A US company is facing a lawsuit by the federal government that seeks to block the firm from undertaking an expedition to the wreck of the RMS Titanic. The US has argued the shipwreck is a hallowed gravesite, and taking pieces from it would violate international agreements about its care.
The suit has been filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia against RMS Titanic, Inc. (RMST), which has plans for a May 2024 expedition to the Titanic wreck.
RMST says in its suit that it plans to take images of the entire shipwreck, including “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."
The company has also said it plans to bring back artifacts from the debris field surrounding the hull and “may recover free-standing objects inside the wreck,” including “objects from inside the Marconi room, but only if such objects are not affixed to the wreck itself.”
The Marconi room houses the ship’s Marconi wireless telegraph machine, an early 20th century wireless communication device invented by Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi that uses Morse code. The crew of RMS Titanic used the machine to signal for help as the ship began to sink.
Fortunately, nearby vessels and shore listening stations picked up the distress calls and sent help, saving the lives of more than 700 passengers scattered in the frigid North Atlantic waters near where the Titanic sank on April 15, 1912.
“At this time, the company does not intend to cut into the wreck or detach any part of the wreck,” RMST stated, adding it intends to “work collaboratively” with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which oversees US relations concerning the wreck.
The company claims it does not need a permit for the expedition, but US government lawyers see it differently.
The US, United Kingdom, France and Canada have jointly agreed to treat the site of the Titanic wreck as a sacred burial site and to block attempts at looting or salvaging the wreck, which sits beneath 12,500 feet of water. While some 700 passengers were saved, another 1,500 passengers and crew perished in the freezing waters amid a botched evacuation operation that included an inadequate number of lifeboats.
“RMST is not free to disregard this validly enacted federal law, yet that is its stated intent,” the US government’s filing argues. If the company does so, the wreck “will be deprived of the protections Congress granted it.”
After the Titanic’s wreck was found in 1985 by a Franco-American joint search effort, the US Congress passed a law stating that “no person shall conduct any research, exploration, salvage, or other activity that would physically alter or disturb the wreck or the wreck site of the RMS Titanic.”