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Federal judge in Virginia could end legal fight over Titanic expedition

VPM | By The Associated Press
Published March 14, 2024 at 10:21 AM EDT



The Associated Press/File

The Titanic leaves Southampton, England, April 10, 1912, on her maiden voyage. The U.S. government could end its legal fight against a planned expedition to the Titanic over concerns that it would violate a law that treats the wreck as a gravesite. An assistant U.S. attorney told a federal judge in Virginia on Wednesday March 13, 2024, that the U.S. is seeking more information on revised plans for the May expedition, which have been significantly scaled back.

RMST said in October it had significantly pared down its dive plans.

NORFOLK — The U.S. government could end its legal fight against a planned expedition to the Titanic, which has sparked concerns that it would violate a law that treats the wreck as a gravesite. ... Kent Porter, an assistant U.S. attorney, told a federal judge in Virginia on Wednesday that the U.S. is seeking more information on revised plans for the May expedition, which have been significantly scaled back. Porter said the U.S. has not determined whether the new plans would break the law.

RMS Titanic Inc., the Georgia company that owns the salvage rights to the wreck, originally planned to take images inside the ocean liner's severed hull and to retrieve artifacts from the debris field. RMST also said it would possibly recover free-standing objects inside the Titanic, including the room where the sinking ship had broadcast its distress signals. ... The U.S. filed a legal challenge to the expedition in August, citing a 2017 federal law and a pact with Great Britain to treat the site as a memorial. More than 1,500 people died when the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank in 1912.

The U.S. argued last year that entering the Titanic — or physically altering or disturbing the wreck — is regulated by the law and agreement. Among the government’s concerns is the possible disturbance of artifacts and any human remains that may still exist on the North Atlantic seabed. ... In October, RMST said it had significantly pared down its dive plans. That's because its director of underwater research, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, died in the implosion of the Titan submersible near the Titanic shipwreck in June.

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