Tag: Titanic Salvage

Titanic: The Auction – How many items?

On By Sandi Krawchenko AltnerIn Halifax Titanic, Titanic, Titanic Auction, Titanic Salvage, Uncategorized13 Comments

The Titanic treasure trove is going up for auction.  Many critics will sum up the announcement by saying, “greed wins out in the end”.  After 18 years of court battles, the artifacts that have been recovered from the wreck of the Titanic will be sold just before the 100th anniversary of the sinking.  Guernsey’s of New York will conduct the auction, and makes the following announcement on their website:

“On April 11, 2012, precisely one hundred years to the day of Titanic’s maiden voyage, there will be an unprecedented auction of artifacts recovered from the wreck site of the legendary ocean liner, and related intellectual property and intangibles. Guernsey’s will be offering all of the assets and rights of RMS Titanic, Inc., a division of Premier Exhibitions, Inc. (NASDAQ: PRXI), which for 18 years has served as steward and salvor-in-possession of Titanic and its wreck site.”

The assets, according to Guernseys, “include the complete collection of more than 5,000 artifacts, as well as other extraordinary intangible assets, in the first and only sale of objects that have been recovered from the wreck site of Titanic two and a half miles below the ocean’s surface.”

The Big Piece - now on display in Las Vegas

The question of the precise number of artifacts in the “complete collection” will undoubtedly raise the ire of Titanic followers and purists.  The reported number of artifacts removed by the salvor are no longer available on the Premier Exhibitions website. However, a year ago, the website’s FAQ section was much longer and offered the following:

No. 53            How many expeditions has RMS Titanic, Inc. conducted?

RMS Titanic, Inc. has conducted seven research and recovery expeditions to the Titanic’s wreck site in 1987, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2004.

No. 54            How many artifacts has RMS Titanic, Inc. recovered?

To date, RMS Titanic, Inc. has recovered over 5,500 objects from the wreck site, ranging from delicate porcelain dishes to a 17-ton section of the hull.

The documentary Titanic Revealed, produced in 2004 states there were more than 6,000 artifacts recovered.  It also explores a number of the arguments at play in the raging debate over whether recovering artifacts from Titanic was grave-robbing or an effort to preserve history.

The rules governing the auction of Titanic salvage say all of the artifacts must be sold in one lot, so any dreams fanatics might have of successfully bidding on a Titanic teacup to display in the family china cabinet are impossible. There is also a series of court ordered covenants and conditions that are intended to ensure that the public will continue to have access to seeing the collection, or at least part of it. One would hope that there will also be strict oversight of how the winning bidder is protecting the pieces and making them available to the public. The temptation to slip a few of those items into the black market might well be exceptionally high.

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You may have been among the 22 million people who have seen some of the auction items  in the traveling Titanic exhibit that brings a couple of hundred items from spoons to plates and buttons to a town near you.

For a fee of about $20.00 you are given a “ticket” with a passenger or crew name so that at the end of the tour you can learn whether that person survived.  Six such tours are simultaneously offered in different cities at any given time and both Edmonton and Regina have shows at this writing. The tours are for profit, and done on the cheap, with little more than the bare minimum to satisfy the searching gaze of true Titanic enthusiasts, but they provide, at least, a chance to see something of what remains from Titanic.

The future of those tours, as popular as they are, is now unclear.  One can only anticipate that a fresh round of court appearances will ultimately define what is to become of the Titanic treasures and the access the public will have to appreciate them.

Titanic Salvage in a Wristwatch?

On By Sandi Krawchenko AltnerIn History, Titanic, Titanic SalvageLeave a comment

Have you ever imagined what it might be like to place your hand directly on an item salvaged from the Titanic?

The proponents of salvaging the Titanic argue loudly for the historic value in bringing the artifacts to the surface so that all might share in the wonder of the world’s most famous shipwreck since Noah’s Ark.  Indeed, there are at least half a dozen touring exhibits of Titanic in the world at this very moment, in addition to a number of permanent exhibits in places like Halifax, Orlando and Las Vegas.

But what if you could actually own a piece of Titanic?

What if you could carry a tiny piece of the wreck of the Titanic on your wrist? Imagine.

Somewhere along the way, the people who have the sole salvage rights of the Titanic have gone into the watch business, or they’ve sold a chunk of salvage to allow a company in Switzerland to sell watches that are called “Titanic-DNA”.  Interesting.  I will post more on this story in the days to come.  But for now, take a look at this marketing video.  What would you pay for a watch that was made of material recovered from Titanic?  Would you think it worth $375,000?

Billed as one of the five most expensive watches in the world, the marketing campaign leaves one to wonder just what parts of the Titanic were used in the manufacture of these watches, and further, to ponder just how designer Romain Jerome acquired the material to create these treasures.

Salvaging Titanic Artifacts – Grave Robbing or Preserving History?

On By Sandi Krawchenko AltnerIn Titanic, Winnipeg4 Comments

Titanic: The Artifacts Exhibition opened in Winnipeg  amid much excitement from Titanic enthusiasts. To gaze upon a plate, imagine walking up the grand staircase, and to learn how the ship proclaimed by the press to be “unsinkable” was so quickly taken by the sea are tantalizing thoughts indeed.

Over 22 million people have seen the RMS Titanic exhibit since it first came to the public a decade and a half ago. The exhibit could not exist without the salvage efforts.

But is this grave robbing or preserving history?

As this video clip shows us, without doubt, the interest in Titanic is raising a consciousness and curiosity that is both awe inspiring and profound.

Fifteen hundred people on Titanic died in that cold night, on April 14/15th, 1912. It was the world’s largest and most elegant ship. Titanic was carrying more than 2200 people on its maiden voyage, and it was doomed. On its fourth night at sea, it struck an iceberg and in less than three hours, it broke apart and sank. Only 705 people made it to New York on the rescue vessel, the Carpathia, after spending the night in lifeboats.

But how is it that these artifacts have come to the surface to be placed in a traveling exhibit? Who owns them? Who has the right to make money on them?

Simple questions with complicated answers, steeped in controversy and, many would say, a good deal of greed.

“I opened a Pandora’s box,” said Dr. Ballard who took nothing but images and spine tingling memories away from the wreck site when he discovered it in 1985. The respect he paid to the Titanic was heartfelt and true. It was also costly, in his mind. It was just two years later that the first artifact was scooped off of the ocean floor, setting in motion a series of events that would forever allow the path for disturbing and dismantling the Titanic’s resting place on the ocean floor.

The first salvage operation, which brought 1,500 items out of the wreck site, was conducted by a group of private companies. The details are described in a posting by Titanic-Titanic.com.

Today, there is only one company that has the right to the Titanic salvage operations: RMS Titanic, Inc., which is owned by Premier Exhibitions of Atlanta, Georgia. It bought that exclusive privilege from the other salvage operators who were involved in the 1987 visit to Titanic. The company does not, at this time, have the right to sell any of the items they salvage. Auction items that are gathered by private collectors come from memorabilia that was either possessed by passengers, or found floating on the ocean in 1912. The purists among Titanic collectors would frown, at least publicly, at the opportunity to acquire an item from the salvage operation.

In answer to the question of how the traveling exhibition company came to have the sole right to the artifacts, RMS Titanic has posted this on their website:

“On June 7, 1994 the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia declared RMST salvor-in-possession of the wreck and wreck site of the RMS Titanic, excluding all others from going to the site for the purpose of recovery. RMST is the only entity that has recovered and conserved items from the Titanic.”

The RMS Titanic company says it has completed eight salvage missions at the wreck site, the most recent being in the summer of 2010.

The salvage operations have had both supporters and critics from the outset. Eva Hart, one of the Titanic survivors, who was on her way to Winnipeg with her parents, was quite outspoken about her objection to removing anything from the wreck. She considered it to be the gravesite of the victims, including her father, Benjamin Hart.

Dr. Robert Ballard feels the same way. In a 2004 interview, he lamented having lost the opportunity to protect Titanic from salvage, saying, “It’s ironic that had I taken something, it would have been mine.”

Others believe important historical objects will be lost forever if not placed in museums.

It is interesting to note that the exhibition company that carries sole salvor rights to the Titanic does not count the Titanic exhibit as its only moneymaker. The company has another exhibit that has proven to be a strong source of revenue for the parent company. It is called “The Bodies”.

One does not have to look very deeply into the operations of the company behind the Titanic exhibit to discover a compelling story about driving profits. Salvaging Titanic, human bodies on display, and cutthroat battles in courtrooms make for fascinating reading.

One final word. As you watch the documentary called Titanic Revealed, you may notice in the video that musician Rick Springfield shows off his Titanic treasure. He apparently paid a lot of money for a plaque from a Titanic lifeboat. In the video we clearly see it says S.S. Titanic. But, the Titanic was called the RMS Titanic, which stood for the Royal Mail Ship Titanic.

I suppose it is possible that the lifeboat plaques were misnamed. If someone has further information on this, please do let us know.

For more information on this topic:

To learn more about the battle for ownership, start with this 2005 news article by Jeff Testerman, of the St. Petersburg Times in Florida.

The legal summary of how RMS Titanic won its right to be sole salvor is described here: