Posted by JRM on June 22, 2004 at 09:09:55:
In Reply to: Re: California Wreck Divers... posted by AADIVER on June 09, 2004 at 19:55:02:
How about you Frank,
Here's a photo of you stripping the chrome cleats off of a wrecked daysailer on the frontside of Catalina. Chrome cleats Frank! Not brass. Now, please tell me the display value of that.
My wife took this picture, it was her first and last dive with the CWD. I have taken a piece or three off some wrecks when I was diving with the CWD, but I stopped picking even before this shot was taken. Unfortunately, "there's nothing worse than a reformed smoker."
How about just plain guilty Frank.
Not all artifact collection and restoration is bad. Eventually the ocean will destroy all wrecks. But isn't it silly to completely destroy a bulkhead just to get a small brass pipe coupling? Let's have some restraint. There are some folks among the CWD that really do take the restoration and display part seriously. And some that don't pick at all. Too bad they get lost in the shuffle and overshadowed by the brass locusts.
JRM