Current:Home > reviewsTitanic expedition might get green light after company says it will not retrieve artifacts -WealthTrack
Titanic expedition might get green light after company says it will not retrieve artifacts
View
Date:2025-04-12 18:43:22
The U.S. government could end its legal fight against a planned expedition to the Titanic, which has sparked concerns that it would violate a law that treats the wreck as a gravesite.
Kent Porter, an assistant U.S. attorney, told a federal judge in Virginia Wednesday that the U.S. is seeking more information on revised plans for the May expedition, which have been significantly scaled back. Porter said the U.S. has not determined whether the new plans would break the law.
RMS Titanic Inc., the Georgia company that owns the salvage rights to the wreck, originally planned to take images inside the ocean liner's severed hull and to retrieve artifacts from the debris field. RMST also said it would possibly recover free-standing objects inside the Titanic, including the room where the sinking ship had broadcast its distress signals.
The U.S. filed a legal challenge to the expedition in August, citing a 2017 federal law and a pact with Great Britain to treat the site as a memorial. More than 1,500 people died when the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank in 1912.
The U.S. argued last year that entering the Titanic - or physically altering or disturbing the wreck - is regulated by the law and agreement. Among the government's concerns is the possible disturbance of artifacts and any human remains that may still exist on the North Atlantic seabed.
In October, RMST said it had significantly pared down its dive plans. That's because its director of underwater research, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, died in the implosion of the Titan submersible near the Titanic shipwreck in June.
The Titan was operated by a separate company, OceanGate, to which Nargeolet was lending expertise. Nargeolet was supposed to lead this year's expedition by RMST.
RMST stated in a court filing last month that it now plans to send an uncrewed submersible to the wreck site and will only take external images of the ship.
"The company will not come into contact with the wreck," RMST stated, adding that it "will not attempt any artifact recovery or penetration imaging."
RMST has recovered and conserved thousands of Titanic artifacts, which millions of people have seen through its exhibits in the U.S. and overseas. The company was granted the salvage rights to the shipwreck in 1994 by the U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Virginia.
U. S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith is the maritime jurist who presides over Titanic salvage matters. She said during Wednesday's hearing that the U.S. government's case would raise serious legal questions if it continues, while the consequences could be wide-ranging.
Congress is allowed to modify maritime law, Smith said in reference to the U.S. regulating entry into the sunken Titanic. But the judge questioned whether Congress can strip courts of their own admiralty jurisdiction over a shipwreck, something that has centuries of legal precedent.
In 2020, Smithgave RMST permission to retrieve and exhibit the radio that had broadcast the Titanic's distress calls. The expedition would have involved entering the Titanic and cutting into it.
The U.S. government filed an official legal challenge against that expedition, citing the law and pact with Britain. But the legal battle never played out. RMST indefinitely delayed those plans because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Smith noted Wednesday that time may be running out for expeditions inside the Titanic. The ship is rapidly deteriorating.
"Personal stories down there"
Last year, new images of the Titanic developed using deep sea mapping revealed unprecedented views of the shipwreck.
The scan was carried out in 2022 by Magellan Ltd, a deep-sea mapping company, in partnership with Atlantic Productions, a London-based company that was making a film about the project.
The scan provides a three-dimensional view of the wreckage in its entirety, enabling the ship once known as "unsinkable" to be seen as if the water has been drained away.
In the debris surrounding the ship, lies miscellaneous items including ornate metalwork from the ship, statues and unopened champagne bottles.
There are also personal possessions, including dozens of shoes.
"I felt there was something much bigger here that we could get from the Titanic," Anthony Geffen, the CEO of Atlantic Production, told CBS News last year. "If we could scan it, if we could capture in all its detail… we could find out how it sank and how the different parts of the boat fell apart and we can find a lot of personal stories down there as well."
Emmet Lyons contributed to this report.
- In:
- RMS Titanic
- Titanic
veryGood! (9)
Related
- John Galliano out at Maison Margiela, capping year of fashion designer musical chairs
- Former Army financial counselor gets over 12 years for defrauding Gold Star families
- Video shows woman almost bitten by tiger at New Jersey zoo after she puts hand in enclosure
- Earthquake shakes Hawaii's Big Island as storms loom in the Pacific
- Working Well: When holidays present rude customers, taking breaks and the high road preserve peace
- A big Social Security shake-up is coming in 2025. Are you prepared?
- Sicily Yacht Company CEO Shares Endless Errors That May Have Led to Fatal Sinking Tragedy
- Who's performed at the DNC? Lil Jon, Patti LaBelle, Stevie Wonder, more hit the stage
- Megan Fox's ex Brian Austin Green tells Machine Gun Kelly to 'grow up'
- California woman fed up with stolen mail sends Apple AirTag to herself to catch thief
Ranking
- What to watch: O Jolie night
- Cristiano Ronaldo starts Youtube channel, gets record 1 million subscribers in 90 minutes
- A bloomin' good deal: Outback Steakhouse gives away free apps to kick off football season
- How Jane Fonda Predicted Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck Split Months Before Filing
- Krispy Kreme offers a free dozen Grinch green doughnuts: When to get the deal
- Coldplay perform Taylor Swift song in Vienna after thwarted terrorist plot
- Best fantasy football value picks? Start with Broncos RB Javonte Williams
- Viral video captures bottlenose dolphins rocketing high through the air: Watch
Recommendation
Meet first time Grammy nominee Charley Crockett
Cruise will dispatch some of its trouble-ridden robotaxis to join Uber’s ride-hailing service
University of Maine System to study opening state’s first public medical school
USA flag football QB says he's better at the sport than Patrick Mahomes 'because of my IQ'
Charges tied to China weigh on GM in Q4, but profit and revenue top expectations
A big Social Security shake-up is coming in 2025. Are you prepared?
After DNC speech, Stephanie Grisham hits back at weight-shaming comment: 'I've hit menopause'
Superyacht maker's CEO: Bayesian's crew made an 'incredible mistake'