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 ...
They search for pharaohs last places and others graves, artifacts, etc. , why not salvage these old ships?
Hahaha. I was never that good, but my dad was. He was a merchant marine radioman before they went digital.
“So this a salvage operation to get Titanic collectables to sell?”
Round One.
” He was a merchant marine radioman before they went digital.”
Morse code is digital.
Like Glomar Explorer and manganese nodules.
I was US Navy...used to get in ‘trouble’ with the MMs because their ‘title/ticket’ was Amateur Radio Op...
I ‘claimed’ if they were amateurs, we(I) must have been a ‘professional’...
I have a 2 inch quadraplex tape in storage.
A whole tape library was being tossed and I grabbed one just to have.
I am fairly sure I can still set up an Ampex AVR2 or 6 to play it back.
I don’t get how a retrieving primitive radio transmitter sitting in a ship which sunk 110 years ago, is 12,500 below the surface and 400 miles from the closest land is really going to tell them anything.
Yes but such contrived mystery makes for a better television documentary.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Yes, think Geraldo Rivera and his ‘Capone Vault’
AND all of todays Pols/TV celebs who have a breaking story coming out in a FEW DAYS...
????
You are correct....I should have said until the industry moved from telegraph technology.
SEE #187 - Copy code and paste at site. - NSFW - you’ve been warned. Not really bad. ;-)
It makes for better TV Documentary.
I responded with citing Geraldo Riveras farce inre Al Capones vault which he pimped for about 6 months and when he opened it, it was empty.
The next cite is all the clowns with 'breaking news'- not tomorrow but in two or three weeks, seemingly hoping one would forget the 'promise'.
Other than serving as a historic trophy what purpose would there be to recovering this object? This is a mass grave that should not be disturbed.
So is seeking lower labor costs by shutting down American jobs in favor of cheap Asian labor. That don’t make it right.
Obviously you don’t know. Google John Trump.
Rare, but definitely not one of a kind.
I fail to see you say what is wrong.
Their cabin might have been right at the split...
Olympic was retired and salvaged for scrap.
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