NORFOLK, Va. — The U.S. government is attempting to stop an expedition scheduled to recover items from the Titanic by using federal law as well as an international agreement to treat the sunken cruise liner as a gravesite.
The expedition is being organized by RMS Titanic Inc., a Georgia-based firm, according to The Associated Press. The firm reportedly owns the exclusive salvage rights to the Titanic wreckage.
The planned expedition is scheduled for May 2024, according to a report filed in June obtained by the AP.
The legal battle comes just months after a submersible vessel heading to the Titanic wreckage site went missing and had a catastrophic implosion, which led to the deaths of five passengers on board, according to CNN. However, the legal battle is not because of that incident.
The U.S. government is trying to take legal action over who can recover artifacts from the Titanic, according to The New York Times.
Federal law, as well as a pact with Great Britain, has been in place to treat the sunken Titanic as a memorial for the more than 1,500 people who died when the ship hit an iceberg in April 1912 and sank in the North Atlantic Ocean, the AP reported. Some of the concerns that the U.S. has is over the disturbance of artifacts or human remains that may still be in the wreckage.
In 1986, the Titanic Memorial Act was passed by Congress after the remains of the Titanic were found in 1985 in order to protect the wreckage, CNN reported.
Two U.S. attorneys in a federal court in Norfolk, Virginia, last Friday filed a motion to intervene. This court specializes in cases of shipwreck recovery, according to the Times. However, in 1994, this court granted the exclusive rights to RMS Titanic, Inc., which has retrieved multiple artifacts that have been since set up in multiple exhibitions.
The company said that they would work with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration but does not plan to seek a permit. U.S. government lawyers say that RMST cannot proceed without one and needs approval from the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, according to the AP.
“This has been a long time coming,” Ole Varmer, a retired lawyer for NOAA who specializes in shipwreck conservation, told the Times.
However, RMST plans to fight the federal action, the newspaper reported.
“The company believes it retains the right to continue to conduct salvage activities at the wreck site, without seeking or obtaining approval from any third-parties other than the U.S. District Court which maintains jurisdiction over the wreck site,” RMS Titanic lawyer Brian A. Waigner said in a statement obtained by the Times.
Litigation could go on for years, according to legal experts and the case could eventually go up to the Supreme Court, the Times reported.
