Dropping Anchor to Claim Fortune in Government Guano The Washington Post | November 12, 1996| | . This material is published under license from the Washington Post.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Early this year San Diego's Bill Warren discovered the 1856 Guano Islands Act, which allows any U.S. citizen who discovers an uninhabited island covered with bird droppings to take "peaceful possession thereof."

Warren set his eye on Navassa Island, in the Windward Passage 25 miles off the west coast of Haiti. He needed a new place to set up his sunken treasure salvage business, far from pesky foreign governments trying to rip him off.

Navassa was ideal -- halfway between the notorious Caribbean pirate strongholds of Tortuga and Port Royal, with easy access to the treasure ships that ...

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