Hundreds of people have been removing timber washed up on to beaches in Kent despite warnings to stay away. Large amounts of wood washed ashore on the coastline around Ramsgate and Margate after the Russian-registered Sinegorsk shed its load, off Sussex.
Police, coastguards and the local authority warned scavengers to stay away for their own safety and to allow the official clean-up to take place.
But a constant stream of people braved pouring rain to remove loads of wood.
One told the BBC he did not know what he would do with the timber but it was "too good an opportunity to miss". Another said he would clad an outbuilding if he could take away enough, otherwise he would build a tree house for his children.
Anxiously awaiting our resident Bored Borg to comment on yet another example of nanny-statism run amok. Not quite as bad as the outrage at people *gasp* taking their kids out onto the ice on frozen ponds, but close.
Not sure that is true. Maritime salvage rules and right of recovery are a pretty strange set of laws.
BTW, my comment previously was not intended to advocate theft but was aimed at the published "public safety" reason given for people to not pick up that wood.
It is call Flotsam and probably "pure salvage" by definition. Salvage laws will cover that. The property must be in peril, the services must be rendered voluntarily (no duty to act), and finally the salvage must be successful in whole or in part.
It may even be condoned as cleaning up an environmental hazard. The cargo will be covered by insurance and even if recovered will not be sold to the original customer since it is damaged.
Veering off tangentially o the original subject; Many years ago I was wreck diving off the New Jersey coast and went inside a small ship that contained thousands of wooden beams and timbers. My goal then was to catch lobsters and look for junk to bring back home. The ship had been down for more than 40 years and was in about 90 to 110 feet. I caught two lobsters in a hold that contained the beams and when I steamed them at home the kitchen smelled of creosote. My guess is that the "bugs" (our affectionate term for lobsters) were survivnig amongst construction timbers preserved with crosote and incorporating some of the chemical(s) in thier tissues. Never did eat those two bugs. Marc
According to CNN.com, the law says individuals can take the wood, but must document exactly what they have taken and must not use or alter the wood for one year in case there is a claim by the owner. The video on CNN.com showed people sawing the wood up so it would fit into their small euro cars (guess there are not a lot of pickup trucks like here in TX).
Since the wood is waterlogged, I guess stack and sticker for a year is a pretty good idea.
On Sun, 25 Jan 2009 01:34:06 +0000, Mark & Juanita wrote (in article ):
Well, in this case I'm with the authorities. The timber was not jettisoned or discarded as "no longer required". It was lost in a big wet car-crash. It is still very clearly the properties of the shipping company until all insurance matters have been settled and its removal is equally clearly theft.
The safety issue is a red herring chucked in by the Gestapo/Politbureau and their propoganda machine. IF the wood had been dumpage or jetsam then I'm sure they would probably still issue daft warnings just because the state here enjoys controlling people as much as possible but I'm positive it's not from a standpoint of public safety (If the authorities cared a jot about public safety they would prosecute drivers for speeding all over the sidewalks outside schools, for example.)
No, the control is for its own sake and also because the wealthy property owner always and automatically seems to warrant state/police protection in direct proportion to the difference in their wealth between anyone else in the equation. Legal judgments often overturn this balance (well, sometimes) but the default position is definitely "protect the rich from everybody else."
It's a crying shame that all the damn timber which is not looted will probably end up wasted anyway.. rotted and waterlogged, lost out to sea again or otherwise rendered useless so irrespective of the legal position it's heartwarming to see some of it being put to good use. Unfortunately I suspect that much of what is being removed is being removed for resale rather than for direct use - there are reports of lorry loads being taken away. I wonder what will become of _those_?
What is more interesting is that no-one is being stopped from removing anything, just criticized, so the police, as usual, are "doing things" but only on paper. What is needed is for volunteers, or volunteers contracted to be paid later, to get everything up above the high water mark and, ideally, under cover so that losses can be minimized. The local authorities of each flotsam area should be organising this immediately. Ultimately they will have clear beaches in time for the tourist season so why not do it now when it can do some good? Maybe even a good bit of exercise for the military and local conservation groups to help out with the manpower.
Of course this will NOT happen. All the wood will be rendered useless or lost and then insurance premiums - and therefor future shipping costs - will rise. Ultimately the cost will be borne by the end consumer who picks up wood from his local timber merchants and finds the price has rocketed in because it has factored into it the cost of the previous lost shipment.
Looks like construction grade lumber. Soaked in salt water. I'd think the parties involved would be happy that people cart the stuff away and avoid cost of cleanup. Salvage value will be about nothing once the wood dries out.
Reminds me of a couple shacks that I saw built from driftwood lumber off the beach. Every board was warped and you could see into the shack between the boards. It had a nice, weathered grey color though.
Wonder if the salt would be bad or good. Good - fungus won't grow... Hum - might be reasonable after all !
When overseas - south Pacific - we had a Typhoon bring in a tall mast. It was 70 or so feet tall. Likely a mast that was let go after a break - maybe in a sailing race...
It was full of worms. But was nice. The wood shop required customer blades, not their own - to cut it - and new planer blades.
The sea shell was hard on the cutting edge. But wow was that wood beautiful in furniture. I think I'd have to get M42 steel cutting blade to re-saw it on my bandsaw.
Maritime salvage laws are not necessarily obvious. The removal of such lumber from the beach by the public may or may not be theft. I'd defer to a salvage expert before making a judgment.
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