Nantucket Lightship - Part III Politics and Deception

Several experienced technical divers that were diving under the sanction of the prestigious Boston Sea Rovers were branded scavengers, grave-robbers and thieves for discovering, exploring and retrieving items from the wreck site of Nantucket Lightship 117 by the world media. Federal prosecutors were seeking suits, and potentially arrest, for anyone involved with desecrating the wreck. How can such a prestigious diving organization and well-known deep divers be so branded and vilified? How can these divers be sued by the federal government under threat of arrest? Unfortunately, this is where the "media" story ends and the real story begins.
In the fall of 1999, our story starts with the founding of the United States Coast Guard Lightship Sailors Association (LSA) and the installment of Doug Bingham as their official historian. Unlike many in the group that were former Coast Guard members, Mr. Bingham was former Navy and his appointment was quite controversial.  Through Mr. Bingham's association as a member of the Board of Trustees at the Marine Museum at Fall River, Massachusetts, he met with a group from the Boston Sea Rovers. After their meeting there were several discussions about ships and the Nantucket Lightship. These meeting were then replaced with a stronger bond and collaboration about sharing a common belief that the world should know the true and complete story of the Lightship and its tragic encounter with RMS Olympic in 1934. The only way that this objective could be met was by finding the Lightship and diving down to the bottom of the ocean, nearly 200 feet, to where the Lightship lies.  Mr. Bingham was very active in promoting the LSA Association and was doing his best to preserve the memory and dignity of the ship and crew members of Lightship 117. From the Boston Sea Rovers perspective, this was a great relationship with the LSA that would enable people to remember the Lightship in perpetuity. Working collaboratively with Mr Bingham, the diving group was able to discover the wreck site, explore its remains, definitively ascertain the collision and sinking, and to bring up items from the ship that were to be used in various museums to promote and preserve the legacy of this historic Lightship. From Mr. Bingham's perspective, he was doing a very valuable and noble thing for the LSA, the public and most notably,  bringing closure to the surviving family members of the crew of Lightship 117 . However, despite the success of this venture, the LSA organization was not very happy with Mr. Bingham's association with the divers and were equally upset about the thought of divers visiting a wreck site of their fallen colleagues. When items were recovered by the divers to place in museums, the LSA took unprecedented actions by removing Mr. Bingham from the LSA and contacting federal prosecutors. The divers and Mr. Bingham were totally blindsided by this action; as they all had thought these activities were sanctioned, promoted and endorsed by the LSA. Initially, the LSA's official website had even touted the recovery as a wonderful thing and placed photographs of the recovered items on their front page. However, sometime soon afterward, the tide had changed and Mr. Bingham was ousted, the Boston Sea Rovers' name was globally-smeared and the divers, under duress and immediate orders from the federal government, surrendered the recovered items to the Coast Guard in Cape May, New Jersey. In the last of our 4-part series, we will explore the aftermath of this latest Lightship catastrophe..........