The U.S. government is considering halting its legal battle against a proposed mission to explore the Titanic, which has raised concerns about potential violation of a law that regards the wreck as a gravesite.
During a court session in Virginia on Wednesday, Kent Porter, an assistant U.S. attorney, informed a federal judge that the U.S. is requesting additional details on the revised plans for the upcoming May expedition, which have been notably downsized. Porter mentioned that a decision on whether the new plans would constitute a breach of the law has not been reached yet.
RMS Titanic Inc., the company based in Georgia that holds the rights to salvage the wreck, initially intended to capture images from inside the sunken ship's fractured hull and to recover artifacts from the wreckage area. RMST had also expressed interest in retrieving standalone items from the Titanic, such as the chamber where distress signals were originally broadcast during the ship's tragic sinking.
The U.S. had filed a legal objection against the expedition in August, citing a federal law from 2017 and an agreement with the United Kingdom to preserve the location as a memorial. The sinking of the Titanic in 1912 resulted in the loss of over 1,500 lives.
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.
The Titan was operated by a separate company, OceanGate, to which Nargeolet was lending expertise. Nargeolet was supposed to lead this year's expedition by RMST.
RMST stated in a court filing last month that it now plans to send an uncrewed submersible to the wreck site and will only take external images of the ship.
"The company will not come into contact with the wreck," RMST stated, adding that it "will not attempt any artifact recovery or penetration imaging."
RMST has recovered and conserved thousands of Titanic artifacts, which millions of people have seen through its exhibits in the U.S. and overseas. The company was granted the salvage rights to the shipwreck in 1994 by the U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Virginia.
U. S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith is the maritime jurist who presides over Titanic salvage matters. She said during Wednesday's hearing that the U.S. government's case would raise serious legal questions if it continues, while the consequences could be wide-ranging.
Congress is allowed to modify maritime law, Smith said in reference to the U.S. regulating entry into the sunken Titanic. But the judge questioned whether Congress can strip courts of their own admiralty jurisdiction over a shipwreck, something that has centuries of legal precedent.
In 2020, Smith gave RMST permission to retrieve and exhibit the radio that had broadcast the Titanic's distress calls. The expedition would have involved entering the Titanic and cutting into it.
The U.S. government filed an official legal challenge against that expedition, citing the law and pact with Britain. But the legal battle never played out. RMST indefinitely delayed those plans because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Smith noted Wednesday that time may be running out for expeditions inside the Titanic. The ship is rapidly deteriorating.
"Personal stories down there"
Last year, new images of the Titanic developed using deep sea mapping revealed unprecedented views of the shipwreck.
The scan was carried out in 2022 by Magellan Ltd, a deep-sea mapping company, in partnership with Atlantic Productions, a London-based company that was making a film about the project.
The scan provides a three-dimensional view of the wreckage in its entirety, enabling the ship once known as "unsinkable" to be seen as if the water has been drained away.
In the debris surrounding the ship, lies miscellaneous items including ornate metalwork from the ship, statues and unopened champagne bottles.
There are also personal possessions, including dozens of shoes.
Anthony Geffen, the CEO of Atlantic Production, expressed his excitement about the potential discoveries that could be made from the Titanic wreckage. He mentioned the possibility of scanning and capturing the ship in all its detail to uncover how it sank and how its different parts fell apart. Geffen also highlighted the opportunity to discover personal stories from the depths of the ocean.
