Personal Effects

[paulireland]

Why are most of the personal effects recovered from the bodys and ship taken to the u.s.a.
when they should be in England,I mean the ship was British and most of the people on the ship when British.

 

[Tracey McIntire]

The reason for this is that the company that owns the rights to salvage the Titanic is an American company--RMS Titanic Inc. Also, technically, Titanic was an American ship. The White Star Line was owned by International Mercantile Marine, an American company owned by JP Morgan.

 

[paulireland]

Well i don't think that is right how can you sell right to another country

 

[Tracey McIntire]

Hi Paul! I hope I can explain this better--the Titanic wreck is in international waters and the salvage law states that whoever finds the wreck has the salvage rights. Dr. Robert Ballard discovered the wreck, but did not want to do any salvage. The next person to explore the wreck was George Tulloch, who owns RMS Titanic Inc. and so he has the full salvage rights. He actually did send some of the artifacts to England for a special limited exhibit at the Greenwich Maritime Museum. A lot of the restoration of the items is being done in France. He is looking for a permanent location to display everything but for now the exhibit is travelling from place to place. I hope this clears things up a bit.