US judge says parts of Titanic can be salvaged

A federal judge in the US state of Virginia has ruled that a salvage firm can retrieve the Marconi wireless telegraph machine that broadcast distress calls from the sinking Titanic ocean liner.

US District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith agreed that the telegraph is historically and culturally important and could soon be lost within the rapidly decaying wreck site, according to The Journal.

She wrote that recovering the telegraph “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”.

Her ruling modifies a previous judge’s order from the year 2000 that forbids cutting into the shipwreck or detaching any part of it.

Smith’s order is a win for RMS Titanic Inc, the court-recognised salvor, or steward, of the Titanic’s artefacts. The firm recently emerged from bankruptcy and is under new ownership.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which represents the public’s interest in the wreck site, fiercely opposes 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.

The company said it plans to exhibit the ship’s telegraph with stories of the men who tapped out distress calls to nearby ships “until seawater was literally lapping at their feet”.

“The brief transmissions sent among those ships’ wireless operators, staccato bursts of information and emotion, tell the story of Titanic’s desperate fate that night: the confusion, chaos, panic, futility and fear,” the company wrote in court filings.

The proposed expedition also has been controversial among some archaeological and preservation experts, and the firm may face more legal battles before salvage vehicles can descend nearly 2.5 miles to the bottom of the North Atlantic.

NOAA says the expedition is prohibited under federal law and an international agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom. Those restrictions emerged in the years after the court’s 2000 order.

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, according to The Journal.

Items retrieved from the wreck and associated with passengers continue to fascinate people.