US Government Blocks Salvage of Titanic's Wireless

In the latest chapter surrounding controversial salvage operations at the wreckage of the Titanic, the US government is challenging a company's plans to recover the doomed ocean liner's wireless telegraph.

The planned recovery of the Marconi wireless telegraph from the wreckage of the doomed luxury liner Titanic is being blocked by the United States government, citing federal law and an agreement with Great Britain that the ship should be treated as a gravesite.

The salvage company RMS Titanic Inc., based in Georgia, had announced its plan to visit the wreck site next May to recover items - including the radio and telegraph used to send the distress call in 1912.

Attorneys for the U.S. government claim the expedition would violate a pact with Great Britain that classifies the wreckage as a memorial. The government also maintains that the salvage trip would violate protections that the US Congress granted the TItanic site. The RMS TItanic company has particular interest in the Marconi room, where messages in Morse Code were transmitted, signaling that the ship was damaged after striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic while enroute to New York from Southampton, England.

RMST, which had been granted salvage rights earlier by the court, told the Associated Press recently [quote] "The company will continue its work, respectfully preserving the memory and legacy of Titanic, her passengers and crew for the future generations." [endquote]

The company plans to put the radio in an exhibit that tells the story of the lost liner. In May 2020, the court gave RMST permission to recover the radio because of its historical significance but the US government challenged the plans for the expedition that year. The expedition was called off.