I think that Titanic is the best movie ever and I would like to find out more about the real ship. I know that people have now seen it but are they allowed to retrive it because I heard that there was some kind of legal thing that it can't be brought up. Can you help me?

-- Ian Rafferty (IRaff@compuserve.com), October 29, 1998

Answers

Hello Ian and Welcome to Titanic:

The best advice I can give you if you want to learn more about the ship and what happened 86 years ago is read, read, read and when you have done that, read some more. There is a wealth of information out there about this major event in history. My suggestion, for starters, is the book "A Night to Remember" by Walter Lord and after that "The Night Lives On" by the same author. Once you have done that, the progression is natural and you will continue to learn for many years to come and you will enjoy every minute of it (I started in 1958).

The exclusive salvage rights belong to a company called RMS Titanic, Inc.. They are the only ones who can salvage items from the Titanic legally and they have done so over the last several years. This has been a subject of much controversy that I won't go into here but as you go along, I'm sure you will read and hear about it. As to raising the entire ship itself, that would be physically impossible due to the condition it is in and the depth it is at. The ship is not in one piece and is very fragile. RMST, Inc did raise a "big piece" of the hull (about 15'x 30' and weighing about 20+ tons) this past summer which is part of their display of artifacts which is in Boston, MA until November 1. I saw, and was able to touch, the hull piece this past Tuesday and I can tell you it was a very moving experience for me that I will never forget.

The tragedy of the Titanic is a story without end. You will never regret developing an interest in this story, I promise you. I have taken up enough space here tonight, but if you have any questions, I will try to help and if I don't know the answer, there are many on this board that will know and, no doubt, will be happy to help. Also, feel free to e-mail me directly if you wish. Have a great night!

Regards, Peter

-- Peter Nivling (pcnivling@capecod.net), October 30, 1998.