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A wireless telegraph machine,
sometimes called the "voice of the Titanic" for its role in sending
out distress messages on the fateful night in 1912 when the RMS Titanic cruise liner hit an iceberg,
could be recovered from the shipwreck lying at the bottom of the North
Atlantic.
But not everyone is on board with
this plan: One of the scientists behind the recovery plan says he is shocked by
the "outpouring of contempt" that the proposal has generated among
critics.
Oceanographer David Gallo, formerly
of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts and now a
consultant for the court-approved salvager of the shipwreck, RMS Titanic Inc.,
said the proposal was an attempt to save the iconic artifact before it was lost
forever.
The company had expected some
opposition to their recovery plan, but it was not prepared by the sometimes
"outrageous" and misinformed negative reaction, he said.
"I've been called a greedy
treasure hunter, a grave robber," Gallo told Live Science. "I find
these charges to be personally insulting."
The Marconi wireless telegraph
machine sent out frantic distress calls on the night of April 14 and 15, 1912,
after the ship hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic and started to sink. Only
about 700 of the more than 2,300 people on board survived.
Underwater video taken last year
showed the "Marconi Room" on the Titanic's boat deck is badly
corroded by rust and collapsing, and that the machine could soon be
unrecoverable, Gallo said.
The company has proposed that an
expedition to the wreck later this year could use underwater robots to cut the
telegraph machine free. But their bid to get approval from a U.S. federal court
has been opposed by the governments of the United States and United Kingdom,
which assert the Titanic shipwreck is now protected by an agreement between the
two countries, CNN reported.
RMS Titanic Inc. was established in
a U.S. federal court in 1994 as the official salvager of the Titanic wreck and
the steward of artifacts recovered from it. But the court ordered in 2000 that
nothing should be cut or detached from the wreck. [emphasis ours - ed.]
The company has now asked the court
to modify that order to allow the recovery of the telegraph machine, and U.S.
District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith has asked for time to consider the proposal;
she's expected to give her decision in the next few weeks.
Lawyers for the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, a U.S. government agency, told the court that the
proposal was a "placeholder" for future requests to cut other
artifacts from the Titanic shipwreck, according to the Associated Press.
They also presented a letter from
the Joint Nautical Archaeology Policy Committee, a non-governmental body that
represents several U.K. maritime archaeology groups, alleging that the case for
recovering the telegraph machine is "exaggerated," the Telegraph reported.
Gallo counters that the company is
motivated by its responsibility to the legacy of the Titanic and not by
financial gain.
Using underwater robots to cut the
telegraph machine free and recover it would cost between $5 million and $7
million, which is many times what the company could hope to recover from entry
fees to its exhibitions of Titanic artifacts, he said.
Scientists have noted that the
shipwreck — which has now been under more than 2 miles (3 kilometers) of
seawater for more than 100 years — is deteriorating rapidly from rust and the
activity of deep-sea microorganisms.
Some think it could disappear
completely in a few years, Live Science has reported.
 |
| some artifacts recovered in the past |
Lost
at sea
In 1985, a French and American
expedition co-led by WHOI oceanographer Robert Ballard discovered the Titanic
wreck. Gallo joined WHOI a few years later and initially spoke out against the
salvage of artifacts by RMS Titanic Inc., arguing that they should be left on
the shipwreck.
But he changed his mind after
visiting one of the company's exhibitions of Titanic artifacts: "I was
amazed at what I witnessed. Whole families visited the exhibits … I realized
the powerful way artifacts can ignite the imagination."
Gallo started working as a
consultant for RMS Titanic in 2009, after the original company declared
bankruptcy and their assets were bought by new investors who were committed to
preserving the Titanic's legacy, he said.
He stressed that the proposal to
recover the telegraph machine, if it goes ahead, would only cut away a few
square feet (meters) of metal and would not threaten the integrity of the
shipwreck, but it could save the telegraph machine for the future, he said.
"We have two choices," he
said. "Leave the telegraph machine to the ocean and perhaps lose the
'voice of Titanic' forever, or recover and conserve the telegraph so that it
lives on forever."
Concerns that the shipwreck should
be left as a "mass grave" were perhaps misinformed about the
realities of the shipwreck, he said.
Most of the more than 1,500 people
who died in the Titanic's sinking froze to death in the water on the surface,
and no one has ever seen any human remains inside the ship, he said.
All the same, expedition members
treated the wreck with respect, as if it was a grave — but that should not
preclude efforts to save some of its artifacts from destruction, he said.
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We'll see where this goes and should RMS TItanic, Inc. win it's suit to retrieve the Marconi wireless set, we will let you know. Again, both sides of this agreement have merit and I can see why the judge in the case needs time to render her decision.
Until next time,
Fair Winds,
Old Salt
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