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"The Titanic Wreck Will Now Be Protected Under a
'Momentous Agreement' With the U.S."
The world’s most famous shipwreck,
the RMS Titanic, will be more rigorously protected
under an international agreement, the U.K.’s Maritime Minister Nusrat Ghani
confirmed ahead of a Tuesday visit to Belfast, where the ship was built.
The U.K. and the U.S. will now be
responsible for granting permits to those wishing to visit the wreck and remove
artifacts. The agreement, which was signed by the United Kingdom in 2003, was
ratified by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last year. The agreement will
further protect the wreck, which became a UNESCO cultural heritage site in
2012. The U.K. will take a leading role in protecting the wreck, encouraging
other North Atlantic countries like France and Canada to sign the agreement.
“Lying two and a half miles below
the ocean surface, the RMS Titanic is the subject of the most documented
maritime tragedy in history,” Ghani said in a press release. “This momentous
agreement with the United States to preserve the wreck means it will be treated
with the sensitivity and respect owed to the final resting place of more than
1,500 lives.”
The ship’s disappearance became a
source of fascination for oceanographer and former Navy captain Robert Ballard,
who embarked on his first unsuccessful search for the wreck in 1977.
Determined, Ballard struck a deal with the United States Navy that provided
funding for his expedition in exchange for Ballard locating two lost Cold War
Navy submarines. In collaboration with a French expedition, Ballard found
debris that led him to the ship’s resting place, 350 nautical miles
off the Canadian coast of Newfoundland on September 1, 1985.
In 1994, the company RMS Titanic
Inc., a subsidiary of Premier Exhibitions, became the wreck’s
salvor-in-possession—the only company allowed to collect artifacts. The company
has now collected more than 5,500 artifacts, including a 17-ton section of the
hull that was raised out of the ocean in 1998. Some artifacts were previously
auctioned off by Henry Aldridge & Son, such as a water-stained letter written by a
passenger on board the ship that sold for £126,000 ($163,800) as
well as a violin that sold for £1.1 million ($1.43 million). Photographs taken
of the wreck during expeditions allowed the company RMS Titanic Inc. to
recreate digital images of the grand staircase that featured in James Cameron’s
1997 film Titanic.
For years, diving companies such as Ocean Gate have
commercialized diving expeditions to the wreck by making them available to
tourists prepared to spend tens of thousands of dollars. The first tourists
dived to the wreck in 1998 and officials believe the last confirmed trip was in
2012.
And from another source on the SAME DAY:
Company launches daring effort to retrieve Titanic
relics — but US, U.K. not on board
A Georgia-based company is on a
mission to save precious artifacts from the wreck of the Titanic — but the US
and British governments aren’t on board with the plan, according to a report.
RMS Titanic Inc. has unveiled a
daring scheme to extract relics from inside the shipwreck by using underwater
robots to remove a section of the deckhouse roof, The Telegraph reported.
“The ship is deteriorating and if we
don’t take action now, we’ll be too late,” said Bretton Hunchak, president of
RMS Titanic.
The firm on Monday filed a notice of
intent in Virginia federal court to retrieve hundreds of Titanic items.
Activists and descendants of the
more than 1,500 people who died when the passenger liner sank in the North
Atlantic on its maiden voyage from England to New York in April 1912 argue that
the underwater mass grave should be left alone — and the British and US
governments seem to agree.
British Maritime Minister Nusrat
Ghani on Tuesday announced a “historic treaty” with the US that makes both
countries responsible for granting permits to those wishing to visit the wreck
and remove artifacts.
 |
| wall sconce from TITANIC |
“This momentous agreement with the
United States to preserve the wreck means it will be treated with the
sensitivity and respect owed to the final resting place of more than 1,500
lives,” Ghani said.
RMS Titanic, a subsidiary of Premier
Exhibitions, became the ship’s official “salvor-in-possession” in 1993, making
it the only entity allowed to collect artifacts from the wreck.
Until now, the 5,500 objects
salvaged by the company came from a debris field surrounding the wreck about
370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland. It also removed a 17-ton section of
the hull.
Hunchak said it’s important to save
precious items for future generations before they are lost forever.
“Of course, we recognize and respect
the tragedy of what happened,” he told The Telegraph. “But the hard truth is
that we need to share what we can see with the rest of the world.”
Among the artifacts the company
wants to retrieve is the wireless radio system by Nobel Prize-winning physicist
Guglielmo Marconi that the crew of the Titanic used to call for help.
“The Marconi wireless can teach us
so much about the last moments of the Titanic and the heroes who died that
night,” Hunchak said.
If the mission is successful, the
Marconi would be conserved and put on display at the Luxor casino in Las Vegas
before being put on a worldwide publicity tour.
Under the terms of the company’s
official steward status, it must get permission from a judge before every
expedition.
It’s unclear if or how the
US-British pact will affect Monday’s court request.
Sources at RMS Titanic told The
Telegraph that the firm intends to “entirely ignore” the British-led agreement
because it only needs to answer to US courts. [emphasis from ed.]
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It will be interesting to see how this plays out. We here at Maritime Maunder would side with the protectionist folks; while the wreck is deteriorating unquestionably, it is hallowed ground i.e. the burial place of some 1500 humans. We say leave it alone. Leave us a comment if you wish on this one!
Until next time,
Fair Winds,
Old Salt
