NORFOLK, Va. (AP) 鈥� People have been diving to the Titanic’s wreck for 35 years. No one has found human remains, according to the company that owns the salvage rights.
But the company鈥檚 plan to retrieve the ship鈥檚 iconic radio equipment has sparked a debate: Could the world鈥檚 most famous shipwreck still hold remains of passengers and crew who died a century ago?
Lawyers for the U.S. government have raised that question in an ongoing court battle to block the planned expedition. They cite archaeologists who say remains could still be there. And they say the company fails to consider the prospect in its dive plan.
鈥淔ifteen hundred people died in that wreck,鈥� said Paul Johnston, curator of maritime history at the Smithsonian鈥檚 National Museum of American History. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 possibly tell me that some human remains aren鈥檛 buried deep somewhere where there are no currents.鈥�
The company, RMS Titanic Inc., wants to exhibit the ship’s Marconi wireless telegraph machine. It broadcast the sinking ocean liner’s distress calls and helped save about 700 people in lifeboats.
Retrieving the equipment would require an unmanned submersible to slip through a skylight or cut into a heavily corroded roof on the ship’s deck. A suction dredge would remove loose silt, while manipulator arms could cut electrical cords.
RMS Titanic Inc. said human remains likely would’ve been noticed after roughly 200 dives.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not like taking a shovel to Gettysburg,鈥� said David Gallo, an oceanographer and company adviser. 鈥淎nd there鈥檚 an unwritten rule that, should we see human remains, we turn off the cameras and decide what to do next.鈥�
The dispute stems from a larger debate over how the Titanic’s victims should be honored, and whether an expedition should be allowed to enter its hull.
In May, a federal judge in Norfolk, Virginia, approved the expedition.
U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith wrote that recovering the radio 鈥渨ill contribute to the legacy left by the indelible loss of the Titanic, those who survived, and those who gave their lives.鈥�
But the U.S. government filed a legal challenge in June, claiming the undertaking would violate federal law and a pact with Britain recognizing the wreck as a memorial site. U.S. attorneys argue the agreement regulates entry into the wreck to ensure its hull, artifacts and 鈥渁ny human remains鈥� are undisturbed.
The case is pending before the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond.
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.
People on both sides of the human-remains debate claim the issue is being played down 鈥� or up 鈥� to support an argument.
RMS Titanic Inc. President Bretton Hunchak told The Associated Press the government鈥檚 position is based on emotion rather than science.
鈥淚ssues like this are used simply to raise public support,” Hunchak said. 鈥淚t creates a visceral reaction for everybody.鈥�
The firm is the court-recognized steward of Titanic artifacts, overseeing thousands of items including silverware, china and gold coins.
鈥淭his company has always treated the wreck as both an archaeological site and a grave site with reverence and respect,鈥� Hunchak said. 鈥淎nd that doesn鈥檛 change whether in fact human remains could possibly exist.鈥�
Gallo said remnants of those who died likely disappeared decades ago.
Sea creatures would’ve eaten away flesh because protein is scarce in the deep ocean, and bones dissolve at great ocean depths because of seawater’s chemistry, Gallo said. The Titanic sits about 2.4 miles (3.8 kilometers) below the surface.
Yet whale bones have been discovered at similar depths, as were human remains on a 2009 Air France plane that crashed into the Atlantic.
鈥淏ut generally that doesn鈥檛 happen,鈥� said Gallo, who previously worked at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and has been involved in several Titanic expeditions.
Archaeologists who filed court statements supporting the government鈥檚 case said there must be human remains, and questioned the motives of those casting doubts.
Johnston wrote to the court that remains could be 鈥渨ithin the confines of the wreck or outside in the debris field鈥� in areas lacking oxygen.
In an interview, Johnston said the company doesn鈥檛 want 鈥渁nyone to be thinking about human remains. They want people to think, ‘Oh cool. I have new artifacts to show the public.’鈥�
David Conlin, chief of the National Park Service鈥檚 Submerged Resources Center, also filed a statement against the expedition.
Conlin told AP 鈥渋t would be scientifically astounding if there were not human remains still onboard that ship.鈥�
He said wrecks older than the Titanic have contained remnants of crew or passengers.
Eight sailors’ remains were discovered on the H.L. Hunley, a Confederate submarine that sank in 1864. And human bones were found at a first-century B.C. freighter wreck near the Greek island of Antikythera.
鈥淰ery deep, cold, low-oxygen water is an incredible preservative,鈥� Conlin said. 鈥淭he human remains that we would expect to find are going to be in the interior spaces that are more difficult to access, where the preservation will be both tragic and spectacular.鈥�
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