Those of you that follow the news may remember when, in the summer of 1996, some people tried to raise part of the Titanic. But the cables snapped just before it reached the surface, and the 17-ton piece of metal plating sank again.
When it happened, many Titanic survivors were saying that it was sacreligious to disturb the graves of their loved ones. Many people ignored them, wanting to see more of the wreck salvaged from the ocean bottom (in fact, two cruise ships had been watching the entire recovery process until the cables snapped). But the story of the pirates of the Titanic keeps getting more and more ridiculous.
Ever since the Titanic sank in 1912, people have been trying to bring it back. All kinds of crazy ideas have come up-- everything from freezing the ship to filling it with ping-pong balls. One time, the British ship Help followed the Titanic's path all the way to where the wreck was supposed to be, then began blasting underwater explosives; apparently she wanted to blast the Titanic open to look for treasure. But luckily, no one knew exactly where the Titanic wreck was, and the Help was no exception; she missed her mark, and the wreck was undamaged.
Several expeditions and three decades later, the wreck of the Titanic still had not been found. The great ship lay two and a half miles below the surface, which for all practical purposes meant that she may as well be on the moon. The turning point in the story came just after midnight on September 1, 1985, when crew members on the research vessel Knorr saw a huge boiler flash up on their TV screens, taken by a camera that was being towed along the ocean floor. A year later, several of these researchers, including veteran sea explorer Robert Ballard, dove down to the wreck. They took care not to disturb the wreck, except for a plaque that they left as a memorial to those that died there.
But Ballard failed to acknowledge that the expedition that first found the Titanic a year earlier had been partly funded by the French government. The French expedition leaders felt that Ballard was hogging the spotlight, so they began discreetly hinting that they'd be willing to rent out their submarines out to anyone who wanted them.
They found someone in TV producer John Joslyn. When they broadcast their findings on TV, they made it look as if it were a live TV news show. Instead, the show had been taped several weeks in advance in the Caribbean. On the show, they brought up a safe from the wreck, opened it ("it swung open as if on oiled hinges" said Civilization magazine), and found all kinds of valuables: money, jewelry, you name it. But footage taken by Ballard on the ocean floor showed that the safe's bottom had been rusted out, and it was completely empty!!! The whole show had been a gimmick that not even Geraldo could top. (In fact, Joslyn had worked with Geraldo on numerous occasions, so that may not necessarily be a coincidence.)
According to international law, the first person to salvage something from a wreck in international waters has full and complete salvage rights to the entire wreck. So now Joslyn essentially owned one of the most famous shipwrecks in history. Now a fast-talking car salesman named George Tulloch came forward, bought the Titanic from Joslyn, and formed his own company: R.M.S. Titanic, Inc.
This is not a joke. Yes, a sleazy car salesman who knows nothing about underwater exploration currently owns the Titanic.
Of course, since it is in international waters, no one can be arrested for trespassing on the Titanic (which is how James Cameron was able to shoot on location for his movie). But Tulloch is the only one that can move anything.
The company very often emphasizes that they don't sell any of their artifacts, they just "preserve" them. Okay, but how do you explain this? They brought up a big thing of coal from the wreck, chopped it up into chunks the size of charcoal briquettes, and began selling them to people for $25 apiece. The company says that they are "offering any member of the public the right to conserve one of the fragments". Excuse me? Sounds to me like more used-car salesman bullshit.
And then there's the story of Titanic survivor Edith Haisman. Her father died on the ship wearing a gold watch. Eighty years later, his body had decayed, leaving only the watch; the company retrieved the watch and offered to sell it back to her for $20,000! Haisman started raising a stink with the press, so they relented and gave it to her for free. But then, when she died four years later, they took it back!!! Preservation my ass.
And that's not all. The International Congress of Maritime Museums says they're horrible at preservation. "They seem to fall short every time," is how they put it. Other museums agree; the Titanic Historical Society, for one, hates them.
As if that weren't enough, R.M.S. Titanic, Inc. has just entered in a deal with the Discovery Channel. When they were recovering that big chunk of the wreck two summers ago, one of the reps asked Tulloch is he had better forget the people watching him from the cruise ships, and just make sure the piece is recovered correctly. Tulloch refused; all he cared about was to put on a show.
It's time we put an end to his little show and got R.M.S. Titanic, Inc. to respect the graves of the 1500 people who died that night. Enough with your little escapades, Mr. Tulloch. Get a life.
