NORFOLK, Va. (AP) – The U.S. government will try to stop a company’s planned salvage mission to retrieve the Titanic’s wireless telegraph machine, arguing the expedition would break federal law and a pact with Britain to leave the iconic shipwreck undisturbed.
U.S. attorneys filed a legal challenge before a federal judge in Norfolk, Virginia, late Monday. The expedition is expected to begin by the end of August.
The Atlanta-based salvage firm RMS Titanic Inc., said it would exhibit the telegraph while telling the stories of the operators who broadcast the sinking ship’s distress calls.
The company plans to recover the radio equipment from a deck house near the Titanic’s grand staircase. The mission could require an underwater vehicle to cut into the rapidly deteriorating roof if the submersible is unable to slip through a skylight.
U.S. attorneys argue the company can’t do that. They say federal law requires the firm to get authorization from the Secretary of Commerce before conducting salvage expeditions “that would physically alter or disturb the wreck.”