Titanic salvage company fights pact restricting dives

By MARC DAVIS

© 2000, The Virginian-Pilot

April 5, 2000

NORFOLK -- A New York company that has been plucking artifacts from the Titanic for 13 years has asked a federal judge here to block an international agreement limiting salvage of the wreck.

In a 51-page complaint, R.M.S. Titanic Inc. asked Judge J. Calvitt Clarke Jr. to declare unconstitutional a pending agreement by France, England, Canada and the United States.

The lawsuit was filed Monday, as talks between the company and U.S. officials broke down.

The four countries agreed to the Titanic pact in January. It will be signed in London sometime later this year.

The agreement requires that all dives to the Titanic be approved by the signing nations. Currently, the dives must be approved only by the federal court in Norfolk, which has had jurisdiction over the shipwreck since 1992.

Also, the pact calls for ``minimal adverse impact'' on the Titanic and its artifacts. It says the four countries prefer that the wreck be left alone on the ocean floor.

R.M.S. Titanic says that would interfere with its right to salvage the wreck. The company seeks a temporary restraining order or injunction against U.S. officials.

Although the Titanic is a British ship in international waters, it has fallen to an American judge to resolve the running dispute of what should happen to it.

The original lawsuit was filed in Norfolk's federal court in 1992. After a long legal fight, Clarke granted sole salvor status to R.M.S. Titanic in 1994.

The company claims that the new four-nation agreement would block its court-given rights. The company argues that an international agreement, without implementing laws from Congress, cannot trump a federal court's maritime jurisdiction.

If the four-nation agreement is legal, R.M.S. Titanic claims, then the government must pay the company compensation. The Fifth Amendment forbids taking of private property without ``just compensation.''

On Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Norfolk referred questions to Washington. Attorneys there could not be reached for comment.

Also, the company's attorneys in Norfolk referred questions to New York headquarters. Officials there could not be reached for comment.

The Titanic sank in 1912 after hitting an iceberg about 400 miles off the coast of Canada. The wreckage lies 2 1/2 miles under the ocean's surface. It was discovered in 1985.

A year later, Congress passed the R.M.S. Titanic Maritime Memorial Act. It proposed that the Titanic be designated an international maritime memorial, that guidelines be adopted for its research and exploration, and that no one should alter, disturb or salvage the Titanic pending an international agreement.

But negotiations never took place, and there was no treaty.

Meanwhile, since 1987, R.M.S. Titanic has been using tiny submersibles to pluck artifacts -- suitcases, dishes, jewelry and assorted knickknacks -- from the ocean floor.

In 1998, the company snatched the largest artifact of all: a 20-ton chunk of Titanic's hull, dubbed ``The Big Piece.'' It was the first Titanic expedition to be televised live from the ocean floor.

R.M.S. Titanic now has about 6,000 artifacts from dives in 1987, 1993, 1994, 1996 and 1998. The company promises not to sell the artifacts individually. They are now in traveling exhibits around the world and preserved in labs in France.

R.M.S. Titanic plans another expedition this summer. Company officials say they feel pressure to create more exhibits to make more money.

``There is a huge demand for more exhibitions, which require more objects,'' company president Arnie Geller told the judge on March 22.

Meanwhile, the French and U.S. governments have raised concerns about the company's new direction.

The French government, which provided submersibles for previous dives, is so worried that it now refuses to work with R.M.S. Titanic.

The French and American governments say they are worried that the company's new managers seem determined to sell Titanic's artifacts instead of preserving them.

The company insists it has no plans to sell anything and would sell its Titanic collection intact only to someone committed to public exhibitions.

The company recently went through a major reorganization. A group of investors, led by officials from SFX Entertainment, bought up the company's stock, fired the former managers and installed new ones.

Since then, some stockholders have said they want the company to be more aggressive in making money. ``There's about a billion dollars worth of artifacts down there'' on the ocean floor, stockholder Joe Marsh told the Akron Beacon Journal in December. ``That's a lot of shareholder value.''

On March 17, a State Department official wrote to Clarke about his concerns.

Robert C. Blumberg, a State Department attorney/adviser, said R.M.S. Titanic's new management has placed ``a new and ambiguous qualification on its intent to keep the (artifact) collection together.''

``RMST states that it will do so provided it is consistent with its obligations to its shareholders. This qualification raises doubts about RMST's often stated commitment not to sell artifacts previously recovered and to keep the collection intact.''

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wrote a similar letter in December. The agency said it was ``very concerned'' about reports that R.M.S. Titanic ``is contemplating expanding its salvage efforts, breaking up the collection and possibly selling artifacts,'' wrote Margo E. Jackson, a deputy director.

She warned that NOAA ``would not cooperate in the above actions and may take appropriate steps to ensure that the Titanic is protected.''

France raised similar concerns.

On Dec. 23, the French maritime institute, IFREMER, wrote that ``the recent takeover'' of R.M.S. Titanic has ``resulted in alarming declarations'' by stockholders. The institute threatened a lawsuit if R.M.S. Titanic tries to sell Titanic artifacts.

The company insists there has been no change in policy.

``RMST's salvage efforts . . . involve removal of artifacts from the wreck site for purposes of conservation, restoration and exhibition,'' the company said in its lawsuit Monday.

No hearing date has been set.

* Reach Marc Davis at 446-2303 or mdavis@pilotonline.com