It鈥檚 the stuff daydreams are made of: hop off the back of your cruising catamaran, dive down to check the anchor, and鈥擧ey?! Is that a half-buried wartime relic from centuries-gone naval battles for control of St. Kitts? That鈥檚 basically how it went for 64-year-old Eric Sanford on a vacation earlier in January.

Sanford, an entrepreneur and聽sailor from White Salmon, Washington, and his wife, Debbie, had just anchored their 43-foot-boat, Indigo, in a small bay in about 20 feet of clear water when, he says, 鈥渁bout 50 feet away I noticed something out of place.鈥�

鈥淎t first I thought it was a log, so I swam over to investigate. It鈥檚 strange to see a log at the bottom of the ocean,鈥� Sanford says. He kicked towards the log to brush the sand away and realized that what he was looking at was metal, not wood.聽He dove down several more times to get a good look, then swam back to his boat,聽scrambled aboard, and told his wife, 鈥淯h, I think I just found a cannon from the 1600s.鈥�

Most people in Sanford鈥檚 position would start strategizing about how to recover the sunken artifact, but Sanford had a different idea. He took a few pictures, sent an e-mail to Brimstone Hill Fortress with the GPS coordinates,聽and sailed away, resuming his vacation. A few days later, he published : 鈥�7鈥� BRONZE CANNON FROM THE 1600s.鈥�

For a price, Sanford will disclose the GPS coordinates of the cannon鈥檚 location. (At press time, the running bid聽was聽$10.50) 鈥淭his is your chance to find and claim buried treasure without having to start from scratch鈥擨 found the spot, now you go and get it,鈥� the post reads. 鈥淐ould be worth millions!鈥�

But selling rights to a piece of history might not be as cut and dry (or wet) as Sanford hopes. He鈥檚 getting emails through his eBay account from people warning him that selling the cannon is illegal and that they鈥檒l report him to the authorities if he goes through with it. 鈥淚 have to explain that I am not selling anything but the location of the cannon,鈥� Sanford says.

According to an employee at Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park on St. Kitts, the island nation has a clear line on artifacts found within its waters: they鈥檙e government property. 鈥淢y first response is that the treasure hunter and opportunist runs afoul of the laws of the land,鈥� said a park employee who asked not to be identified. 鈥淎nything found in the coast waters really and truly is the property of the state, and must be reported to the appropriate authorities. I鈥檓 hesitant to abet piracy. I would deem this as an act of piracy.鈥�

Sanford insists what he鈥檚 doing is not piracy, and says that officials at Brimstone haven't replied to his email. In fact, he鈥檚 got advice for the purchaser of the location on how to extract the hefty cannon from the sea聽floor: 鈥淚nner tubes. Bring 鈥榚m down uninflated, attach 鈥榚m to the cannon, then inflate,鈥� Sanford says. 鈥淏azinga! Cannon comes right up!鈥�

The cannon鈥檚 origins are as murky as the ethics of selling its location in an Internet auction. It strongly resembles cannons seen at Brimstone Hill Fortress, dated from the 17th century, which would make it iron, not bronze. But it could also be from a French, Spanish, or British naval ship. The countries wrestled for control of the sugar-producing island in the late 18th century.聽The cannon may be linked to聽the Battle of Frigate Bay in 1782, according to聽maritime archaeologist聽.聽He too believes that a private citizen聽recovering the cannon would be illegal鈥揳nd, if undertaken by amateurs, likely to damage the artifact. 聽鈥淚t鈥檚 absorbed salt into the ironwork,鈥� Spooner says. “If you just remove it from the sea, that salt will crystalize,聽and that means the iron will start cracking.鈥�

Sanford isn鈥檛 too concerned about the origins or the ethics. He鈥檚 already set sail for Grenada. Where he鈥檒l wind up next, he鈥檚 unsure. 鈥淲ho knows?鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a boat!鈥�

The auction ends Friday morning.

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