‘Titanic’ artifact salvage efforts paused indefinitely
The only company legally permitted to salvage artifacts from the Titanic has confirmed it will not return to the wreckage in 2025. The decision also ends a yearslong legal battle with the US government that began before the COVID-19 pandemic. But while RMS Titanic, Inc. (RMST) isn’t ruling out future expeditions entirely, its most recent visit underscored that time is running out for conservationists.
Since the US granted RMST sole “salvor-in-possession” rights in 1994, RMST has conducted a total of eight excursions to the luxury liner’s historic resting place at the bottom of the North Atlantic. These operations have resulted in the recovery and conservation of thousands of items, including silverware, clothing, passengers’ personal effects, and a section of the hull. Its most recent mission took place over 20 days in July 2024, resulting in over two million high resolution videos and photographs. Most notably, however, was RMST’s confirmation that a portion of the forecastle deck’s bow railing (made famous in James Cameron’s Titanic) had disintegrated. Experts estimate the majority of the Titanic will disintegrate within the next few decades.
According to the Associated Press, the US government decided to withdraw its motion to intervene in a federal admiralty court on January 10th, citing RMST’s decision to scrap recovery dive plans dating back to 2020. The expedition-in-question was originally intended to not only document the wreckage’s status, but bring back historically valuable artifacts that have spent over 112 years exposed to the crushing depth pressures and corrosive waters approximately 12,500 feet below the ocean’s surface. The Georgia-based company was particularly focused on retrieving items from the Titanic’s Marconi room. The space is named for its Marconi wireless telegraph machine, which crew used to signal the ship’s distress calls in Morse code.
