Best Left Alone

Today, I went to a R.M.S. Titanic exhibit at the Miami Museum Of Science. There was actual stuff from the actual boat on display. There was also some cheesy crap, like an "iceberg" that you could touch. Come on now - icebergs in South Florida? What is next, Tiki Joe's Surf Shop Cambridge Bay, Nunavut (Canada)?

Anyway, I went to see the stuff that was there. There were instruments from the bridge, the ships whistle, and so forth. There was a mock up of a first class stateroom, first class china and other table ware, a fake first class hallway (the halls on the ship were apparently very narrow. I guess that back then there were fewer fat people??) and so forth. They also had a re-creation of a third class (steerage) cabin. What a pile of CRAP the third class cabins were! Third class cabins were the size of a bathroom, with two bunk beds. Passengers were separated by sex, so it was either all dudes or all women in each cabin.

One more thing - TOO MANY people say "H.M.S. Titanic". This is just WRONG. H.M.S. stands for "His Majesty's Ship" - this title was reserved for WARSHIPS ONLY. Just like USS (United States Ship) is only used for American Warships.

The proper name of the ship is R.M.S. Titanic. RMS stands for "Royal Mail Ship" or "Royal Mail Steamer". To have this title, a ship must NOT be a warship and be allowed to carry royal mail! Most large ships registered to England were mail ships. Something had to carry the mail and there were no jet aircraft. And it was a LONG SWIM.

Now I will talk for a little bit about Maritime Law. When a ship sinks, whoever finds it first can claim the salvage rights. This is important, and it applies to any ship - from a 20 foot sailboat to a nuclear submarine.

The man who found Titanic was REALLY looking for the USS Scorpion. Scorpion was a nuclear submarine lost in the North Atlantic. Deep sea expeditions are VERY expensive, but since the primary mission was a classified US Navy thing, funding was not a problem. There was no profit motive at all - as the bill was paid in full by the government.

Anyway, the guy found the Scorpion. The exact location of the sub is still classified, due to the stuff that was on board.

But a cover story was needed. So the guy said "HEY! Why not look for Titanic!" So all the technology used to find the sub was used to find Titanic. A perfect cover story, so the Russians would not think that other top secret goodies were in the general area.

The guy never claimed salvage rights. He wanted the wreck site to be left as it was - and made a silent, dark, memorial to all those lost at sea on the ship the night it sank.

Fast forward a few years. ANOTHER group of people, with private money, go to the site. THEY DO claim salvage rights. And they begin to bring stuff up.

I think that nothing should have been salvaged. I agree with the original finder. There is not a lot of historical significance to the stuff salvaged. I mean, the first class China on Titanic was the exact same stuff used on Olympic or Britannic (the sister ships). The original blueprints for the ship exist. We know how it was built. We know what was on board. There are photographs of the state rooms, the lounges, the grand staircase, and so on.

But - some of the wreck was salvaged. Nothing can be done about that now. The stuff travels around, and people pay to see it. Obviously someone is making money off all this.

I just think that maybe the stuff was better off left alone. 12,500 feet under the North Atlantic, where it came to rest on April 15, 1912.