Klein v. Unidentified, Wrecked & Abandoned Sailing Vessel

FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

ATKINS, District Judge.

THIS CAUSE was heard without a jury to confirm title in and possession of án “unidentified, wrecked and abandoned sailing vessel” discovered by the original plaintiff, Gerald Joseph Klein, 1 in the summer of 1978. The plaintiff seeks, in the alternative, a full and liberal salvage award. The United States intervened as a claimant to the wreck after an examination of the coordinates revealed that the abandoned vessel lay not only within the three mile territorial limit but also rested in submerged government property within the…