Titanic salvage firm entitled to tens of millions in compensation, judge rules

Published on Saturday 14 August 2010 10:41

THE company with exclusive rights to salvage the Titanic is entitled to full compensation for artefacts worth about $110 million that it has recovered in a half-dozen perilous expeditions to the famous shipwreck, an American judge has ruled.

However, US District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith's ruling did not determine how RMS Titanic will be paid.

She said she could take up to a year to decide whether to give RMS title to the approximately 5,900 artefacts or sell them and turn the proceeds over to the company.

Meanwhile, RMS will retain possession of the items, which its Atlanta-based parent company Premier Exhibitions has been displaying in exhibitions around the world. The artefacts include pieces of china, ship fittings and personal belongings.

"The company is extremely pleased with the ruling, which reflects a thoughtful, deliberate approach to this case as well as the judge's deep concern over the long-term well-being of the Titanic artefacts," RMS lawyer Brian Wainger said.

The Titanic sank after striking an iceberg on its maiden voyage on 12 April, 1912, killing more than 1,500 of the 2,228 passengers and crew.

An international team led by oceanographer Robert Ballard located the wreckage on the North Atlantic floor about 400 miles off Newfoundland in 1985.

Courts later declared RMS Titanic salvor-in-possession - meaning it had exclusive rights to salvage the shipwreck - but explicitly stated it does not own the artefacts or the wreck itself.

In her ruling, Smith praised RMS Titanic for taking substantial financial and physical risks and for going to great lengths to preserve the fragile artefacts. She said the company has devoted more than 500,000 hours of labour to salvaging, conserving and exhibiting the artefacts.

Smith noted that RMS had to invent tools to convert manned submersible vessels from research-only to salvage operations.

For example, the company developed a vacuum system for collection of small items and a system that used diesel fuel-filled lift bags to recover a 15-ton section of hull - the largest artifact ever recovered from the deep ocean.

RMS employees who took those submersibles 12,500 feet to the ocean floor did so at great personal risk, Smith noted.

"The water pressure at that depth is 6,300 pounds per square inch, meaning that a breach in or even significant damage to, the hull of the submersible would cause the instantaneous death of the entire crew," the judge wrote.

She also recognised the company's extensive efforts to preserve the salvaged artefacts, including desalination and storage in a climate-controlled "bubble", and its promotion of the items' historical significance through worldwide exhibition. More than 20 million people on four continents have viewed the artefacts.