( CNN ) -- Six Americans who were salvaging goods from the bottom of the sea off the coast of Honduras have sat in a jail there for over three weeks as officials have charged them with illegal weapons possession . On May 5 , after the ship pulled into port in Puerto Lempira , police came aboard , arrested the crew and confiscated the vessel , according to a Facebook statement from Aqua Quest , the Florida company the men work for . The ship 's captain said from jail that the weapons on board were for personal protection against pirates . `` It 's suicide not to carry them , '' said one of the detained Americans , Robert Mayne , in a phone interview from the jail . Squalor and danger . The men do not have access to good sanitation and are not being properly fed , said Michael McCabe , a crew member who was not detained . `` The inmates only ever eat beans and rice . I 'm told it 's one spoon of each , and that 's it , '' he said after visiting them . McCabe has tried to purchase additional food for them , but some of it has been stolen , he said . The detainees ' squalor turned to terror , when gunfire erupted around them on Friday , according to Mayne 's account . `` Fighting breaks out every few days here , '' he said . `` One prisoner beat another with a stick with a nail in it . '' But this was the first time shots were fired their way . Legal allegations . Aqua Quest alleges in its statement that authorities boarding and searching the ship circumvented proper legal procedures . The company said Honduran officials had the legal possibility of dealing with the weapons without imposing detentions . The official charge is illegal possession of firearms detrimental to the internal security of Honduras , according to a court document . The caliber of the weapons and the fact that one is semiautomatic also seems to bother authorities , who have termed them `` commercial . '' Illegal arms regularly flow through Honduras , and drug traffickers transit cocaine from Colombia through the Central American . Mayne and Aqua Quest are adamant that their weapons were for personal use and not for resale on the black market . Diplomatic efforts . State Department spokesman Noel Clay , who confirmed the detention , said Saturday that `` there is no greater priority for us than the welfare and safety of U.S. citizens abroad . '' The U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa has been monitoring the case and providing consular assistance . Consular officials last visited the crew on May 19 . A lawyer in Honduras familiar with the case says the men could face up to 16 years in prison . U.S. Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick , R-Pennsylvania , has attempted to intervene on the men 's behalf . `` I have been working with American officials and other contacts to expedite the detainees ' release . I have formally written to the Honduran Ambassador to the United States requesting his personal engagement to swiftly resolve the situation , '' he said in a statement . Crew 's business . Aqua Quest International salvages precious cargo from sunken vessels underwater beds , according to its website . That can range from valuable ore to historic artifacts . The crew in Honduras was tasked with removing valuable mahogany logs from the nearby river bed in the impoverished eastern municipality of Ahuas . The goal was to clear the waterways to ease the way for boats in an area where there are few roads , the company said . The wood , remnants of decades of logging in that region , commands a high price on the open market , the company said . Profits from its sale was to be shared with locals for infrastructure and social programs . CNN 's Tara Kangarlou and Hamdi Alkhshali contributed to this report .
NEW : This means the product will ship as received by the manufacturer, sealed, with all advertised components, and with the manufacturer warranty. The men work for an undersea salvage company . Police boarded their ship and arrested them . A colleague fears that they are not being properly fed .