Titanic Expedition Leaders Reaffirm Commitment to Preserving and Protecting Priceless, Historic Artifacts
Friday July 7, 5:15 pm Eastern Time
Company Press Release
CLEARWATER, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-July 7, 2000--G. Michael Harris, COO of RMS Titanic Inc. (OTCBB:SOST - news) and expedition leader for the July 20 salvage dive, today reiterated the team's commitment to preserving and protecting the priceless artifacts they plan to recover from the world's most famous shipwreck. ``We are enthusiastic about the opportunity and privilege to secure and preserve items from the ship that are a direct link to history,'' said Harris.
``Anticipation is definitely building around the country as to what the team will uncover down there,'' added Arnie Geller, CEO of RMS Titanic Inc. ``People are already trying to speculate on what we will find. We do expect to yield a lot of high-profile artifacts that will surely deteriorate if we don't protect them. And our mission is to preserve the historic items we recover and, consistent with the company policy, no items will be auctioned.''
This upcoming expedition, continuing until Aug. 30, 2000, will focus on the recovery of specific, priceless, high-profile targets and other valuable artifacts. For the first time ever, the company will actually enter the ship through the cargo hold for the specific purpose of retrieving valuable artifacts and historic items. Previous Titanic expeditions have only filmed inside the ship and recovered items outside the ship in the half-mile-long debris field and have determined that the shipwreck is deteriorating quickly from the effects of microorganisms living in the deep ocean water.
The undersea salvage work will be headed by Submersible-Pilot Ralph White and Salvage Master, Graham Jessop, in association with Oceaneering International Inc. and their MAGELLAN 725 ROV and the P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology Russian Academy of Sciences, along with their vessel ``AKADEMIK MSTISLEV KELDYSH'' and the submersibles ``MIR 1 and MIR 2.'' Professor Anatoly Sagalevitch will be heading up the Russian delegation. There will be a team of 12 multinational scientists to continue the scientific research of Titanic. The new team has developed a state-of-the art ROV (remote operated vehicle) the size of a human hand, complete with fiber-optic capabilities which will facilitate the recovery efforts.
Under its new management team, RMS Titanic Inc. is responsible for the worldwide sensation, ``The Titanic Artifacts Exhibit,'' produced by SFX Family Entertainment (NYSE:SFX - news). The exhibit contain hundreds of artifacts salvaged from the Titanic's wreck site, two and a half miles below the North Atlantic. ``The Titanic Artifacts Exhibit'' brings back to life the unforgettable tale of the world's most famous maritime disaster, from the grandeur and spectacle of her design, to the personal stories of her passengers, to the tragic night of April 14, 1912, and to her subsequent discovery and the recovery of her artifacts on the ocean floor.
RMS Titanic Inc. is the exclusive salvor-in-possession of the Titanic wreck, which gives the company sole ownership rights to any items recovered from the historic vessel's wreck site. In a June 1998 ruling, the Federal District Court (Virginia) commended the company for ``maximizing the wreck's historical value and returning the wreck's artifacts to society for the general use and education of all mankind.'' During the years 1998, 1996, 1994, 1993 and 1987, research and recovery expeditions conducted by RMS Titanic Inc. have recovered in excess of 5,000 artifacts from the Titanic wreck site.
More than 6 million people have attended exhibitions of the company's Titanic artifacts throughout the world, in locations such as Las Vegas; Boston; St. Paul, Minn.; Atlantic City, N.J.; Dallas; Orlando and St. Petersburg, Fla.; Memphis, Tenn.; Long Beach, Calif.; Toronto, Canada; Zurich, Switzerland; Tokyo and other cities in Japan; Hamburg, Germany; and at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England. More information about RMS Titanic Inc. is available at its Web site, www.rmstitanic.net.
source: biz.yahoo.com |
