Treasure hunting is an expression which nowadays applies mainly to maritime salvage. Treasure hunters try to find sunken shipwrecks and retrieve artifacts with market value. This industry is generally fueled by the market of antiquities.
Professional organizations generally invest considerable effort to ensure that their treasure hunting is legal and hence is not looting. By definition, looters work illegally. Other treasure hunters may infringe national or international law concerned with property ownership, marine salvage, sovereign or state vessels, commercial diving regulations, protection of cultural heritage and control of trade in antiquities.
Treasure hunters tend to fall in one of three main groups:
1. small companies or individuals, working part time, in shallow waters
2. professional groups, sponsored by wealthy collectors, generally operating without any publicity
3. well-advertised companies, seeking money from investors and generally not excessively worried with profitability.
Since the late 1990s, reacting against increasingly energetic efforts by the international community to stop the destruction of the world submerged cultural heritage, treasure hunting companies started hiring archaeologists and marketing directors, making public statements about their good intentions. Treasure hunting activity, however, is primarily motivated by potential for profit. Even where good quality archaeological research is carried out by archaeologists working with treasure hunters, concerns remain that treasure hunting, by definition, ignores the principle that in-situ preservation of cultural heritage should always be considered first, and that the sale of recovered artifacts breaks up the assemblage of cultural heritage material, resulting in a loss of opportunity to study the whole picture. The counter argument is that professional salvors have the resources to fund archaeological research of sites that would otherwise be unrecorded, and be subject to destruction by looting or natural forces.
CaptainThe Captain or Master of a merchant vessel is a licensed mariner in ultimate command of the vessel.[1] A Ship's Captain, also called Shipmaster or Skipper, is responsible for its safe and efficient operation, including cargo operations, navigation, crew management and ensuring that the vessel complies with local and international laws, as well as company and flag state policies.
A Ship's Captain commands and manages all ship's personnel, and typically in charge of the ship's accounting, payrolls, and inventories. The Captain is responsible for compliance with immigration and customs regulations, maintaining the ship's certificates and documentation, compliance with the vessel's security plan, as mandated by the International Maritime Organization. The Captain is responsible for responding to and reporting in case of accidents and incidents, and in case of injuries and illness among the ship's crew and passengers.
Role Filled By: Archangel.ArcanisNavigatorA navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation. The navigator's primary responsibility is to be aware of ship or aircraft position at all times. Responsibilities include planning the journey, advising the Captain or aircraft Commander of estimated timing to destinations while en route, and ensuring hazards are avoided. The navigator is in charge of maintaining the aircraft or ship's nautical charts, nautical publications, and navigational equipment, and generally has responsibility for meteorological equipment and communications.
Role Filled by: ragincajun2288ArcheologistMaritime archaeology (also known as marine archaeology) is a discipline that studies human interaction with the sea, lakes and rivers through the study of vessels, shore side facilities, cargoes, human remains and submerged landscapes. One specialty is underwater archaeology, which studies the past through any submerged remains. Another specialty within maritime archaeology is nautical archaeology, which studies vessel construction and use.
Maritime archaeological sites usually result from shipwrecks or sometimes seismic catastrophes, and thus represent a moment in time rather than a slow deposition of material accumulated over a period of years. This fact has led to shipwrecks being described as time capsules.
Archaeological material in the sea or in other underwater environments is typically subject to different factors than artifacts on land. However, as with land archaeology what survives to be investigated by modern archaeologists is a tiny fraction of the material originally deposited. The issue in maritime archaeology is that despite all the material that is lost, there are occasional rare examples of substantial survival, from which a great deal can be learned.
There are those in the archaeology community who see maritime archaeology as a segregated discipline with its own concerns (such as shipwrecks) and requiring the specialized skills of the underwater archaeologist. Others value an integrated approach, stressing that nautical activity has economic and social links to communities on land.
Role Filled by: ...EngineerA Chief Engineer is a licensed mariner in charge of the engineering department on a merchant vessel. "Chief Engineer" is the official title of someone qualified to oversee the entire engine department; the qualification is colloquially called a "Chief's Ticket". Commercially, a Chief Engineer is the individual with overall responsibility for the engineering projects undertaken for or by a company.
Role Filled by: TarotdragoonShip's Doctor/SurgeonThe surgeon's duties included responsibility for his mates and loblolly boys, visiting patients at least twice a day, and keeping accurate records on each patient admitted to his care. The surgeon would take morning sick call at the mainmast, assisted by his mates, as well as tending to injured sailors during the day. During sea battles, the surgeon worked in the cockpit, a space permanently partitioned off near a hatchway down which the wounded could be carried for treatment. The deck was strewn with sand prior to battle to prevent the surgeon from slipping in the blood that accumulated.
In addition to caring for the sick and wounded, surgeons were responsible for regulating sanitary conditions on the ship. They fumigated the sick bay and sometimes whole decks by burning brimstone (sulfur), and maintained the ventilating machines that supplied fresh air to the lower decks to keep them dry.
Role Filled by: ...First MateA Chief Mate (C/M) or Chief Officer, usually also synonymous with the First Mate or First Officer (except on passenger liners, which often carry both), is a licensed member and head of the deck department of a merchant ship. The chief mate is customarily a watchstander and is in charge of the ship's cargo and deck crew.
The chief mate is responsible to the captain for the safety and security of the ship. Responsibilities include the crew's welfare and training in areas such as safety, firefighting, search and rescue. The Chief Mate is second in command on the ship.
Role Filled by: j0ltChief CookA Chief Cook (often shortened to Cook) is a senior unlicensed crewmember working in the Steward's department of a merchant ship.
The chief cook directs and participates in the preparation and serving of meals; determines timing and sequence of operations required to meet serving times; inspects galley and equipment for cleanliness and proper storage and preparation of food. The cook may plan or assist in planning meals and taking inventory of stores and equipment.
A chief cook's duties may overlap with those of the Steward's Assistant, the Chief Steward, and other Steward's Department crewmembers.
Role Filled by: ...Anyone else on the boat would basically be Deck Hands and such, being the grunts for these other positions.
