Fate of Titanic, its treasures in US judge's hands
By STEVE SZKOTAK
ASSOCIATED Piss WRITER
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) —Nearly
a century after the Titanic struck
ice in the North Atlantic, a
federal judge in Virginia is
poised to preserve the largest
collection of artifacts from the
opulent oceanliner and protect
the ship's resting place.
U.S. District Judge Rebecca
Beach Smith, a maritime jurist
who considers the wreck an
"international treasure," is
expected to rule within weeks
that the salvaged items must
remain together and accessible
to the public. That would ensure
the 5,900 pieces of china, ship
fittings and personal belongings
won't end up in a collector's
hands or in a London auction
house, where some Titanic
artifacts have landed.
The judgment could also end
the legal tussle that began when
a team of deep-sea explorers
found the world's most famous
shipwreck in 1985.
The salvage company, RMS
Titanic Inc., wants the court to
grant it limited ownership of the
artifacts.
At the same time, a cadre of
government lawyers is helping
Derided by some, Alaska volcano monitors spot on
By DAN JOLING
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) —A
month after Louisiana Gov. Bobby
Jindal complained about wasteful
spending in President Barack
Obama's economic stimulus
package including money
he sneered was for "something
called 'volcano monitoring'
Alaska pilots were grateful for
such expenditures.
The Alaska Volcano Observatory
was ready with warnings to flight
officials when Alaska's Mount
Redoubt blew, sending potentially
deadly ash clouds north of
Anchorage.
Readings from seismometers
and atmospheric pressure sensors
alerted scientists that an eruption
had occurred. Weather radar
confirmed the presence of an ash
cloud that ascended more than 11
miles above sea level.
"Without instruments in the
ground, we would not have been
able to tell you this was coming,"
said John Power, a geophysicist
Smith shape covenants to
strictly monitor future activity
at the Titanic wreck 212 miles
beneath the surface of the
Atlantic. Amid evidence of the
ship's deterioration, experts
and government lawyers say the
sanctity of the Titanic must be
properly protected as a memorial
to the 1,522 people who died
when it went down.
"For the most part, the value of
Titanic is its history and not
from some pile of gold, silver
and jewels," said Ole Varmer, an
attorney in the international law
office of the National Oceanic
andAtmosphericAdministration,
whose office has developed
guidelines for the Titanic.
Because the Titanic sank in
international waters on April 15,
1912, and the ship's owners are
long gone, the wreck site and
its artifacts have been subject
to competing legal claims
since an international team
led by oceanographer Robert
Ballard found it 24 years ago.
The courtroom survivor is
RMS Titanic Inc., also known
as RMST, which gathered
the artifacts during six dives.
Courts have declared it salvor
in-possession meaning it has
exclusive rights to salvage the
with the U.S. Geological Survey at
the Alaska Volcano Observatory.
Volcano monitoring became
a political issue when Jindal
gave the Republican response
to President Obama's message
to Congress on the economic
stimulus package. Jindal said the
package was "larded with wasteful
spending," including $l4O million
for volcano monitoring.
U.S. Sen. Mark Begich, D-
Anchorage wrote Jindal and said
volcano monitoring is a matter
of life and death in his state. He
made the point again after the
latest eruptions.
"I sleep better knowing the
scientists are at work at the AVO
keeping track of this activity," he
said by e-mail.
The Alaska Volcano Observatory
is a joint program between
the USGS, the University of
Alaska and the state Division
of Geological and Geophysical
Surveys. The observatory was
formed in response to the 1986
eruption of Mount Augustine.
The observatory has a variety
Titanic but have explicitly
stated it does not own the 5,900
artifacts or the wreck itself.
RMST is a subsidiary of
Premier Exhibitions Inc., an
Atlanta company that bills itself
as "a major provider of museum
quality touring exhibitions."
Its offerings include sports
memorabilia, a traveling Star
Trek homage and "Bodies,"
an anatomy exhibit featuring
preserved human cadavers.
RMST conducts traveling
displays of the Titanic artifacts,
which the company says have
been viewed by 33 million
people worldwide.
Last month, RMST underwent
a shakeup of its board and
saw its director resign over
the company's poor financial
performance, according to
Premier Exhibitions filings with
the Securities and Exchange
Commission and statements by
dissident shareholders. Smith
had expressed concerns before
the board shakeup about RMST's
ability to continue properly
managing the collection,
considering the company's
financial situation.
No one familiar with the case
or the artifacts has questioned
RMST's handling of them.
of tools to predict eruptions. As
magma moves beneath a volcano
before an eruption, it generates
earthquakes, swells the surface of
a mountain and sends out gases.
The observatory samples gases,
measures earthquake activity
and watches for landscape
deformities.
"Generally the earthquakes that
are occurring at these volcanoes
are too small to be felt unless
you're standing right on the
volcano," Power said.
Mount Redoubt, about 100 miles
southwest of Alaska's largest city,
first blew at night Sunday, and
even after sunrise, was socked in
by clouds, obscuring ash that that
Can clog a jet engine and knock
aircraft from the sky.
Alaska Airlines on Monday
canceled 19 flights because of
the ash clouds. In-state carrier
Era Aviation canceled four,
and Elmendorf Air Force Base
in Anchorage kept 60 planes,
including fighter jets, cargo
aircraft and a 747 commercial
plane, in shelters.
RMST is seeking limited
ownership of the artifacts as
compensation for its salvage
efforts. In its court filing for a
salvage award, the company
put the fair market value of the
collection at $110.9 million. The
same filing states that RMST's
costs associated with the
recovery and conservation of the
artifacts have exceeded revenues
from their display.
If the court agrees to RMST's
request, the company could sell
the entire collection to a museum
with court approval.
Robert W. McFarland, an
attorney for RMST, declined to
comment before Smith rules.
Smith is drawing upon the
State Department and NOAA to
help craft the covenants to keep
the artifacts preserved, intact
as a collection and available to
the public, and to guide future
salvage operations at the Titanic
wreck by RMST. At a hearing
in November, the no-nonsense
judge made clear the stakes.
"I am concerned that the
Titanic is not only a national
treasure, but in its own way an
international treasure, and it
needs protection and it needs to
be monitored," the judge told
lawyers in the case.
In a 1989 eruption, Redoubt sent
ash high into the atmosphere and a
KLM jet 150 miles away flew into
the cloud. It's four engines quit
and the jet with 231 passengers
on board dropped more than 2
miles before the crew was able to
restart all engines and land safely
in Anchorage.
Volcanic ash has been used as an
industrial abrasive and can injure
skin, eyes and breathing passages.
The far greater danger in Alaska,
Power said, is to aircraft.
"Aircraft and ash really don't
mix," he said. "It's the principal
hazard that you see in Alaska. You
can imagine flying an airplane
into a sand blaster. That's what
happens an airplane encounters
an ash cloud."
The observatory works closely
with the National Weather
Service and the Federal Aviation
Administration to alert pilots and
airlines to the danger of ash.
Scientists with the volcano
observatory last fall noted an
increase in seismic activity at
Redoubt and in January warned
Congress has expressed its
interest in preserving the Titanic
as a memorial. U.S. lawmakers
have not, however, implemented
an agreement with the United
Kingdom, which has already
embraced a ban on unregulated
salvage of the wreck.
J. Ashley Roach, a retired
State Department lawyer who
worked on the Titanic case, said
the Titanic is the first major
shipwreck in international waters
to receive such close scrutiny.
"You have a domestic court and
now the branches of government
working together to make sure
the wreck itself continues to be
available in the future for the
public good," he said.
International protections have
been sought for the Titanic
almost since the wreck was
discovered. Ballard, who led
the team that found the ship,
told a congressional hearing in
October 1985:
"Titanic is like a great pyramid
which has been found and
mankind is about to enter it
for the first time since it was
sealed. Has he come to plunder
or appreciate? The people of the
world clearly want the latter."
that an eruption was imminent.
The warning level has been
lowered and raised since then as
the mountain cooled and heated
up.
The explosions Sunday
and Monday damaged three
seismometers, including the one
closest to the summit. They could
have been hit by flying rock or
their electronic circuitry could
have been damaged by lighting
that often accompanies an ash
plume. Seven others seismometers
continue to take readings on the
mountain.
If Redoubt follows historic
trends, there will be more
eruptions in the next 48 hours, or
in weeks to come.
During the 1989-1990 eruptions,
ash clouds were generated on and
off for about a week. Redoubt
then alternated between growing
a lava dome and sending up ash
clouds for about five months,
Power said.
"I would be surprised if we don't
see more," Power said.