whitedog333
40 Cal.
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2007
- Messages
- 124
- Reaction score
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Hi rod. it's important to emphasize that the recovery of the Arabia was NOT an arcaeological project. I believe that the state of Kansas mandated that the people doing the recovery employ an archaeologist for guidance. However, once the boat was uncovered and the artifacts were removed, they were under no further obligation to retain us or follow our recomendations. When it became obvious to them that we were slowing them down by insisting that precautions be taken to insure the integrity of the boat, cargo and the history of everything, they complained that we were costing them te and money because they had dozens of men on the payroll and the two dozen water pumps were burning fuel 24 / 7. Also, the team of salvagers were nothing but treasure hunters out to make a buck by selling what they could. The idea of retaining everything for a museum didn't occurs to them until much later. They thought that the boat and it's cargo of perishables was worthless and were looking for treasure in the form of gold, money, silver etc. The fact that the Arabia WAS the treasure never did and doesn't now occur to them. That is why they threw the deck planking back into the hole with the empty hull and buried it. They later thought of the museum and borroed money and built it to display the 10percent of the artifacts remaining and each of the four Holly's raked in 100,000 dollars each until Greg holly died recently in a car accident.