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NORFOLK, Va. – The company that has exclusive rights to salvage the Titanic is planning a possible expedition to the world's most famous shipwreck in 2010.
The first expedition to the North Atlantic wreck site since 2004 is revealed in a filing by RMS Titanic Inc. in U.S. District Court, where four days of hearings are scheduled to begin Monday on the company's claim for a salvage award.
Titanic expedition possible in 2010 - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091026/ap_on_bi_ge/us_titanic_salvage - broken link)
Oh good grief, it's not a grave, it's a sunken ship. In this case, nobody can ever see anything from it unless they bring artifacts up, and it's not like they're bringing up bodies. I bet you're against museums having anything historical too?
Oh good grief, it's not a grave, it's a sunken ship. In this case, nobody can ever see anything from it unless they bring artifacts up, and it's not like they're bringing up bodies. I bet you're against museums having anything historical too?
They can take pictures.
The stuff they pull up has little historic value beyond the fact it came from the Titanic. But there is a lot of cash to be made by putting together a traveling circus of Titanic junk that costs 30 bucks a head for entry. That doesn't quite qualify as a "museum" and is why I am against it.
There is nothing down there of historical value really since it's too recent of an event. No dead bodies of course since they have long ago been disolved.
I have a direct family connection to it, and I met the women who's father perished in it before she passed away herself a few years ago. I don't object to them picking up rusty personal effects and broken dishes from the ocean floor. Sure, preserve it before the elements destory the last of it. But lets not forget that, at this point, as opposed to digging up ancient ruins or fossils, there will be of little to be gained of historical interest. It will teach us nothing that I didn't already get from that woman who grew up without a father.
The stuff they pull up has little historic value beyond the fact it came from the Titanic. But there is a lot of cash to be made by putting together a traveling circus of Titanic junk that costs 30 bucks a head for entry. That doesn't quite qualify as a "museum" and is why I am against it.
So was the traveling Tutankhamen exhibit for instance also just a "circus" to you?
The Titanic is just a sunken ship, so what? Are you also against recovery of older sunken ships? Should the bell of the Edmund Fitzgerald not have been recovered because it's "grave-robbing"?
How about the Atocha? How about recovery of all or part of ANY sunken vessel where people died? I have a newsflash for you -- those people aren't there anymore and they don't need that stuff anymore.
So was the traveling Tutankhamen exhibit for instance also just a "circus" to you?
The Titanic is just a sunken ship, so what? Are you also against recovery of older sunken ships? Should the bell of the Edmund Fitzgerald not have been recovered because it's "grave-robbing"?
How about the Atocha? How about recovery of all or part of ANY sunken vessel where people died? I have a newsflash for you -- those people aren't there anymore and they don't need that stuff anymore.
Hmmm.... Lets examine the differences.
The Tut exhibit happened once back in the 70's. You can go see Tut's stuff anytime for about 18 bucks in an institution controlled by a governmental entity that does not exist for profit (although tourism is undeniably important to the impoverished Egyptian economy). Tut lived over 3000 years ago in a word that was very different from today and we know comparatively very little about it. The tomb was carefuly documented and it's contents preserved and interpreted by trained archaeologists with the main goal of learning more about a time period in the distant past.
Taking the bell from the Edmund Fitzgerald is tradition, and it is rung every year in honor of the dead from the shipwreck. No other items were taken, and they didn't even go into the ship out of respect for the dead.
The Atocha recovery was driven by the lust for gold, but they still made an effort to recover and understand the site archaelogically. Our knowledge of 16th century Spanish seafaring was increased. We didn't know who or how many people died, their names were lost to history.
The Titanic exhibits are ongoing for a long as they are profitable. They are owned and operated by a private entity with a motive for profit. We know very well what life was like 100 years ago and there is no new knowledge to gain at the Titanic wreck, except maybe by studying deep sea flora and fauna. There are people still alive who's family was negatively effected by the tragedy, which took over 1500 lives. We know who each and every one of them were.
I don't object to going down there and having a look, or even putting some of the stuff in a real museum for the benefit of the public and future generations...
...BUT, the ongoing profit motivated looting of the wreck is the same to me as stealing headstones and park benches in a cemetery. It is disrespectful to those who lost their lives and done in poor taste, and with no counterbalancing benefit to humanity in general.
There is nothing down there of historical value really since it's too recent of an event. No dead bodies of course since they have long ago been disolved.
Yes, but you see, it's not necessary for anything of historical value to be there. The word is marketing. Just two days ago, I saw an ad in a local paper for a photo of the Titanic signed by the last survivor, together with an actual, certified piece of coal from the ship.
Wait and see: expeditions to the Titanic will be followed in short order by an explosion in sales of items from the ship. As they once sang on Monty Python's Flying Circus, "There is nothing quite as beautiful as money money money money..."
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In this case, nobody can ever see anything from it unless they bring artifacts up, and it's not like they're bringing up bodies. I bet you're against museums having anything historical too?
