Who Can Claim the Titanic?

(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.

(AP Photo/Richard Drew)

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
By Associated Press Writer Steve Szkotak

[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.

[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.

[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!

[doesmyopinionmatter]

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