Should Artifacts Be Removed From the Titanic?

Since the shipwreck was found in 1985, RMS Titanic has recovered about 5,500 artifacts. The company displays them in exhibits that can cost about $40 to attend. More than 35 million people have seen the objects, the company’s website says. 

“It would be a real shame to just let those artifacts lie there on the ocean floor—so that only those rich or fortunate enough to be able to go down in a submersible can see them,” says Tomasina Ray. She is the president of RMS Titanic.

Showing the artifacts is the best way to honor those who lost their lives, Ray says. “Looking at their possessions helps us tell their story, helps keep them alive.”

Plus, experts are still trying to fully understand what happened the night the ship sank. Tim Maltin is a historian who has written books on the Titanic. He says the entire ship should be raised. 

“In the future, we may have scientific techniques that will help us better understand what happened to the Titanic,” Maltin says. “But we won’t have the opportunity if the ship is a rust stain on the mud of the Atlantic Ocean.”

Taking artifacts from the Titanic amounts to grave robbing, other people say. Scavenging objects is disrespectful to the dead—especially when the company doing it profits from the items, critics point out.

James Delgado is a marine archaeologist who has visited the shipwreck. Historians can learn from its artifacts, he says, but items should be removed sparingly—and only if there is a valid reason to examine them. Delgado worries about the motives of a private company, which are different from those of public institutions like museums.

“When you start making decisions about what’s going to come up or not based on what you can sell [tickets] for—that’s not archaeology,” Delgado says. At other shipwrecks, divers have destroyed artifacts in search of treasure. Indeed, RMS Titanic hopes to cut through the Titanic to salvage the telegraph used to call for help.

Besides, others say, it’s possible to study the Titanic without disturbing it. Robots can record and map what is left. Then people can visit the site using virtual reality.

“I would never tell someone not to study something that fascinates them,” says Christopher Dostal. He is a maritime archaeology expert at Texas A&M University. “But the need to have trinkets from it—that’s not something I can get behind.”