Anyone with a family connection to gold on board the SS Pacific — a paddlewheeler that sank off the B.C. coast with the loss of at least 275 lives in 1875 — has a chance to stake their claim.
Last month, a U.S. company lodged papers in the United States District Court in Seattle stating it had located what it believes is the wreck of the Pacific at around 1,500 feet deep on the western edge of the Juan de Fuca Strait. By comparison, the Titanic sits at around 12,500 feet in the Atlantic Ocean.
https://www.timescol...ish-sea-6217946
Under maritime law, Rockfish has won court approval to salvage what it can from the wreckage, claiming it will be used to create a maritime museum in co-operation with the Northwest Shipwreck Alliance.
However, this was granted on the condition that the company acknowledge the law of finds, that entitles descendants of a person who carried gold on the ship to claim that gold.
The time a person has to make a claim is limited, and if the claim is granted by the court the claimant would have to pay Rockfish for recovering the gold.
An article in The Daily Mail states that anything recovered from the ship will have to be presented through the court system so that people can come forward and make their claim with proof.
Edited by Victoria Watcher, 08 December 2022 - 09:33 AM.