Firm Can Cut Into Titanic to Recover Telegraph, Judge Says
This is a cross between History and Latest Happenings, but interesting either way.
A salvage company located the RMS Titanic and obtained salvage rights in the 1980s. There is suppose to be numerous treasures on board. One is a US Army payroll with millions in todays value. Another is rumored to be Czarist Russian gold worth a great deal more. There are also supposed to be a stash of diamonds. But this maritime case was about something else. The Marconi device that was used by Titanic's telegraph operators to send distress calls. The telegraph operators stayed at their post until the water was at their feet. I don't know whether any actually got out.
An underwater salvage company was granted approval this week to cut into the wreckage of the Titanic to try to recover a Marconi telegraph, rekindling a complex debate over access to the ship and maritime law.The company, R.M.S. Titanic, persuaded a federal judge on Monday to allow it to conduct a salvage operation this summer in the wreckage of the ship, which sank during its maiden voyage across the Atlantic in 1912 after hitting an iceberg. More than 1,500 of the ship’s passengers died, and about 700 survived.
The ruling, by Judge Rebecca Beach Smith of the U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Va., made changes to a 2000 court order that prohibited the company from cutting into the ship’s hull to search for diamonds.
The company sought to loosen the restrictions so it could recover the Titanic’s telegraph machine, which it contends could be lost forever because of the degradation of the ship. The radio transmitter could unlock some of the secrets about a missed warning message and distress calls sent from the ship, said the company, which obtained the salvage rights to the wreckage in the 1980s. The site is about 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland.“The Marconi device has significant historical, educational, scientific and cultural value as the device used to make distress calls while the Titanic was sinking,” Judge Smith wrote in her ruling. The company will be permitted to “minimally to cut into the wreck” so it can reach the telegraph room, Judge Smith wrote.