I am very torn when it comes to salvage. I feel for people like the late survivor Eva Hart, who always said "it was a grave of 1500 people who never should have died", and therefore should be left alone.

I have always agreed with Dr. Ballard to an extent when he said that salvaging artifacts from the Titanic would be like taking belt buckles and helmets from the U.S.S Arizona in Pearl Harbor.

I agree to an extent. What real educational value does the crows nest bell have (other than having a powerful presence of a piece of the Titanic saga). Really, we learn nothing new from it (maybe how it sounds). They have Olympic's bell at the Titanic Historical Society, so we already had an idea of what Titanic's bell was like.

I think it was Dr. Ballard who explained that Titanic was different from king Tut's tomb, in that when we excavate an Egyptian Tomb, we are learning about something thousands of years in the past where we have few records of what happened.

Titanic and her sisters (especially Olympic), were well documented-pictures, ships records, artifacts from when Olympic was scrapped, so we already know tons of what life was like and how it would have been like to be on those ships. Heck, now we have set props from the new movie to educate us.

However, with all of this said (sorry I'm rambling), I do feel that retreating the surviving paper artifacts is ok. We all love the Titanic and want to learn all we can about the passengers, so retrieving a letter from someone and finding out something about their life I believe is very useful for history as well as preserving their memory. I always dreamed of somehow finding the ship's log stuffed in a safe (wishful thinking). I think of that line from the movie that Brock said about Jack's drawing: "should this have remained unseen on the ocean floor for eternity" or something like that.

It may not make since, but I believe that a letter or postcard is very personal, but at the same time, not quite as personal as a pair of reading glasses that were on someone’s face when he or she was about to die. Therefore, take the letters and postcards, they will tell us more!

Well, they recover artifacts from ancient egypitan tombs, go to any musem and theres lots of things to see, stuff from the romans etc. In hundreds of years these artifacts may not be there because we left them down there to be lost forever....

Its where to draw the line I think, taking peoples shoe, or glasses etc, since its there only grave mark, but you cant say yes or no as to what they bring up or not. Its salvage or not, no happy mediums unfortunetly, it just wouldnt work.

Preserving them, help to keep the memory alive, and make titanic not just a story in history, but a real part of our time, and we have the evidence to prove it............

i agree! it isnt right tht they r taking the artifacts! it's just plain disrespcetful!

A unfortunate fate for the ship is that man will ultimately destroy the wreck quiker by looting it's remains.

Say, I heard that Titanic INC was going bust. Is this true or are they not in financial trouble?

I like how they went down and left a plaque in memory of those that died, but they are tearing the ship to pieces going up and down like that. Maybe they should try to save trips back and forth.

I say they should stop using our Titanic as a money making scheme. Those people had their lives taken from them, and
what they are doing is disrespectful. Quote:

Yes. I agree. People say that it is nice to have something to see with their own eyes, but then again, there has been so much damage that the Titanic will only be there for a little longer. Unless we can all team together and stop all of the grave robbers. But I highly doubt that they would listen to us. LOL.Quote:

Is there anyone willing to continue this discussion?

If the Californian was that close to the Titanic, could they not have steamed toward the Californian whilst the ship was sinking and perhaps made it before the ship went under? Certainly they could have fired rokets and started to load (not lower) the lifeboats while going full speed toward the lights of the Californian. They had 2hours and 40min in which to reach the Californian.

Yes, each time I look at the National Geographic video of Ballard's discovery of the Titanic I think to myself: Ahh, here she still lay undesturbed and all her artifacts were still intact and unmoved from the positions in which they found themselves since 1912. Nowadays it is sad to know that the wreck has probably gained more damage since it's discovery due to treasure hunters.