Leave Titanic Alone | God's World News

Leave Titanic Alone

06/17/2020
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    Titanic leaves Southampton, England, on her maiden voyage on April 10, 1912. (AP Photo/File)

Don’t disturb Titanic! That’s the message from the U.S. government. Officials want to stop a mission to retrieve the ship’s wireless telegraph machine. They say the expedition would break federal law—and a promise to leave the famous shipwreck undisturbed.

The Titanic was traveling from England to New York when it struck an iceberg and sank in 1912. All but about 700 of the 2,208 passengers and crew died. Distress signals to other ships were made by the onboard Marconi wireless telegraph machine. Those calls helped to save hundreds of people on lifeboats when other ships answered the pleas.

Today, the wreck site sits on the floor of the North Atlantic about 400 miles off Newfoundland, Canada.

Late Monday, U.S. attorneys filed a legal challenge to an expedition by a salvage firm.

RMS Titanic Inc. hopes to begin its trip by the end of August. The company plans to dive nearly 2.5 miles to recover the radio equipment from a deck house near Titanic’s grand staircase. The mission could require an underwater vehicle to cut into the rapidly deteriorating roof if the submersible is unable to slip through a skylight. The firm says it would exhibit the telegraph and tell the stories of the operators who broadcast the sinking ship’s calls.

U.S. attorneys argue that federal law requires the firm to get permission from the Secretary of Commerce before conducting salvage expeditions “that would physically alter or disturb the wreck.”

They also contend that the agreement with Great Britain controls entry into the hull sections to prevent disturbances to the hull and “other artifacts and any human remains.”

The pact calls for the Titanic to be recognized as “a memorial to those men, women, and children who perished and whose remains should be given appropriate respect”—a biblically correct idea since all humans are bearers of God’s own image. (Genesis 1:27)

In May, U. S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith agreed with the salvage firm that the telegraph is historically important and could soon disappear in the rapidly decaying wreck. Smith wrote that recovering the telegraph would contribute to preserving the legacy of the ship and its passengers.

Depending on Smith’s new ruling, naval law professor George Rutherglen says the U.S. government could petition a higher court. He also thinks granting the firm’s request could open the door to further appeals to salvage inside the hull.

“The [salvagers] have a lot of money tied up in this wreck,” he says. “Their natural incentive is to try to recover as many artifacts as they ethically can.”

Do you think the salvage company should be allowed to recover the telegraph?

(Titanic leaves Southampton, England, on her maiden voyage on April 10, 1912. AP Photo/File)