS Titanic, Inc.
