General Chat

What do you think of it? personally I think its disgraceful.

Hundreds of people are continuing to rummage through cargo from the stricken ship MSC Napoli despite police road blocks and warnings to stay away. Over the last two days scavengers have descended on the beach in Branscombe, Devon, taking away goods that included BMW motorbikes, wine and nappies.

Yeah I agree Roxanne-but it's apparently the law of the ocean. Been going on for centuries-pirates and all that. They reckon the people that got the bmw bikes will more than likely gonna get to keep em-cos who's gonna want a bike tha'ts been in the water. catherine xx

I keep chuckling to myslef as it reminds me of that film Whisky Galore...........lol However on a serious note its an act of theft and I sincerely hope they wise up and realise that what they are doing is wrong!! Of course there will be a few people who won't genuinely realise it's theft .

To be honest if i lived down there id be there with my trolley well loaded by now esp the nappies lol The law of the sea says that what ever is washed up by the tide is there for all to have - scavengers law i think its known as - if you pop over to e bay you can see no end of stuff on there already. The only part that is think is wrong is where they are going through crates of peoples personal belongings. There are crates of stuff that people have packaged up for sending home - obviously they are returning to england from aboard. Think that is a step too far.

Hi Catherine,I heard that too,he did actually report it first so I can accept that. I also heard about the rule of the sea thing too,but in this day and age it seems a bit much,dont you think?

Hi Debs,Yeah,Your right about that,you can see the humour in it:-)) Lorraine, Thats terrible, if their taking others personal property that is 100% theft.

yeah I agree Roxanne-Not like people need a BMW bike-and the vino. You can understand doing it for food and stuff. I sure wouldn';t mind a barrell of that vino though.lol. catherine xx

Apparently it was legal at first. people are 'allowed' to take salvage like that as long as they have a form from the police filled in to say they have taken it. But now it is not legal because the insurance company have 'reclaimed' it so it belongs to them. So anyone taking stuff now is breaking the law. The reason it should be declared of course is that duty should be paid on it. However, places on the coast have always abided by the law of slavage. i agree that it is not nice that they are going through private belongings though. Ann Glos

The goods still belong to the owners, whether they are washed up on the beach, or still in the stricken ship. People may 'salvage' them but are legally required to fill in a form and keep them until (or if) they are reunited with the owner. This is all detailed on BBC website. Personally I don't mind people taking what's there - it has to be cleaned up anyway - but don't agree with deliberately breaking open containers or getting in the way of official salvage operations. Perhaps these people may like to come back when all the 'interesting' stuff has gone and help clean up the mess caused by the pollutants? Also, how is anyone going to sell a motorbike - regardless of whether or not its been in the water, they have no proof of ownership!

l'm sure no one will have a prob selling the stuff they have gathered - either on ebay or to friends. The barrells (l think) were empty or so they said on breakie TV this morning. Don't think l personally would/could do that, l'd be too scared that someone would find me:o((( The mess is awful and yes they should all be made to go back and clean up - their faces are on the news so they know who they are!! jude sarf wales:o)

This really makes me cringe. Amazing how people behave in some situations. The word primal comes to mind.

I, too, think it is diagraceful. Tina x

I believe that the law of salvage is that you hand the items back to the legal owners via the Receiver for Wrecks and in return are compensated for your efforts. What is going on down there is simple theft of property belonging to others.

I have this vision of every car boot in the land tomorrow selling food and other stuff.....eeeuuurgh. Many of those people were not locals, judging by their accents, and looked like professional scavengers to me. OC

On the radio they said there is already stuff on e-bay from the wreck !!!!!!!!!!! Lin x

Ive heard that one swedish woman has lost everything she owned,thats just awful.

I find it quite nauseating. Even the word 'scavengers' has a horrible ring to it. I could understand it if people were starving or desperately in need, but not this. BC

Looting is the word that comes to mind... OC

Thanks for that, Joan, it's a totally different meaning to the word. isn't it? I have always imagined vultures, or buzzards, waiting to swoop. From now on I shall see instead, a kindly bin collector, just doing his job:-) The others I will call what OC has said...Looters.. BC XX