Originally posted by Soulyss
What brought about this policy on the Navy's part? What's their reasoning behind it?
Clive Cussler, Barrett Tillman, and a guy who does Pacific warbird archeological expeditions have written about this a number of times regarding ships and aircraft of historical significance that have been found but not salvaged.
In one instance, a salvager found a rare F3F Grumman biplane fighter nearly intact off the California coast. They contacted the Navy for permission to recover the plane but the Navy refused, citing the fact that the USN retains ownership no matter how long the equipment has been submerged. The Navy then sent a team of divers down to recover it themselves but because of conditions they had to abort.
Some time afterwards the Navy either sold or surrendered claim to the aircraft and the salvager went back to recover. When they got there, the aircraft had been entangled in fishing nets and nearly destroyed, making a recovery effort unprofitable. I'm not sure if they brought it up or not.
Cussler ran afoul of the Navy in his Hunley project (he was just interested in finding the sub; another group was going to bring it up). As mentioned before, the USN retains ownership of Confederate warships. The stickler was that there is some argument as to whether the Hunley was a true Confederate warship or a privately-funded ship crewed by Confederate sailors. The Navy was strongly interested in retaining ownership of the Hunley because of its historical value - it would be quite a feather in the Navy Museum's cap! IIRC, the matter went to court and it was determined that the Hunley was a private venture and therefore the USN had no claim. The Hunley is currently sitting in a laboratory in Charleston, S.C., and is available for viewing on weekends. When the archeological study is completed it will be placed on regular display.
The Navy's motivation for retaining ownership is many-fold, but the key factor is the historical significance. Mostly, the Navy is reluctant to give up something it might find useful down the road, such as the wreck of the USS Monitor, or the USS Yorktown, or the USS Arizona, or any of the various aircraft scattered around the oceans and swamps of the world. The Navy sees these things as resources, property that can be either sold or recovered (eventually) by Navy teams and placed in a Navy museum. Unfortunately, the Navy is in no hurry to go get them as they have other projects on the plate, such as drug interdiction and fighting the war on terrorism.
On the other hand, the Air Force realizes the significance of time, and that the longer something is left to rot, the less of it there will be to recover and restore. The Air Force knows it can get some free publicity every time a privately-restored Mustang shows up at an Air Show for a Heritage Flight. That's why the USAF is more than happy to surrender claim to an old airplane if the person asking for it can prove he/she has the resources to restore it and display it.
Most of the Corsairs flying around today were ones either purchased as hulks from the Navy or are aircraft that the USN sold to other governments and those governmenst sold at auction to private buyers. Or copied from other Corsairs undergoing restoration. You have a better chance at getting a Honduran Corsair than you do with a USN Corsair.
