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People have been diving in the wreckage of the Titanic for 35 years. No one has found human remains, according to the company that owns the salvage rights.
But the company’s plan to recover the ship’s iconic radio equipment has sparked a debate: Could the world’s most famous wreck still contain the remains of passengers and crew who died a century ago?
Jens Schlueter / Getty-Images
A large-scale 360-degree panoramic presentation of the Titanic wreck by artist Yadegar Asisi on January 27, 2017 in Leipzig, Germany.
Lawyers for the US government have raised that question in an ongoing court battle to block the planned expedition.
They quote archaeologists who say the remains could still be there. And they say the company doesn’t take the prospect into account in its dive plan.
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“Fifteen hundred people died in that shipwreck,” said Paul Johnston, curator of maritime history at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
“You can’t tell me that some human remains aren’t buried deep somewhere where there are no currents.”
The company, RMS Titanic Inc, wants to showcase the ship’s Marconi wireless telegraph machine. He relayed distress calls from the sinking ocean liner and helped save some 700 people in lifeboats.
Retrieving the equipment would require an unmanned submersible to slide through a skylight or cut through a badly corroded roof on the ship’s deck. A suction dredger would remove loose sediment, while manipulator arms could cut through electrical cables.
Institute of Exploration, Center for Archaeological Oceanography / University of Rhode Island / NOAA / AP Office of Ocean Exploration
The remains of a coat and boots in the mud on the seabed near the stern of the Titanic.
RMS Titanic Inc says human remains would likely have been noticed after about 200 dives.
“It’s not like taking a shovel to Gettysburg,” said David Gallo, an oceanographer and consultant to the company. “And there is an unwritten rule that if we see human remains, we turn off the cameras and decide what to do next.”
The dispute stems from a broader debate about how Titanic victims should be honored and whether an expedition should be allowed to enter their hull.
In May, a United States federal judge in Norfolk, Virginia, approved the expedition.
US District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith wrote that recovering the radio “will contribute to the legacy left by the indelible loss of the Titanic, those who survived and those who gave their lives.”
But the US government filed a legal challenge in June, claiming the company would violate federal law and a pact with Britain that recognizes the wreck as a memorial site. American lawyers argue that the agreement regulates entry to the wreck to ensure that its hull, artifacts and “any human remains” are not disturbed.
The case is pending before the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia.
World History Archive / Universal Images Group / Getty Images
The RMS Titanic ocean liner of the White Star Line.
The Titanic was traveling from England to New York in 1912 when it struck an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic. The wreck was discovered in 1985.
Over the years, explorers have dispatched remotely operated vehicles to parts of the ship. During his 2001 expedition, film director James Cameron surveyed the area in a booth containing the telegraph equipment, according to court documents filed by the company.
People on both sides of the human remains debate say the topic is being downplayed or raised to support an argument.
RMS Titanic Inc President Bretton Hunchak said The Associated Press The government’s position is based on emotion rather than science.
“Issues like this are simply used to generate public support,” Hunchak said. “Create a visceral reaction for everyone.”
Peter Morrison / AP
Professor Robert Ballard, professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, points to his footage of the wreck of the Titanic that is part of the exhibition on display in the building in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on April 14, 2012. Ballard and His team discovered the wreck of the Titanic in 1985.
The firm is the court-recognized administrator of Titanic artifacts, overseeing thousands of items, including silverware, porcelain, and gold coins.
“This company has always treated the wreck as an archaeological site and a burial site with reverence and respect,” Hunchak said. “And that does not change whether in fact human remains could exist.”
Gallo said the remains of those who died probably disappeared decades ago.
Sea creatures would have eaten the meat because protein is scarce in the deep ocean and bones dissolve in great ocean depths due to the chemistry of seawater, Gallo said. The Titanic lies about 3.8 kilometers below the surface.
However, whale bones have been discovered at similar depths, as have human remains in a 2009 Air France plane that crashed in the Atlantic.
“But generally that doesn’t happen,” said Gallo, who previously worked at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and has been involved in several expeditions to the Titanic.
Institute for Archaeological Oceanography Center and Exploration / University of Rhode Island / NOAA / AP Office of Ocean Exploration
Shoes of one of the possible victims of the Titanic disaster.
Archaeologists who filed court statements in support of the government’s case said there must be human remains and questioned the motives of those who cast doubt.
Johnston wrote to the court that the wreckage could be “within the boundaries of the wreck or outside in the debris field” in areas lacking oxygen.
In an interview, Johnston said the company doesn’t want “anyone to think about human remains. They want people to think, ‘Oh, great. I have new artifacts to show the public. ‘
David Conlin, head of the National Park Service’s Submerged Resource Center, also filed a statement against the expedition.
Conlin told the AP that “it would be scientifically amazing if there were no human remains aboard that ship.”
He said wrecks older than the Titanic have contained crew or passenger remains.
The remains of eight sailors were discovered on the HL Hunley, a Confederate submarine that sank in 1864. And human bones were found in a 1st century BC freighter wreck near the Greek island of Antikythera.
“Very deep, cold, low-oxygen water is an amazing preservative,” Conlin said.
“The human remains that we would expect to find will be in the most difficult to access interior spaces, where preservation will be both tragic and spectacular.”
