Plan to retrieve Titanic’s iconic radio spurs debate on human remains

Company hopes to exhibit Marconi wireless telegraph machine that broadcast sinking ocean liner’s distress calls and helped save about 700 people in lifeboats

Dispute stems from larger debate over how famous shipwreck’s victims should be honoured, and whether an expedition should be allowed to enter its hull

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A section of the RMS Titanic that was recovered from the ocean floor is seen on display in July 2009. Photo: RMS Titanic handout via AP

Published: 3:40am, 19 Oct 2020Updated: 9:02pm, 19 Oct 2020

People have been diving to the Titanic’s wreck for 35 years. No one has found human remains, according to the company that owns the salvage rights.

But the company’s plan to retrieve the ship’s iconic radio equipment has sparked a debate: could the world’s most famous shipwreck still hold remains of passengers and crew who died a century ago?

Lawyers for the US government have raised that question in an ongoing court battle to block the planned expedition. They cite archaeologists who say remains could still be there. And they say the company fails to consider the prospect in its dive plan.

“Fifteen hundred people died in that wreck,” said Paul Johnston, curator of maritime history at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. “You can’t possibly tell me that some human remains aren’t buried deep somewhere where there are no currents.”

A 2004 image shows the shoes of one of the possible victims on the Titanic. Photo: University of Rhode Island/NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration handout via AP

The company, RMS Titanic, wants to exhibit the ship’s Marconi wireless telegraph machine. It broadcast the sinking ocean liner’s distress calls and helped save about 700 people in lifeboats.