Call to recover Titanic's telegraph machine

[Still Waters]

The salvage firm that has plucked silverware, china and gold coins from the wreckage of the Titanic now wants to recover the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Machine that transmitted the doomed ship's increasingly frantic distress calls.

Lawyers for the company, R.M.S. Titanic, Inc., called witnesses before a federal judge on Thursday to explain why the company should be allowed to possibly cut into the rapidly deteriorating ship to recover the device before it's irretrievable.

U. S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith, the maritime jurist who presides over Titanic salvage matters, said it was too early for her to make any decisions on the proposal. She said she needed more details and proposed scheduling another hearing sometime in the future.

https://techxplore.com/news/2020-02-firm-recover-titanic-iconic-telegraph.html

[XenoFish]

I thought that most of the titanic and what's in it was beyond salvage. I figured sea water would've ate it all away by now.

[+Not A Rockstar]

I vote no. This is just a profiteering grab. They decided it was a graveyard at this point and only the debris field could be salvaged. This requires cutting into the hull. Just no. Once cut into they will want anything else they can get to on the inside.

[Stiff]

Quick question as I'm not very up on marine tech and legalities. Is the site guarded? Or monitored in some way? If not, how could they stop anyone plundering the site? Obviously anything removed illegally would have no real provenance but would possibly sell to the right hands on the black market somewhere.

As an anecdote, I used to work, subcontracted, for a marine company on ship refits. The owner of the company was believed to be the biggest collector of Titanic artifacts. I forget what kind of stuff he owned but it was an impressive list.

[Crikey]

Speaking of the Titanic, me and some mates bumped into a lady in the city centre who was obsessed with the ship, and she showed us a locket round her neck which she said contained a few tiny bits of coal from the ships coal bunkers. Later I realised I should have asked her how exactly the coal got up from the seabed to be sold to people like her?

Edited February 23, 2020 by Crikey

[MissJatti]

Let her RIP god damn it.

[+Razman]

I don't know if I would want to wear any coal from the wreck.

[Still Waters]

Update:

Quote

A salvage firm has been given permission to retrieve the Marconi telegraph machine that sent distress calls from the Titanic.

On Monday, a federal judge in the US state of Virginia agreed that the telegraph machine is historically and culturally important and that, if it is not retrieved, it could be lost due to the rapid deterioration of the wreck.

In a written decision, Judge Rebecca Beach Smith said recovering the machine "will contribute to the legacy left by the indelible loss of the Titanic, those who survived and those who gave their lives in the sinking".

https://news.sky.com/story/salvage-firm-can-cut-into-titanic-wreck-to-retrieve-machine-that-sent-distress-calls-11991340

 

[Myles]

6 hours ago, Still Waters said:

Update:

 

Yep.   I'm glad.   They should get some good video and hopefully retrieve some artifacts.   

https://www.foxnews.com/science/titanic-salvage-approval-controversial-plan-retrieve-telegraph-machine

 

A salvage firm has received approval from a judge in Virginia to remove the telegraph machine from the famous Titanic wreck that was used to send distress signals when the liner sank more than 100 years ago.

 

Salvage company RMS Titanic Inc.’s plan to retrieve the Marconi wireless telegraph has sparked controversy, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration among those who have fiercely opposed the mission. NOAA argued in court documents that the telegraph is likely surrounded “by the mortal remains of more than 1,500 people,” and should be left alone.

RMS Titanic Inc. submitted a 60-page plan to retrieve the telegraph, which is believed to still sit in a deckhouse near the doomed ocean liner’s grand staircase. The company said an unmanned submersible would slip through a skylight or cut the heavily corroded roof to retrieve the radio. A “suction dredge” would remove loose silt, while manipulator arms could cut electrical cords.

[Still Waters]

Update:

Quote

Plan to retrieve Titanic radio spurs debate on human remains

People have been diving to the Titanic's wreck for 35 years. No one has found human remains, according to the company that owns the salvage rights.

But the company's plan to retrieve the ship's iconic radio equipment has sparked a debate: Could the world's most famous shipwreck still hold remains of passengers and crew who died a century ago?

Lawyers for the U.S. government have raised that question in an ongoing court battle to block the planned expedition. They cite archaeologists who say remains could still be there. And they say the company fails to consider the prospect in its dive plan.

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-titanic-radio-spurs-debate-human.html