The United States government is moving to block a 2024 expedition to the wreckage of the RMS Titanic.
The U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Virginia, is looking to prevent an expedition from Titanic Inc., a Georgia-based company that was granted exclusive salvaging rights to the doomed vessel in 1994. The move comes during a time of record-high scrutiny toward expeditions to visit the Titanic, following the ill-fated voyage of the Titan submersible, which imploded on June 18 while on an expedition to survey the Titanic's wreckage, killing five people.
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However, the legal move to block the 2024 expedition is actually unrelated to the June tragedy; the dispute revolves around the company's intention to salvage parts of the wreck, which the U.S. argues would violate international laws seeking to protect the Titanic wreckage as a grave site.
In the motion, the U.S. argues that RMS Titanic Inc. must “obtain an authorization from the Secretary of Commerce” before conducting “any research, exploration, salvage, or other activity that would physically alter or disturb the wreck or wreck site of the R.M.S. Titanic unless authorized by the Secretary of Commerce,” CNN reported.
Titanic Inc. undertook a similar expedition in 2020 to uncover the ship's radio and was cleared by a U.S. district court to do so. In the filing, the court ruled that the company’s plan “seeks to minimize disturbance to the rest of the Titanic wreck, including to the hull of the ship and the remains of those 1,500 souls lost in the sinking of the ship.”
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In the 2024 expedition, the company does “not intend to seek a permit,” according to the U.S. government's recent filing.
“RMST is not free to disregard this validly enacted federal law, yet that is its stated intent,” U.S. lawyers said in court documents on Friday, Sky News reported, adding that the shipwreck “will be deprived of the protections Congress granted it,” if the expedition is to go forward.