Who Can Claim the Titanic?

Maritime Court to Determine if Artifacts Salvaged From Doomed Ship May Be Claimed, Sold

(AP)  The company that has exclusive rights to salvage the Titanic is planning a possible expedition to the world's most famous shipwreck in 2010.

The first expedition to the North Atlantic wreck site since 2004 is revealed in a filing by RMS Titanic Inc. in U.S. District Court, where four days of hearings are scheduled to begin Monday on the company's claim for a salvage award.

Lawyers for RMS Titanic Inc. confirmed the expedition plans but declined to discuss them in detail.

"That is something that is being looked at right now but it's not in any way a done deal," attorney Robert W. McFarland said in an interview. He said the company would have more to say at this week's hearing.

U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith, a maritime jurist who considers the wreck an "international treasure," will preside over the hearings. They are intended to determine a salvage award and establish legal guarantees that thousands of Titanic artifacts remain intact as a collection and forever accessible to the public. Some pieces have ended up in London auction houses.

The 5,900 pieces of china, ship fittings and personal belongings are valued in excess of $110 million and are displayed around the world by Premier Exhibitions Inc., an Atlanta company. RMS Titanic is a subsidiary of Premier.

The Titanic sank on its maiden voyage in international waters on April 15, 1912, and has been subject to competing legal claims since an international team led by oceanographer Robert Ballard found it in 1985. Since then, RMS Titanic has retrieved artifacts during six dives.

Courts have declared it salvor-in-possession - meaning it has exclusive rights to salvage the Titanic - but have explicitly stated it does not own the 5,900 artifacts or the wreck itself.

At the hearings this week in Norfolk, lawyers for RMS Titanic will essentially seek title to the artifacts and a monetary award for its salvage costs. More than a dozen experts will be called to support the company's claim, according to a court filing.

In seeking a salvage award, RMS Titanic will have to document the labor it devoted to its previous expeditions, the risks incurred during the 2 1/2-mile trips beneath the Atlantic to the Titanic wreck site, and the preservation efforts and archaeological value of the wreck and its contents, among other factors.

(Left: John Zaller, creative director of Premier Exhibitions, discusses objects from the Titanic's Verandah Cafe on display in the "Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition," in New York, June 24, 2009.)

Smith, the judge, has drawn upon the government to help craft covenants to keep the artifacts preserved, intact as a collection and available to the public. She is mindful of the Titanic's place in history and the 1,522 people who died when it went down after it struck ice nearly a century ago, based on her previous statements from the bench.

"I am concerned that the Titanic is not only a national treasure, but in its own way an international treasure, and it needs protection and it needs to be monitored," the judge told lawyers in the case nearly one year ago.

If the court agrees to RMS Titanic's request, the company could sell the entire collection to a museum with court approval. The company has said it has no plans to do so.

The judge will also consider a competing claim.

Douglas Faulkner Woolley, a British citizen, challenges RMS Titanic's legal claim to the wreck site and plans his own salvage operation.

Lawyers for RMS Titanic declined to discuss the competing challenge.

International protections have been sought for the Titanic almost since the wreck was discovered.


For more info:
Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition
The Titanic Historical Society

[OregonJames]

Treasure is treasure. Finders keepers.

If I discover some lost treasure, an ancient fossil, or some other rare item, I claim it as mine. Screw the laws and the lawyers.

[pensacola8-2009]

I have done lots of scuba diving on shipwrecks off Florida and submerged paleo-cultures in Texas and honor the laws regulating antiquities and artifacts. I leave them intact and untouched for other divers and scientists.

The splendors of diving and letting the stories of the existance unfold in front of your eyes can't be matched by any exhibit in an exposition. The impressions confined to a minute in a native environment leave a greater impression than one gained from viewing the artifact inside a glass case. 99% of the value is the setting and it's undeniable authenticity.

I often ponder at the fraudulent acts commited in many expositions where phony artifacts are presented and advertised as authentic. It's simply too easy to recreate many artifacts and go raise money with phoney exhibits.

Once a Titanic artifact is removed from the wreck site, it is essentially worthless.

[Newster1]

by sandog1960
The dead are entitled to dignity and respect, especially those who died under unfortunate circumstances that ended their lives prematurely. "

So you bibull thumpers want it BOTH ways? on the one hand you claim this miraculous perfect eternal paradise in a "heaven" and so far as I'm concerned you should with that mindset be CELEBRATING that these people got a quick early exit off planet purgatory and zipped right into jebus' lap in perfect PARADISE in perfect health, meanwhile you and the rest of us poor saps are stuck here on planet purgatory, and yet you want those people to have stayed here and live another 10 to 80 MORE years here?????

Whats wrong with you! I know, maybe you dont REALLY believe that fiction book called the bible after all.

[P0STING_AWAY]

To quote Daffy Duck .....
IT'S MINE! IT'S MINE! IT'S MINE .. ALL MINE!

[barbaram99]

It is true persons have died every where. There are places they are laid to rest. I am appalled at the greed. Some one SAID the earth is for the living. Yep. This story is about a ship the ones in command did not do the right thing. They believed the ship could not sink.We know was not true. The men barred from the life boats..The very poor in the boottom of the ship.The rich pandered while the poor went with out. They are the ones that were forced to stay below decks. That's what movies show.

[djberson]

People died on the Andrea Doria, the Lusitania and the Empress of Ireland and nobody whines about salvage efforts on those ships. Then there are the Pyramids, and just about every other archeological site for that matter. For some reason, people think there should be a double standard for the Titanic. Truth is, very few people will ever be able to visit or study the Titanic wreck, and the artifacts like the ship itself will eventually be lost to the seas anyway, so why not bring them up for preservation??

[Newster1]

Thats right, the steel is already significantly corroded and sections have collapsed, woodwork is basically gone, theres no bodies or remains there, eventually what isnt brought up and preserved will disintegrate. They say within 100 years most of the steel will have corroded away anyway. The stuff isnt doing any good 2.5 miles under the ocean, and no one can visit like they can a museum display.
The survivors are all dead now too, so like the way we raid old spanish gallions, I say bring it all up.

[BlueDogDem]

Question: Who can claim the Titanic?

Answer: Icebergs in the North Atlantic.

[wheresmycountry]

I want that necklace when you find it.

[taxchurches]

There were "souls" aboard? Wow, that in itself should be worth studying, the presence of mythological creatures! Spare us the stilted language, eh? Of course, these were white Christians, weren't they? I guess that makes it different from the pyramids, Angkor Wat, Pompeii and Canyon de Chelly. While the Titanic is probably not of the scientific and historical significance of the above-mentioned, it isn't any more sacred, either. Nor is it a "grave site"; it is an accident site, if anything.

[blondelar7]

Your sarcasm is as tasteless as your comment; try to make a point without being a buffoon.

[Skruffy1]

Leave the Titanic alone. Everything to learn from the wreck has been learned. All that's left now is for some cretins to try to make their fortune selling artifacts. Sure, some will argue "sure, why not?", but there are always profiteers who'll say that.

[aldon61]

The Titantic is a graveyard, much like the USS Arizona. It belongs to no one, and needs to stay right where it's at. No exploitation should be allowed...........period!

[Newster1]

Its NOT a graveyard, the people did not go down 2.5 miles with the ship, they all floated around and drowned or died of exposure probably miles away from where this actual wreck lays- it broke into two pieces some hundreds of yards or more apart

[doesmyopinionmatter]

Leave it alone. If they want to study it, fine. Do not desecrate this tomb. It belongs to eternity now.

[blondelar7]

I understand the fame of the Titanic and people wanting a small part of it; but the world must realize this is a graveyard. A graveyard of over 1500 souls that were lost on that frigid April night. Would people like to see strangers going through cemeteries and looting contents of graves? What is the difference? Let the Titanic and all the souls who perished rest in peace. Please.

[avigil2]

Uh... there's a huge difference and if you can't figure it out, then there's no one who can explain to you so that you'd understand, blondee!

[Newster1]

Would people like to see strangers going through cemeteries and looting contents of graves? What is the difference? "

Difference is a graveyard has the bodies RIGHT THERE, 6 feet below the surface and headstones, all of that totally absent in the titanic- people drowned 2.5 miles away vertically and maybe a few miles laterally from the resting place of the wreck. No different than building a new office building 3 blocks from a graveyard.

[ubrew12]

Who can claim the Titanic? Didn't the ocean claim it some time ago?

[sddrepublican]

The Titanic is an international treasure. It should be treated as such. We should all respect the people and children that lost their lives due to the captain's negligence and the owner's insistence that the ship use all possible speed to get to port. The salvage on the ship belongs to the decendants of the Titanic.

[lmartink]

Agreed, the salvors are simply grave robbers who are desecrating the site of 1500 lost souls. People do not need to see these artifacts, and certainly no one should be making a profit from those dead people. Respect them. Leave the site alone.

Ballard treated the site with respect, why can't everyone else? Ballard did not lay claim to it.

[jtdev1]

While we're at it, why not just stake claim to all the planets... Hey, maybe the UNIVERSE....

Man is such a stupid creature. Feels he needs to own everything even if he's only on this earth for a spec of time in the grand scheme of things.

[sandog1960]

Kind of like the Russians claiming the North Pole? Who'll be the first to palnt their flag on the Sun?

[hmmIwonder]

Thanks for speaking the truth of life - (just) a spec of time.

[puzzler125]

Who owns the salvaged items from the Titanic? The White Star Line owns the ship itself and the families of the Astors, Molly Brown, and others own what went down with the ship that belonged to their family members. It is sacrilege to pilfer from a memorial site. DO NOT buy anything from any company that offers items for sale. They are pillaging a grave.

[AOCGUY]

I'm pretty sure that White Star filed for and received an insurance claim for the loss of the Titanic. And Molly Brown survived the sinking and died 20 years later.

[pink4sammy]

She was called "UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN" because she survived the sinking, please know your facts before posting
http://www.mollybrown.org/

[bubbadubba]

In the name of his Imperial Majesty King George Bush II son of King George Bush I, I claim the Titanic.
There, I own it now.

[Questionews]

Who Can Claim the Titanic?





Until further notice..............Fish!