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Firm Can Cut Into Titanic to Recover Telegraph, Judge Says
NY Times ^ | 05-20-2020 | Neil Vigdor and Sandra E. Garcia

Posted on 05/20/2020 8:13:02 AM PDT by NRx

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.

David Concannon, a lawyer for R.M.S. Titanic, said in an interview on Tuesday that the company would try to avoid cutting into the ship and that the ship’s telegraph room could be reached through a skylight that was already open.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: edvirginia; grabbypoppyjudge; judiciary; rebeccabeachsmith
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To: Eric in the Ozarks
It’s a 4 track...
Extremely rare.

I've got one. When I was remodeling the house, I sealed it in a plastic bag, along with a 4-to-8 adapter and some 4-track tapes, and put it in a wall behind new sheetrock. I've done that with other items. In the future, hopefully someone will be happy to find antique stuff. I have fond memories of playing 4-track tapes in my 1956 Chevy back in the 1960s. Memories only, because tape and rubber degrades making the device unusable. Same for the Titanic telegraph, good luck trying to operate it.

161 posted on 05/20/2020 1:05:33 PM PDT by roadcat
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To: TexasGator

Well if they find DiCaprio down there I hope they just leave him there.

;-)


162 posted on 05/20/2020 1:06:10 PM PDT by Tunehead54 (Nothing funny here ;-)
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To: Tunehead54

They were called “registers,” devices that made marks (ink or punches) on paper tape that would have to be decoded later on. A skilled operator didn’t need to use a register and could decode in real time and write down or type out the message directly as it came in.

Either way, the physical record would be gone now.


163 posted on 05/20/2020 1:10:31 PM PDT by Fresh Wind (This tagline is an advertisement-free zone. Is yours?)
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To: 1Old Pro

Marconi invented the radio. Now with Radio Shack out of business those tubes could be priceless.


164 posted on 05/20/2020 1:20:09 PM PDT by Tunehead54 (Nothing funny here ;-)
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To: TexasGator

Recommend you search Google for a “Sense of Humor”. Maybe you’ll run across a coupun. See Ron White for reference after you find a good deal. ;-)


165 posted on 05/20/2020 1:33:27 PM PDT by Tunehead54 (Nothing funny here ;-)
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To: IronJack

You are absolutely right, as I said earlier the argument they made for doing this was BS, and that they were really interested in acquiring sellable stuff.

As an example, a sending key of the type used on the Titanic is worth thousands to a collector. But the actual one from the Titanic would be worth far, far more, in spite of its condition (mostly the wood base would be gone).

As others have suggested, there are other valuables that they would also be after, and the radio stuff would be a cover for that.

A while back, Glenn Beck paid something like $60K for a compass that had been owned by George Washington. Without that connection, it would have probably been worth a few hundred.


166 posted on 05/20/2020 1:34:26 PM PDT by Fresh Wind (This tagline is an advertisement-free zone. Is yours?)
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To: Tunehead54

“Recommend you search Google for a “Sense of Humor”. “

really!


167 posted on 05/20/2020 1:40:52 PM PDT by TexasGator (Z1z)
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To: TexasGator

See? ;-)


168 posted on 05/20/2020 1:55:22 PM PDT by Tunehead54 (Nothing funny here ;-)
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To: Tunehead54

See. what?


169 posted on 05/20/2020 1:59:54 PM PDT by TexasGator (Z1z)
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To: Fresh Wind

Thanks. Honest.


170 posted on 05/20/2020 2:00:10 PM PDT by Tunehead54 (Nothing funny here ;-)
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To: IronJack

LOL!

“(a formation of rust similar to an icicle or stalactite) “

They are forming the ‘rust’, not eating it.


171 posted on 05/20/2020 2:02:31 PM PDT by TexasGator (Z1z)
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To: Tunehead54
Marconi invented the radio.

According to the US Supreme Court, Tesla invented the radio, probably because he knew that more than a century later, there would be a Tesla automobile, and they would need radios.

172 posted on 05/20/2020 2:04:03 PM PDT by Fresh Wind (This tagline is an advertisement-free zone. Is yours?)
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To: TexasGator; x
#15: "David Concannon, a lawyer for R.M.S. Titanic How old is he?"

"They should have saved the money they wasted on lawyers and spent it on better iceberg spotters."


See there are actually two jokes there.

I'm quitting while I'm ahead. Have a nice day. ;-)

173 posted on 05/20/2020 2:06:36 PM PDT by Tunehead54 (Nothing funny here ;-)
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To: TexasGator
"Cold seawater lacking oxygen is not corrosive."

I didn't know that. Thanks!

174 posted on 05/20/2020 2:12:59 PM PDT by Savage Beast (President Trump, praying for guidance, giving his salary to charity, is on the Side of the Angels.)
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To: TexasGator
Only the operator had knowledge of which messages the Titanic received.

And what is recovering the equipment going to tell us about that beyond what the surviving wireless operator, Harold Bride told the inquest? It's not like they're going to find papers with the incoming messages.

175 posted on 05/20/2020 2:17:58 PM PDT by Bubba Ho-Tep ("The rat always knows when he's in with weasels."--Tom Waits)
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To: Fresh Wind

If he were a true visionary he would have invented bluetooth earbuds and the smart phone. ;-)


176 posted on 05/20/2020 2:21:15 PM PDT by Tunehead54 (Nothing funny here ;-)
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To: headstamp 2

Thank goodness!

I thought you were referring to 1/4” Ampex 456 or other tapes which everybody knows were not on that ship.

Sure, if it’s Maxells or Memoreces or the like, go get ‘em. I’m all for it.


177 posted on 05/20/2020 2:28:42 PM PDT by golux (In Memory of Kenny Bunk)
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To: IronJack
This set of images apparently show a computer-generated image showing a part of the Titanic radio room (power panels and a motor-generator set) on the left, and the actual equipment as it exists now as recorded by a previous expedition on the right. This is from the Hackaday site.

The majority of the radio equipment is off to the right and not visible. Whatever is there is in dire need of extensive cleaning before you can really asses its condition.

Considering that a life jacket locker key from the Titanic sold at auction for 85,000 pounds, there is definitely money to be made on that stuff.

178 posted on 05/20/2020 2:31:30 PM PDT by Fresh Wind (This tagline is an advertisement-free zone. Is yours?)
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To: Tunehead54

https://www.geekwire.com/2015/nikola-tesla-predicted-smartphones-in-1926-like-a-boss/

“When wireless is perfectly applied the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain, which in fact it is, all things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole. We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance. Not only this, but through television and telephony we shall see and hear one another as perfectly as though we were face to face, despite intervening distances of thousands of miles; and the instruments through which we shall be able to do his will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket.”


179 posted on 05/20/2020 2:35:22 PM PDT by Fresh Wind (This tagline is an advertisement-free zone. Is yours?)
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To: TexasGator

Do you know how to Google?

************

Limited use/capability shown quite often here. JMO


180 posted on 05/20/2020 2:36:43 PM PDT by deport
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