U.S. files lawsuit to halt further exploration of Titanic, says shipwreck now a 'grave site'

The United States government is trying to halt a private expedition aimed at recovering artifacts from the 1912 Titanic wreckage, arguing that a federal law and another international agreement would make the trip illegal, according to a report published by the New York Post.

Justice Department lawyers have argued that the Titanic is officially now a grave site, a designation which would prohibit disturbance from any state or private party.

Still, RMS Titanic Incorporated, a Georgia-based company that bought salvage rights to the Titanic shipwreck wants to send an unmanned vehicle and breach its hull to take photos of entire once great cruise.

The Titanic sank when it struck an iceberg April 15, 1912 after it sailed from England on a voyage to New York.

The U.S. government’s challenge to stop he expedition comes about three months after five people died in a manned submersible imploded while descending to tour the infamous wreckage at the depths of the Atlantic.

That expedition was chartered from a different company.

The current legal battle is has been brought in the U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Virginia, which is designated to hear all Titanic salvage matters based on its jurisdiction.

The U.S. has asserted that breaching the cruise’s severed hull would violate both a federal law and a treaty with England to acknowledge the sunken ship as a memorial to the more than 1,500 passengers who were killed after the Titanic collided into an iceberg and sank while crossing the Atlantic.

The government has asserted it is worried that any such expedition could disturb both artifacts and human remains laying at the depths of the Atlantic in the sunken ship.

“RMST is not free to disregard this validly enacted federal law, yet that is its stated intent,” U.S. lawyers argued in court documents filed Friday. They added that the now designated gravesite “will be deprived of the protections Congress granted it.”

The expedition, tentatively scheduled for May 2024, includes taking photographs of the entire ship both inside and outside.

In a court filed response, RMST said the expedition would recover important historical artifacts and “may recover free-standing objects inside the wreck.”

Those recovered artifacts include “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 radio, a Marconi wireless telegraph, the first of its kind to broadcast Morse code messages about the ship’s collision with the iceberg. 

Those message, sent more than a century ago, were received by nearby ships, which responded and saved about 700 people who fled in lifeboats. 

Still, another 1,500 were either left behind on the ship which did not have enough lifeboats for all its passengers. Others died waiting for boats to come in the dark Atlantic’s cold waters.

“At this time, the company does not intend to cut into the wreck or detach any part of the wreck,” RMST pledged.

The company also promised to “work collaboratively” with the NOAA, which is responsible for preserving the public interest in the wreck.

The company also promised to exhibit the radio along with any information recovered about those who telegraphed out calls for help “until seawater was literally lapping at their feet.”

In May 2020, a U.S. District Court Judge granted RMST permission to take the trip, saying that the radio was culturally and historically important. He also cited the imminence that the radio could soon be lost permanently due to decay.

The U.S. government disagreed however and instead filed the official legal challenge against the 2020 expedition, which never took place. The firm then delayed its plans in early 2021 due to the pandemic.

The tragedy of the Titanic was featured as the subject of an award winning 1997 film directed by James Cameron starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.