The owners of the Titanic wreck are being challenged by the U.S. government over plans to recover artifacts in 2024.
U.S. officials claim that the wreck is a grave site and that salvaging items from the area is a violation of federal law, according to the New York Post.
A Georgia firm called RMS Titanic Inc. (RMST) owns the rights to the infamous wrecked ship that sank after crashing into an iceberg in 1912.
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More than 1,500 people died in the tragedy, and America entered a pact with Great Britain to allow the wreck to remain on the ocean floor as a memorial for the victims.
Lawyers for the federal government argued in a U.S. District Court hearing held in Virginia last Friday stating, “RMST is not free to disregard this validly enacted federal law, yet that is its stated intent.”
They declared the wreck “will be deprived of the protections Congress granted it” should next year’s expedition occur.
RMST argued their plan is to take photographs of the site and that they “may recover free-standing objects inside the wreck.”
They have noted they may seek to obtain “objects from inside the Marconi room, but only if such objects are not affixed to the wreck itself.”
This room holds the Marconi wireless telegraph radio machine which broadcast that the ship had struck an iceberg before it sank.
RMST also noted, “At this time, the company does not intend to cut into the wreck or detach any part of the wreck.”
They have agreed to work with the public interest organization National Oceanic and the Atmospheric Administration but are not seeking a permit to begin the expedition.
Government lawyers argued that RMST must receive a permit from the Secretary of Commerce, but RMST has argued in the past that this is a violation of salvage rights.
