Video of the Dive

[Gaetane Catanzaro]

I agree with you on that! Although i don't see anything wrong with bringing up some dishes, the idea of bringing up jewels of people who where killed in the disaster IS grave robbery!!

On a side note; everybody knows that jewels are left in the wreck of Titanic. How come nobody has tried to get their eager little hands on it? Is it because the wreck lies so deep?

 

[Jeremy Aufderheide]

I believe that it's illegal to salvage anything from inside the wreck of the Titanic. The debris field is open territory. But the hull/superstructure is off limits.

 

[George L. Lorton]

Good question. Maybe they did grab some jewels and were quiet about it. They got the Persia's Jewels and made a special out of it that I think should of been called The Rape Of The Persia. That's just my humble opinion though. The thing with them going down and getting plates is that you might get a greedy diver or what have you who could also be grabbing other things as well. There's not any cops down there to stop them.

 

[Jason Schleisman]

All we need is some yahoo saying there are jewels in the Empress and before you know it somebody up and cuts the ship to shreds looking for jewels that aren't even there.

Very much like what happened to the SS Islander off the coast of Alaska. The Islander was a smaller steamship, run by the Canadian Pacific Steam Navigation Company, that sank in slightly over 300 feet of ice-cold water after hitting an iceberg in 1901. A loss of 40 lives. Gold was rumored to be aboard. As soon as the technology was available in the 1930's, the wreck was torn up and part of the ship was beached. Another larger salvage attempt was started in 1993 but the legalities got messy really fast. No gold was ever found, and part of the wreck still sits on the beach rotting away.

 

[George L. Lorton]

Thanks for clarifying that Jeremy.

 

[George L. Lorton]

Did you check out the Persia thread I mentioned Jason. That could be the Empress some day. The Persia might of had remains inside of it but that didn't stop them from cutting her up like Jack the Ripper.

 

[Jason Schleisman]

I have heard that some divers to the Empress have also recovered bones as souvenirs. Someone even took a skull for personal display. This could be hearsay, I am still looking into it.

Persia thread? Have you a link?

 

[George L. Lorton]

I heard that as well. On another thread somebody said that there were skulls being sold on EBay but I think that was a rumor. But I've heard of skulls being taken as souvenirs

 

[George L. Lorton]

https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/discus/messages/6937/84181.html?1193080151

Here you go Jason and anybody else interested.

 

[Jason Schleisman]

Ah yes thanks.

 

[George L. Lorton]

What happened to the Persia is a historians nightmare and just makes me so mad. It's enough to turn me anti-salvage.

So I'll just hush for a while and go out for a walk.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

>>Just because the Empress is NOT officially legally defined as such, does that make it less of a gravesite? Is the Empress any less worthy of being designated a legal gravesite (and therefore not open to salvage)? They're both sunken ships with dead people on 'em.<<

For whatever it may be worth, the destinction here is that the USS Arizona came to her end by a deliberate act of war whereas the Empress by way of a bad accident. That may not mean much, but the fact that the Arizona is still used to this day for interments of her veterens just might. At least in the eyes of the law.

Moral destinctions however, are a whole 'nother smoke! They also tend to be highly subjective matters of opinion, to say nothing of sentiment. I don't pretend to have all the Right Answers to that one.

 

[Jason Schleisman]

Yup. That seems to be the crux of it ~ it's all subjective.

 

[George L. Lorton]

Part of me says it fine for them to bring up plates and cups, cutlery or anything that belonged to the line. But if they start bringing up bones or even personal possessions that where I draw the line. I'd be thinking where did they get that ring or pair of glasses. Off somebodies remains my mind would say. But that's just me. I guess I just don't like the Empress being salvaged with bones on it. It just creeps me out. I don't even like the idea of bones being filmed on the wreck, but because of my curiosity of what the ship was like and wanting to see. I deal with it. Besides it reminds folks that people died down there and that the ship should be respected as a grave even if it isn't legally one. Like Jason and Mike said it's all subjective.