It isn't often that the king of Spain winds up in the Supreme Court of the United States, but his majesty is there now. His kingdom is the respondent in a case involving two ships that long ago belonged to the Spanish navy. The Commonwealth of Virginia has them now. Spain would like to have what is left of them back.
This is the seafaring story as told by J. Harvie Wilkinson, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit.
"La Galga (The Greyhound) was a 50-gun frigate commissioned into the Spanish navy in 1732. It left Havana on its last voyage on Aug. 18, 1750, in order to escort a convoy of merchant ships to Spain. On Aug. 25, 1750, the convoy encountered a hurricane near Bermuda that scattered the ships and forced them westward toward the American coast. "La Galga eventually sank off the coast of the Maryland/Virginia border. . . . La Galga remained undisturbed for the next 245 years.
"The Juno, a 34-gun frigate, entered the service of the Spanish navy in 1790. On Jan. 15, 1802, it set sail from Veracruz bound for Spain. The Juno was beset by a ferocious storm and began taking on water. It encountered the American schooner La Favorita. The two ships sailed together trying to reach an American port before Juno succumbed to her leaks. As Juno continued to take on water, the captain ordered his passengers and crew to begin transferring to La Favorita. But only seven persons were able to transfer before the storm picked up and Juno was lost in a heavy fog. La Favorita could come close enough only to hear the anguished cries for help as Juno went under. At least 413 sailors, soldiers and civilians perished."
The chronicle leaps ahead to 1987, when Congress adopted the Abandoned Shipwreck Act. The act gives states title to shipwrecks that are "abandoned" and are embedded in the submerged lands of a state. The question here — as it is so often the question in the Supreme Court — is a question of definition. What is required to prove that a wrecked ship has been "abandoned"?
Sea Hunt Inc., a maritime salvage operation, spent about $1 million on remote sensing, diving and identification operations and found what it felt certain were the remains of La Galga and Juno.
In response, Spain filed a claim, backed by the U.S. government, that the kingdom "was and still is the true and bona fide owner of the vessels Juno and La Galga." They have never been "abandoned."
The 4th Circuit sided with the king. Judge Wilkinson ruled that as sovereign vessels, both wrecks are covered by a 1902 Treaty of Friendship and General Relations between the United States and Spain.
On the key issue of "abandonment," the lower federal courts are divided.
The question will become of increasing importance as sophisticated salvage devices probe the bottom of the seas. The admiralty questions are over my head, but I hear the piteous cries of the doomed sailors 250 years ago, and I want to know how the story ends.
Universal Press Syndicate