Sub to cut into Titanic hull for 1st time only to retrieve its telegraph, last messages

A salvage company has been given the go-ahead to disturb the wreck of the Titanic in hopes of retrieving its Marconi device, the specialized telegraph that conveyed the last messages from the doomed ship’s crew before it sank in 1912.

A U.S. District Court judge ruled on Monday that R.M.S. Titanic Inc., the company that has held salvage rights to the wreck since the 1980s, will be allowed to cut into the ship’s hull in order to rescue the telegraph before it disintegrates. The salvagers plan to send an unmanned submersible into the wreck this summer to retrieve the device, despite outcry from many others who want the site to remain undisturbed.

“The Marconi device has significant historical, educational, scientific and cultural value as the device used to make distress calls while the Titanic was sinking,” Judge Rebecca Beach Smith, of the U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Va., wrote in her ruling. She added that the salvage company will be allowed to “minimally cut into the wreck” in order to reach the ship’s telegraph room.

The judge handed down the ruling amid fierce opposition from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which argued in the public’s interest that the Titanic should be left alone as a mass grave site.

NOAA pointed out in court that the shipwreck is still the final resting place for the “mortal remains of more than 1,500 people,” and it should not be disturbed.

“The purported benefit of cutting open Titanic to recover the Marconi equipment is simply not worth the cost to the resource and is not in the public interest,” NOAA wrote in an April court filing.

 In this April 10, 1912 file photo the Titanic leaves Southampton, England on her maiden voyage. AP Photo

The famous Titanic ocean liner was the largest ship ever built (at the time), but it sank on its maiden voyage from the U.K. to New York City after hitting an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland. More than 1,500 passengers and crew died in the disaster, while about 700 survived.

The ship broke into two pieces after it sank, and the two halves have remained untouched as a memorial to the dead ever since.

According to the salvage crew’s proposal, its robotic sub will first try to enter the telegraph room through an open skylight, and will only cut into the hull if absolutely necessary.

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