Many have been quick to point to Ballard when salvaging of the Titanic is discussed however George Tulloch is the name that should be associated with salavage as Ballard should be associated with discovery. Had Ballard laid claim to the discovery of the Titanic's wreck site he would have never be faced with the problem of the Titanic's artifacts being salvaged. But Ballard said it himself that he never anticipated the results that occured now. Since Titanic was left unclaimed it allowed George Tulloch's Salvage company to go down and bring up all that it did and all in the name of profit. Everyone should read up on Tulloch's involvement. It makes for great discussion.

Ballard has no permanent claim on the Titanic. Through a quirky law, the wreck officially belongs to George Tulloch, a wealthy car dealer in Connecticut, and Tulloch's company, RMS Titanic, as they were the first salvors on the scene. ``Our ancient Admiralty law is finders-keepers, but if he stops salvaging, he's abandoned the wreck and anyone can follow,'' Ballard says. ``Plus, no other nation has to observe these laws.''

Interesting statement from Ballard:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/02/27/MN83764.DTL

Since Tulloch's death in 2004 the company has continued with the many court cases that have been filed in a attempt to stop them.

do you mean wealthy artifacts gravedigger? i think that's what ou were getting at

Yes I agree. George Tullock is not one of my favourite people. I read that at the time of salvaging these artifacts (While he was still alive and well) he had ordered his crew that he was to be the first person to touch artifacts as soon as they were brought onboard the salvage ship. He had no regard for the families of the victims when it came to justifying the recovery of artifacts.

he sounds like a jerk, really. what was he really like?

There is a video available to rent. The video was done for the Discovery Channel in which his team not only recovered artifacts but also did an accoustic ultrasound of the bow in order to see the damage on the side of the ship where the iceberg hit. In the video you will see George Tullock having a rather big think of himself. I wouldn't say that he is the worst person in the world but I do not agree with his removal of artifacts from the wreck. And yes he is quite opinionated. Not a very nice man was he. Thanks to his greedy nature we have loads of artifacts floating about unnecessarily.

That man always thought big of himself, not a care in the world for other ppl except himself. I willprobably rent that video you were speaking of to have a look at it myself.

Two of the good things they did on the video is the pictures they took via ultrasound of the iceberg damage as well as the metalurgical tests on the steel's decay over the years. They determined that Titanic's steel has lost about a third of it's strength due to rust and decay.