Pirate Shipwreck Lawsuit Hindered By Poor Records, Explorer Says

The Delaware Court of Chancery faces the same quandary as historians trying to learn more about the golden age of Atlantic piracy, an attorney for an undersea explorer said Monday during closing arguments in a lawsuit over the management of an 18th-century shipwreck.

Documents and eyewitness testimony desired by both have long been lost to the ravages of time and water, said Samuel Hirzel of Heyman Enerio Gattuso & Hirzel LLP, representing explorer Barry Clifford.

So Vice Chancellor Nathan Cook, much like archaeologists examining artifacts raised from the seabed, must make do with what’s available in considering ...