A longstanding legal battle over salvage rights has resurfaced as the U.S. attempts to block an expedition next spring to retrieve new artifacts from the Titanic shipwreck.
RMS Titanic Inc., a Georgia-based company that exhibits Titanic artifacts across the world, announced plans to launch a new expedition next May.
RMST wants to take images of the wreck, including areas where new gaps have opened in the hull, as well as to recover artifacts from the debris field and “free-standing objects inside the wreck,” according to AP News.
Arguably the world’s most famous shipwreck, the Titanic sank in 1912 after hitting an iceberg, killing over 1,500 people. Its wreckage off the coast of Newfoundland has become a memorial site for the dead.
In fact, its status as a hallowed gravesite has been cemented in federal law and international agreements alike.
The Titanic found itself in the news earlier this summer when a submersible carrying five people looking to explore its wreckage disappeared.
As reported in The Dallas Express, a massive effort to find the vessel was launched but to no avail, as the discovery of debris pointed to an underwater implosion and no survivors.
While expeditions to observe the sunken ship are permitted, any disturbance of human remains or damage to the structure is not.
In 1987, technological advances made the actual salvage of artifacts from the wreck possible. A joint endeavor of the Titanic Ventures Limited Partnership — which later became RMST — and the French National Institute for Ocean Science yielded approximately 1,800 salvaged artifacts.
Over the next few years, other companies sought salvage rights to the shipwreck, leading to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Norfolk awarding RMST both salvor-in-possession status and exclusive rights over any items taken from the wreck in 1994.
In 2000, RMST was taken over by the Experiential Media Group and has since butted heads with federal authorities several times.
The first conflict occurred shortly after the corporate takeover, when RMST moved to sell salvaged items to nonprofit The Titanic Foundation. A court substantiated RMST’s rights over the wreck but ruled it must preserve the site and could not sell or dispose of any items recovered from it.
Then in 2020, a legal argument erupted over another RMST expedition to retrieve artifacts that would have required cutting into the wreck. Namely, the company sought to recover the ship’s telegraph equipment from the Marconi room, where Titanic operators sent out the ship’s distress signals in Morse code.
A U.S. district judge ruled in favor of the radio’s retrieval, reasoning that it was of historical significance and in danger of being lost forever, the AP reported.
The U.S. government filed a legal challenge in response, but the case was cut short due to pandemic shutdowns, leaving the questions surrounding Titanic salvage rights unresolved.
Now, the government is again fighting to keep RMST from disturbing the site. RMST’s intentions for this expedition mention the Marconi room, as in 2020.
While RMST’s current plans have indicated that the planned mission would not damage or remove any part of the ship’s structure, documents filed in the U.S. District Court in Norfolk by federal attorneys last week stated that “RMST is not free to disregard this validly enacted federal law [not to disturb the site], yet that is its stated intent,” according to the AP.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) represents the public’s interest in this matter. While federal attorneys argue that RMST cannot proceed without proper authorization from NOAA, the company responded by saying it had no plans to apply for a permit but would collaborate with the agency.
Some of the artifacts already retrieved from the wreck include a bronze cherub statue that was once attached to the first-class landing of the grand staircase, an electric chandelier from the first-class smoking room, and a 15-carat rose gold bracelet bearing the name “Amy” in script and set in diamonds.
