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| Issue 2001/ 5 |
| Heritage on the bottom of
the sea
Ausra Kalinauskiene
Aswedish – Lorel, Andre and Bengt Griezels – is the crew of a
ship ALTAIR of Stockholm Royal Technological Institute and together with Klaipeda
underwater archeologists and divers they sailed in Lithuanian territorial waters.
Following the program of the search of the sunken vessels, which is financed by the
Swedish institute, this group has already been to all Baltic States and located the sunken
vessels in their territorial waters.
The most significant and joyful find was a Swedish navy ship Kromung,
which had sunk 300 years ago. When the ship Vaza was removed from the bottom and
when the ship Kromung was found with the biggest coin treasure and 120 guns, the
pirates-divers just flooded the sea with the aim to rob but not to look for historical
heritage. Therefore the aim of our expedition in the Baltic Sea was to attract attention
of the governments of the States at the Baltic Sea and to declare the necessity to
safeguard the historical assets on the bottom of the sea from the possible damage, says
the captain Bengt Griezel. Every year about 100 thousand divers, who damage historical
monuments, go for underwater search during the diving season. The similar situation is in
Germany and the Kaliningrad region. We think that this may happen in your country too when
the borders are lifted after you join the EU. Thus, it is necessary to register the
vessels lying on the bottom of the sea and to promulgate the laws to safeguard them.
“Very often those, who declare Lithuania to be a marine state, do not
realize what it means. In reality it is not only the present state of the port and fleet,
but history as well where we look for footprints and find them on the bottom of the sea.
We have gathered material about the sunken ships in the territorial waters of Lithuania
from XIV to XX centuries. In some cases we used the information from the chronicles, in
others – from the old charts with certain coordinates indicated on them. But such data
are not precise enough and are to be checked, the ships indicated on the papers are to be
located accurately, and their value – historical and material – determined.”
The sunken ships of XVII-XVIII centuries are included into the
registers of the monuments to be protected.
The memorials are the vessels, which sank during the wars. An example
of such might be the sunken ship Saulys near Klaipeda, which in 1944 was fired by
Russian artillery and 240 civil and military officers perished. It is very much important
to find such places and to fix them. In spite of nationalities and circumstances it is
important to everybody…
“The Convention on protection of the underwater heritage objects is
being prepared now”, says archeologist professor Vladas Zulkus. “So far there are no
laws regulating the protection of such objects and state policy for safeguarding them,
therefore we cannot be sure of their future. The historical objects on land are realized
better: it is easier to show 800-900 mounds… than to point on a chart and say: here is a
sunken Viking ship of XVII century… Partially it is so due to the fact that up till now
there have been no funds allotted for underwater investigations and 75 objects fixed by
historical sources have not been investigated or cleared up. We will be able to obtain
more or less precise data only about two ships of XVII century lying on the bottom of the
sea near Sventoji and Palanga.”
The search group of the sunken underwater heritage of Swedish Stockholm
Royal Technological Institute together with professor Vladas Zulkus divers’ team in two
weeks managed to clear up and locate several more ships lying on the bottom of the sea.
Will there any funds be allotted for the next expedition? It depends to
what extent our country is considered as a marine state in the context of other marine
states of the EU. For us it would be a step forward to a possibility to safeguard the
underwater objects of the cultural heritage.
Peculiarities of arresting ships in Lithuania
By advocate Vytas Ramanauskas
Since our Country gained its independence in 1991 the legal system
is constantly being reorganized. New laws are adopted and some of the International
Conventions become an integral part of the National law. On 12 September 1996 the Law of
Merchant Shipping of the Republic of Lithuania was adopted. The new Civil Code came into
force on 1 July 2001 and the new Civil Procedural Code has been drafted and preliminary
approved by the Seym. However there are no special laws presently in force exclusively
related to arrest of the sea-going vessels. Therefore the same laws apply in arresting a
ship or a car in Lithuania. The specialist of Water Transport Department of Ministry of
Communications of Lithuania have arranged translation and are ready to present to the Seym
for ratification The International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules
Relating to the Arrest of Sea-going Ships, Brussels, 1952 (The Arrest Convention). Many
States signed the new Arrest Convention in 1999, but because it has not come into force
internationally yet, in Lithuania it was decided to join the Arrest Convention of 1952.
There may be a hope that it will be ratified in a few months and will become a part of the
National Law of the Republic of Lithuania. It should become then much easier to secure and
enforce the maritime claims in Lithuania.
The Arrest Convention leaves for the National Laws to solve
questions of the procedure. At present the Civil Procedural Code leaves very few
possibilities for making arrest of the ship before commencing the suite on the merits and
paying the stamp duty amounting to 5 per cent of the amount claimed. The laws on Court’s
jurisdiction over a civil case presently in force do not make it possible to commence a
suite and arrest the ship if no of the parties involved reside in Lithuania. The ship also
can not be arrested if she is owned by a party residing in the State with which Lithuania
has Treaty for Legal Assistance in Civil and Criminal Matters. For instance, if the owner
of the ship flying the flag of Russian Federation does not pay to the Shiprepair Yard in
Klaipeda for the services performed and the relevant Contract does not have jurisdiction
Clause, generally the suite can not be commenced in Lithuania and the ship can not be
arrested for security of the claim purpose. The Treaty for legal assistance between
Russian Federation and
Lithuania provides that their Nationals can be sued at
the Courts of the State where the Defendant has residence. The exception from this rule
is, if the parties of the Contract have agreed to subject themselves to the Courts of a
particular State. If the Parties agree that the disputes are to be solved by the Courts or
Arbitration of the State other than Lithuania, the Ship arrest of the ship in Lithuania
also is impossible. If the Lithuanian Courts have no jurisdiction over the case on the
merits it is almost impossible to arrest the ship by Lithuanian Court for the reason of
obtaining security.
Merely the purpose of the Arrest Convention is to facilitate the arrest
of the ships in respect of the maritime claims for obtaining security and often
establishing jurisdiction over the case by the Court of the State where the arrest was
made. Therefore if the Arrest Convention is ratified later than the new Civil Procedural
Code comes into force, the present problematic issues of the ship arrest in Lithuania will
remain unsolved. Therefore it is important that the whole shipping community of Lithuania
would more actively solicit the needs for ratifying the Arrest Convention and adopting
relevant laws of the civil procedure so that the rules of the ship arrest in Lithuania
reflect the international practice. |
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