Why US govt is blocking an expedition to Titanic to recover artefacts

In an effort to settle the long-standing issue of who controls access to the historic Titanic wreckage, the United States government on August 25 filed a motion in a federal court in Virginia to prevent a planned 2024 expedition to the iconic site to salvage artefacts from it.

According to a report published in the New York Times, two U.S. attorneys filed a motion in a federal court in Norfolk, Virginia seeking to block the decades-old recovery of the artefacts that are buried in the ship's wreckage. Essentially, the federal government is taking "legal action" to settle the question as to who asserts control over the recovery of the artefacts from the Titantic. Besides, wanting to stop a planned expedition to the site next year.

This move comes close after the tragedy in June 18 this year, when a tourist submersible craft Titan on its voyage to the Titanic wreckage site suffered a catastrophic implosion killing all the voyagers on board. The June 18 submersible craft disaster raised questions about who controls the access to the wreckage of the famed ill-fated ship, which sank in 1912 two miles down on the North Atlantic seabed.

Weeks after the wreckage site came to light in 1985, the US government, in fact, had tried to seek legal authority to regulate the access to it. Washington wanted the shipwreck to be a memorial to the 1,500 people who had lost their lives after the liner sank on hitting an iceberg.

Calling for a global accord as the wreckage of the liner lay in international waters, US Congress declared “no person should physically alter, disturb, or salvage the RMS Titanic”. However, over the years, thousands of artifacts have been retrieved, including a top hat, perfume vials and the deck bell that was rung three times to warn the ship’s bridge of a looming iceberg, after the Virginia court in 1994 granted exclusive salvage rights to RMS Titanic, Inc., an Atlanta-based company.

US government moves in to salvage Titanic wreckage artefacts

With this move now, the federal government wants to to become a party to the salvage case and block any expedition that it sees as "objectionable". The federal government's stand is that the Secretary of Commerce and its maritime unit, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, have the legal right to approve or deny permission to RMS Titanic whenever "the company" seeks the court's permission to conduct more artefact recoveries, said the reports. This is in line with a 2017 legislation passed by Congress, giving the Secretary of Commerce the powers over the wreckage site.

The report quoted Ole Varmer, a retired lawyer for NOAA who specialises in shipwreck conservation, as saying, “This has been a long time coming.”

RMS Titanic plans to challenge the federal government motion, said the report. And a lawyer representing the company said they retain the right to continue to conduct salvage activities at the wreck site, without having to get any approval from any third-parties. They only have to apply to the US district court which maintains jurisdiction over the wreck site, said the company.

Decades after the tragic sinking of the Titanic, the wreckage site continues to draw people and make news.