Flagging the SS Ozama as an American Vessel

 

U.S. House & Senate Records re: Steamship Ozama

U.S. House of Representatives re: SS Ozama


Report on the Steamship Ozama by the U.S. House of Representatives

Report on the proposed registration of the salvaged British steamer Craigallion as the American steamship Ozama.

 

 

Page 2 of Report on the Steamship Ozama by the U.S. House of Representatives

Page 2 of Report on the Steamship Ozama by the U.S. House of Representatives

 

 

Page 3 of Report on the Steamship Ozama by the U.S. House of Representatives

Source: Index to the Reports of Committees of the House of Representatives for the First Session of the Forty-Ninth Congress, 1885-’86. In Twelve Volumes. (Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, USA), 1886, Report #669, pp. 1-3

U.S. Senate re: SS Ozama

 These documents certainly exist, but have not yet been located.

U.S. Senate & House of Representatives re: SS Ozama


An act to provide for an American register for the steamship Ozama

An act to provide for an American register for the steamship Ozama

Source: The Statutes at Large of the United States of America, from December, 1885, to March, 1887, and Recent Treaties, Postal Conventions, and Presidential Proclamations, (Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, USA), Volume 24, 1887, p. 5

U.S. Treasury Records re: SS Ozama


Registration of steamship Ozama (as per Treasury Department)

Registration of steamship Ozama (as per U.S. Treasury Department)

Source: Synopsis of the Decisions of the Treasury Department on the Construction of the Tariff, Navigation, and Other Laws, for the Year Ending December 31, 1886, (Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, USA), 1887, p. 133

Refund of Tonnage Duties


Because the Craigallion was ultimately determined to be American property (under the law of salvage), the tonnage duties, which had been paid on her, when she was brought into Baltimore, were ultimately refunded.

“To refund to the Baltimore Storage and Lighterage Company amount collected from said company by the collector of customs at Baltimore September fifteenth eighteen hundred and eighty five as tonnage dues on the British steamship Craigallion and covered into the Treasury said due having since been remitted by the Secretary of the Treasury six hundred and twenty four dollars.”

Source: Statutes of the United States of America passed at the First Session of the Forty-Ninth Congress, 1885-1886, and Recent treaties and Executive Proclamations, (Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, USA), 1886, p. 261

More on the SS Ozama, Ex-Craigallion

Information on: Discovery of the Ozama
Information on: Construction & physical details
Information on: Steam engine and machinery
Information on: Towing history
Information on: Smuggling guns
Information on: Seizure & release
Information on: Miscellaneous Voyages
Information on: Wrecked in the Bahamas
Information on: Re-flagging as American steamship
Information on: Wrecked off Cape Romain, SC
Information on: The shipwreck as it is today
(private not currently available to general public)
Information on: Shipping money
(private not currently available to general public)

Image Files Relating to Shipwreck Ozama

Images: Sidescan images of Ozama wreck site
Images: Photos of artifacts found on the Ozama
(private not currently available to general public)
Images: Photos of people and work in progress
(private not currently available to general public)
Images: Maps & charts relating to Ozama’s history
(private not currently available to general public)
Images: Archaeological and technical drawings
(private not currently available to general public)

Ownership of Salvaged Gold & Artifacts

The above posts all deal with the steamer Ozama, which was shipwrecked off Cape Romain, South Carolina in 1894 and discovered and identified by underwater archaeologist Dr. E. Lee Spence in 1979 and 2013 respectively. He also discovered other abandoned wreckage in the same general vicinity. In 2012, the Federal District Court ruled that Spence was the “true and exclusive owner of the abandoned wreckage” (which includes the Ozama and all of the other shipwrecks that he had found in the specific area designated in his court filing), which means he is already the legal owner of any and all shipwreck gold, silver, cannons, hulls, engines, rigging, and other artifacts on those wrecks. To learn more about shipwrecks in general, check out Spence’s page on Facebook.


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