In late 1985, weeks after the shattered remains of the RMS Titanic came to light, officials in Washington began seeking legal authority to regulate access to the famous shipwreck as part of a memorial to the more than 1,500 passengers and crew members who had lost their lives in 1912.

Congress called for a global accord, as the wreck lay in international waters. Until then, Congress declared, “No person should physically alter, disturb, or salvage the RMS Titanic.”

As nations debated a draft agreement, American salvors moved in. Over the years, thousands of artefacts have been retrieved, including a top hat, perfume vials and the deck bell that was rung three times to warn the ship’s bridge of a looming iceberg.

Now, the federal government is taking legal action to assert control over who can recover artefacts from the storied liner and, potentially, to block an expedition planned for next year. The move comes as the Titan submersible disaster of June 18 raised questions about who controls access to the ship’s remains, which lie more than 3km down on the North Atlantic seabed. The legal action is also notable because it pits the legislative and executive branches of government against the judicial branch.

Last Friday, in a federal court in Norfolk, Virginia, two US attorneys filed a motion to intervene in a decades-old salvage operation. The Virginia court specialises in cases of shipwreck recovery and in 1994 granted exclusive salvage rights to RMS Titanic Inc., which is based in Atlanta. The company has retrieved many artefacts from the ship and set up a number of public exhibitions.

The company won the salvage rights after the French-American team that discovered the Titanic in 1985 made no recovery claims.

The federal government is now seeking to become a party to the salvage case and block any expedition it deems objectionable. It claims the legal right to have the commerce department and its maritime unit, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, approve or deny permission to RMS Titanic whenever “the company” seeks the court’s permission to conduct more artefact recoveries.

“This has been a long time coming,” said Ole Varmer, a retired lawyer for NOAA who specialises in shipwreck conservation. The federal government, he added, “has been forced to intervene as a party and ask the court to enforce these laws”. RMS Titanic plans to fight the federal action.

New York Times News Service