Digging Deeper

Abstract

“Titanic found!” was a major headline in 1985. Although worldwide excitement over the discovery and the blockbuster film may have subsided, the controversy continues. RMS Titanic, hands-down the world’s most famous shipwreck, lies in international waters nearly 2.5 mi (4 km) beneath the stormy surface of the North Atlantic. Exploitation of the final resting place of the Titanic and its hundreds of passengers has created a storm of debate and legal actions that still pummels the historic preservation community and threatens the very survival of submerged cultural resources in deep water. Although it was the discovery of Titanic that brought public attention to these issues, professional oceanographers and archaeologists have been fending off this onslaught for years. Rapid improvement in ocean technology during the past two decades has enabled, for the first time in history, deepwater shipwrecks and other archaeological sites to come within reach of investigators. Unfortunately, deepwater technology is extraordinarily expensive, and those with commercial interests, usually not archaeologists, often are the ones who can raise the necessary funds for deepwater exploration. In spite of a recent United Nations convention intended to protect submerged cultural resources, it may be years before it becomes fully effective.