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Associated Press

The US government is trying to stop a planned expedition to recover items of historical interest from the sunken Titanic, citing a federal law and an international agreement that treat the shipwreck as a hallowed gravesite.
The expedition is being organised by RMS Titanic Inc, the Georgia-based firm that owns the salvage rights to the world’s most famous shipwreck.
The company exhibits artifacts that have been recovered from the wreck site at the bottom of the North Atlantic, from silverware to a piece of the Titanic’s hull.
The US government’s challenge comes more than two months after the Titan submersible imploded near the sunken ocean liner, killing five people.

But this legal fight has nothing to do with the June tragedy, which involved a different company and an unconventionally designed vessel.
The battle in the US District Court in Norfolk, Virginia, which oversees Titanic salvage matters, hinges instead on federal law and a pact with Great Britain to treat the sunken Titanic as a memorial to the more than 1,500 people who died. The ship hit an iceberg and sank in 1912.
James Cameron says Titan tragedy shows need for regulation of tourist subs
The US argues that entering the Titanic’s severed hull - or physically altering or disturbing the wreck - is regulated by federal law and its agreement with Britain.
Among the government’s concerns is the possible disturbance of artifacts and any human remains that may still exist.
“RMST is not free to disregard this validly enacted federal law, yet that is its stated intent,” US lawyers argued in court documents filed Friday. They added that the shipwreck “will be deprived of the protections Congress granted it”.
RMST’s expedition is tentatively planned for May 2024, according to a report it filed with the court in June.
The company said it plans to take images of the entire wreck. That includes “inside the wreck where deterioration has opened chasms sufficient to permit a remotely operated vehicle to penetrate the hull without interfering with the current structure”.
RMST said it would recover artifacts from the debris field and “may recover free-standing objects inside the wreck”. Those could include “objects from inside the Marconi room, but only if such objects are not affixed to the wreck itself”.
The Marconi room holds the ship’s radio - a Marconi wireless telegraph machine - which broadcast the Titanic’s increasingly frantic distress signals after the ocean liner hit an iceberg.
The messages in Morse code were picked up by other ships and onshore receiving stations, helping to save the lives of about 700 people who fled in life boats. There had been 2,208 passengers and crew on the Titanic’s maiden voyage, from Southampton, England, to New York.


“At this time, the company does not intend to cut into the wreck or detach any part of the wreck,” RMST stated.
The company said it would “work collaboratively” with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the US agency that represents the public’s interest in the wreck. But RMST said it does not intend to seek a permit.
US government lawyers said the firm can’t proceed without one, arguing that RMST needs approval from the US Secretary of Commerce, who oversees NOAA.
Titanic ‘has stories to tell’ as shipwreck captured in first full 3D scan
The company has not filed a response in court, but it previously challenged the constitutionality of US efforts to “infringe” on its salvage rights to a wreck in international waters. The firm has argued that only the court in Norfolk has jurisdiction, and points to centuries of precedent in maritime law.
In 2020, the US government and RMST engaged in a nearly identical legal battle over a proposed expedition that could have cut into the wreck. But the proceedings were cut short by the coronavirus pandemic and never fully played out.


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History

A new Titanic expedition is planned. The US government is trying to stop it

The bow of the Titanic, on the bottom of the North Atlantic. File photo: AP

An undated artist depiction of the Titanic sinking. File photo: AFP

He survived the sinking of the Titanic – and Japan never let him live it down

Japanese Titanic survivor Masabumi Hosono. Photo: Handout

Passengers aboard lifeboats row to safety as the Titanic sinks in a scene from the 1997 James Cameron film “Titanic”. Photo: AP Photo/Paramount Pictures/20th Century Fox

James Cameron says Titan implosion shows need for regulation of tourist submersibles

Film director James Cameron at the Royal Canadian Geographical Society’s exhibition in Ottawa. Photo: The Canadian Press via AP

A visitor sits inside the pilot sphere of the Deepsea Challenger submersible during an exhibition in Canada. Photo: Xinhua

Titanic ‘has stories to tell’ as shipwreck captured in first full digital scan

Undated artist impression showing the 1912 shipwreck of the British luxury passenger liner Titanic during its maiden voyage. Photo: AFP

Six Chinese passengers survived the sinking of the Titanic – more than 100 years later their stories reach China

New documentary The Six tells the previously untold stories of six Chinese survivors of the Titanic disaster, including (from left) Ling Hee, Fang Lang, Lee Bing and Ah Lam. Photo: Handout

Researcher Steven Schwankert visits the Fairview Lawn Cemetery, the final resting place for more than 100 victims of the Titanic, in Halifax, Canada. Photo: Handout

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

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

This 2004 image provided by the University of Rhode Island's Institute for Exploration and Center for Archaeological Oceanography and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of Ocean Exploration shows the shoes of one of the possible victims of the Titanic disaster. A company’s plan to retrieve the Titanic’s radio has sparked a debate over whether the famous shipwreck still holds human remains. (Institute for Exploration and Center for Archaeological Oceanography/University of Rhode Island/NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration via AP)

TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY ROBIN MILLARD "TITANIC-HISTORY-100YEARS-DISASTER" A detailed section of a salvaged Third Class porthole from the wreck of the Titanic is shown on display at the Ulster Transport Musuem in Belfast, Northern Ireland on March 15, 2012. This porthole came from the Third Class section of the stern. The sides are clippled so that it would fit between the narrow vertical supports of the ship. A century on since the grandest liner ever built sank to the bottom of the ocean on its maiden voyage, the legend of the Titanic still captivates the imagination the world over. AFP PHOTO / PETER MUHLY

This undated handout photograph obtained courtesy of Titanic Inc. shows "rusticles" from the the Titanic. In less than 30 years, there may be nothing left of the massive ship but a heap of rust similar to icicles or stalactites in appearance warns researcher Henrietta Mann, who has spent four years researching bacteria gnawing on its hull. A scientific expedition in 1991 to the disintegrating wreck some 12,400 feet (3,780 meters) to the ocean floor revealed the formation of rust. Mann discovered that bacteria, not a chemical process, were behind these particular deep water formations. AFP PHOTO / TITANIC INC. == RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE / MANDATORY CREDIT: "AFP PHOTO / TITANIC INC." / NO SALES / NO MARKETING / NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS / DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS ==

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World

United States & Canada

The US government is in a legal fight with RMS Titanic Inc, which owns the salvage rights to shipwreck
Georgia-based firm said planned mission may attempt to recover objects inside the sunken Titanic


A Georgia-based firm said it may attempt to recover objects from inside the world’s most famous shipwreck.


United States