Underwater Treasure Search Central: Proof, Regulations, Techniques, Problems, and Tool Sources, Plus Extra: H.M.S. Victory

Proof, Regulations, Techniques, Problems And Tool Sources
You sometimes have to identify a ship. And it has to be positive proof, like no-one-can-doubt-it's-this-ship proof! This is especially important when you want to dig up a ship but need permission from the government that once owned the ship.
Cannons can be a big help. Certain line ships from the 1700s carried certain cannons.  The dates on cannons can help narrow it down, as well as other markings, like a picture of the flag the ship once sailed under. And certain sizes can prove whether or not it was this ship or another, as well as what the ship was made of. If it's copper, you get a special discovery either way, because copper doesn't corrode as well or fast as iron, even in saltwater!!!
Then you have to prep to dig stuff up. This can be done while waiting for government permission when you're absolutely sure its this or that ship, and maybe even have sent proof. Making a special picture mosaic is one thing, and setting up a positioning system that uses the exchanges of sound waves between the R.O.V. and certain transmitters (which can narrow down the location of an artifact down to inches) are some ways of doing this.
HOWEVER, when you're still on the unsure whether or not if you're digging, even if you're getting even more absolute proof, you have to stop when you find human remains! Oh, it can happen... sometimes the ship went down so fast, there was no chance to escape. Then you have to completely pull the plug, and stop disturbing the site until you get permission from the government... and you've got to let the same government know about the discovery of human remains. Now, doing non-disturbing actions (like photo mosaic) can be okay... but you have to be very careful until you get permission.
Different artifacts require different techniques and tools for bringing up... even if they're similar artifacts! Take cannons, for example! You could bring a 12-pounder (named for the weight of the cannonballs it fired) up using one technique, but a 42-pounder, since it's much bigger and heavier, requires a different technique. The tools can be similar, but the technique may differ hugely.
And different things can make problems. These different techniques may be one. If something goes wrong, problems may arise, and the possiblity (sp?) of people getting hurt may rise. And sometimes it's problems with the engine that causes trouble with your mission. Loss of power, or power production, may be one thing, since you might need it for your thruster system, which keeps you in place while the R.O.V. is working. That is a major prob. And fires can happen on ships, so you have to be careful... even just smoke can indicate a problem, even when there's no fire with it. So you have to very careful while on these missions, and it's not just when you're digging or dealing with the underwater shipwreck site!
I've mentioned making your own tools before. However, sometimes you have to go back to the mainland to get your tool. Sometimes you need a more powerful version of a device you already have. One situation that may require this can happen when bringing up very heavy artifacts, like cannons, that are too heavy for your current device (like a winch or crane) to lift. You can't make a tool for this, so you have to go to the mainland or wherever your on-land-base is to get whatever you need.

Extra: H.M.S. Victory
We've been talking about line ships recently, so let's talk about one of the most famous ever for a minute. The H.M.S. Victory was basically the queen of line-ships in the 1700s. She was basically unstoppable by any human force from any nation. It was natural causes that finally stopped her... a storm took her down in 1744, and she disappeared for ages.
She's a big one, in history, actual size, and monetary value... history-value is obvious, but monetary value may confuse you for a moment. Why would she be valuable? Well, she was probably expensive to build, for one thing! She was the biggest ship in the fleet, and was one of the few carrying bronze cannons... especially 42-pounders!
But the biggest monetary-value punch was her final cargo. She left a country in order to bring a big treasure back home. But then came the storm, and she and her very-expensive cargo (even in today's standards!) disappeared for years.