The only company with legal rights to salvage items from the wreckage of the RMS Titanic has scrapped its plans to recover artifacts from the sunken ship – at least for now – following a legal challenge from the US Government.
Many shipwrecks – such as military ships that have sunk in US waters – are off-limits to explorers, tourists, and people looking to salvage booty. The Titanic, lying in international waters, is protected by a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) convention, as well as a later US-UK treaty aimed at preserving the wreck and preventing looting.
People are still allowed to dive down to the Titanic and can obtain permits to enter the hull if they have the resources available to take them down there. Only one company – RMS Titanic, Inc. (RMST) – is legally allowed to salvage items from the wreck, thanks to salvage rights granted to the company by the US District Court in Norfolk, Virginia (which specializes in shipwrecks and salvage) in 1994.
However, in 2023, the US Government attempted to stop a then-upcoming expedition by RMST aimed at recovering items from the wreckage, claiming the right to veto trips they object to. Under the US-UK treaty, which Congress enacted in 2017, “no person shall conduct any research, exploration, salvage, or other activity that would physically alter or disturb the wreck or wreck site of the RMS Titanic unless authorized by the Secretary of Commerce per the provisions of the Agreement Concerning the Shipwrecked Vessel RMS Titanic.”
The company had originally planned to recover a Marconi wireless telegraph from the shipwreck, which was used to make distress calls. This prompted the government to file a legal challenge, but the trip was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In June 2023, the New York Times reported, the company told the court they again planned to recover the telegraph and other artifacts, whilst also photographing the ship’s interior using remote vehicles. The government had concerns that the wreckage – including any human remains potentially at the site – could be disturbed by the trip, according to AP News.
RMST said that it planned to take only free-standing items which are not affixed to the Titanic, and access the interior only “where deterioration has opened chasms sufficient to permit a remotely operated vehicle to penetrate the hull without interfering with the current structure,” reported AP News.
“The company believes it retains the right to continue to conduct salvage activities at the wreck site,” lawyer for RMST, Brian A. Wainger, said in a statement seen by the New York Times in 2023, “without seeking or obtaining approval from any third-parties other than the U.S. District Court which maintains jurisdiction over the wreck site.”
In 2023, however, the company canceled plans to image inside and outside of the wreck and potentially recover artifacts from within, after their director of underwater research, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, died on board the Titan as it imploded in June 2023. Nargeolet was lending expertise to the company that ran that expedition, OceanGate, a separate company from RMST.
“Out of respect for P.H. Nargeolet and his family, and the other four people who perished so recently at the site, and their families, the company has decided that artifact recovery would not be appropriate at this time,” the company said in a court filing seen by AP News.
In December, RMST told the court that it would not conduct any expeditions to the wreck in 2025, and would “diligently consider the strategic, legal, and financial implications of conducting future salvage operations at the site,” per the Associated Press.
In response to plans being paused, the US Government withdrew its legal challenge against the company on Friday. While the battle may be over for now, it’s unclear what will happen if and when the firm has new plans for salvage operations.
“Should future circumstances warrant, the United States will file a new motion to intervene based on the facts then existing,” the US Government reportedly wrote in their filing.
Source Link: Company Pauses Controversial Plans To Salvage Artifacts From The Wreck Of The Titanic
