Following the Titan disaster where 5 persons died onboard the deep-sea submersible vehicle on a tour of the Titanic wreckage site in the Atlantic, the American government is planning to restrict such dives. As per reports, the US government will stop an expedition planned next year to retrieve Titanic debris artefacts. The govt is citing a federal statute and a treaty that designated the shipwreck as a sacred burial ground, therefore banning removing materials from the seabed.
The unmanned trip has been planned by RMS Titanic Inc., a Georgia-based company that holds the salvage rights to the Titanic debris. They intend to capture pictures of the complete ship and explore the inside of the hull.
The company displays items like cutlery and a fragment of the Titanic that have been found at the wreck site at the bottom of the North Atlantic. Less than three months have passed since five people were killed when a manned submersible from a separate business imploded as it descended to inspect the wreckage, which prompted the authorities to question the latest venture.
The US District Court in Norfolk, Virginia, which is in charge of Titanic salvage cases, is where the legal conflict is underway. The government has maintained that going into the severed hull, as RMST intends to do, would violate federal law and an agreement with Great Britain to regard the sunken vessel as an obituary to over 1,500 people who perished after the ship collided with an iceberg and plunged while crossing the Atlantic in 1912.
However, the company questions the US govt’s right over the issue, as the shipwreck is in international waters, and not within the maritime jurisdiction of the USA.
The disruption of any artefacts or human remains that could still be present on the ship is the government’s principal worry. The attorneys contended that RMST was not free to ignore this legally established federal statute despite its stated intent in court documents on 25 August. They remarked that the shipwreck “will be deprived of the protections Congress granted it.”
The voyage which is scheduled in May 2024, entailed taking pictures of the entire ship, including within. RMST stated that the operation would search for relics in the debris field and “may recover free-standing objects inside the wreck,” in court documents.
These might include “objects from the Marconi room, but only if such objects are not affixed to the wreck itself.” The ship’s Marconi wireless telegraph radio, which was the first to transmit Morse code messages that pertained to the ship’s collision with the iceberg resides in the Marconi chamber. Nearby ships responded to the message and assisted in saving the lives of around 700 people who escaped in lifeboats.
RMST conveyed, “At this time, the company does not intend to cut into the wreck or detach any part of the wreck.” The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which represents the general public’s interest in the wreck, and RMST have agreed to “work collaboratively” on this project. However, it won’t pursue a permit.
The firm cannot move further without a permit, according to US government lawyers, who asserted that RMST needed approval from the secretary of commerce, who is in charge of NOAA. RMST has in the past contested the legality of American attempts to “infringe” on its salvage rights to a shipwreck that is situated in international waters.
The company insisted that the only court with jurisdiction is the one in Norfolk and has supported the claim with centuries of maritime law precedent. When RMST planned a mission to recover a radio onboard, it was involved in a similar legal dispute with the government in 2020.
An unmanned submersible is scheduled to squeeze through a window or grab onto the roof. Afterwards, a “suction dredge” would clear away loose silt while manipulator arms could sever wires. In accordance with the company, it would display the radio and tales of the soldiers who sent out distress calls “until seawater was literally lapping at their feet.”
The District Judge authorised RMST for the mission in May 2020 and noted that the radio is significant historically and culturally, and risked being lost for good owing to deterioration. Several weeks later, the US government officially challenged the 2020 expedition in court, although, it never materialised. Due to the coronavirus epidemic, the company postponed its plans until early 2021.
Titanic Wreckage Protected Under U.S.-U.K. Deal
The U.S. and the U.K. implemented a formal agreement on how to conserve and manage the wreckage of the tragic steamer more than a century after the RMS Titanic crashed to the bottom of the sea after hitting an iceberg and almost 25 years after its memory was revived for a Hollywood blockbuster.
When visiting Belfast, Northern Ireland in 2020, the ship’s construction site before it sailed from Southampton, England, in 1912, British Maritime Minister Nusrat Ghani provided confirmation of the news. He had proclaimed, “This momentous agreement with the United States to preserve the wreck means it will be treated with the sensitivity and respect owed to the final resting place of more than 1,500 lives.”
The US State Department announced, “The Agreement reinforces the United States’ collaborative efforts with the United Kingdom and others to preserve the wreck site as an international maritime memorial to the men, women, and children who perished aboard the ship. The RMS Titanic is of major national and international historical, cultural, and scientific significance and merits appropriate protection.”
UNESCO laws primarily served to protect the wreck’s location earlier, which was found in 1985. The United Nations Cultural Organisation established a set of guidelines in 2001 for destinations considered to be a part of the world’s submerged cultural heritage, such as the Titanic wreck. The agreement stipulates, among other things, the preservation of these remains in their original location and the prohibition of commercial exploitation.
The agreement that was approved by the countries extended those regulations and laid forth precise instructions on how to issue and get licences to explore the ship’s remnants as well as how to punish anyone who breached them.
Titanic Sub Destroyed in Catastrophic Implosion
The remains of a deep-sea submersible Titan that was bringing five passengers to the Titanic’s century-old tragedy were discovered after a “catastrophic implosion” that killed everyone on board and ended a multinational five-day search for the steamship.
The Titan tourist submarine capsized owing to excessive pressure in the North Atlantic Ocean, killing the CEO of OceanGate and 4 prominent passengers in addition to the pilot, 111 years after the Titanic catastrophe.
The US Coast Guard has reported that one of its ROVs from the ship Horizon Arctic discovered tail comb pieces from the OceanGate sub-Titan on the ocean below around 1600 feet from the Titanic’s bow wreckage. The general area also contained other debris that was dispersed. It was determined that the material came from Titan.
Guillermo Stohnlein, a co-founder of OceanGate, informed that if there had been any failure, the implosion would have happened right away. The Titanic’s detritus is situated at a depth of about 3800 metres. The vessel and everything inside it are immediately crushed by the implosion at that level. The pilot and the passengers would have passed away in a matter of milliseconds.
The pilot was the CEO of OceanGate, and among the four individuals were the well-known ‘Mr Titanic’ Paul-Henry Nargeolet, a British-Pakistani father-and-son team named Shahzada Dawood and Suleiman Dawood, and the billionaire adventurer, Hamish Harding.
A veteran of the French Navy, Mr Titanic took part in the initial mission that went to the wreck in 1987, only two years later it came to light. He earned the nickname because he is reputed to have spent the most time at the wreck of the Titanic as compared to any other explorer.
