Re: 5/4/01 - [SOST] The Virginian-Pilot: Titanic salvage company sues over Internet postings
Titanic salvage company sues over Internet postings
By MARC DAVIS, The Virginian-Pilot
© May 4, 2001
Sometime in the dark hours of Jan. 28, a thief jimmied the lock at an exhibit in the Opryland Hotel lobby in Nashville, Tenn., and made off with a priceless stash: 18 coins and bank notes from the shipwrecked Titanic.
Historians and Titanic fans were aghast, none more so than Michelle Turman, former curator of the artifact collection from the doomed ship that sank in 1912.
Turman had warned her boss of precisely this danger five months earlier. She told him that security guards were falling asleep and display cases were insecure. Angered by the theft, Turman dropped a second bombshell on the company three days later:
R.M.S. Titanic has allowed many of the shipwreck's 6,000 artifacts to rot away through neglect or mishandling, Turman alleged in a long indictment of the company that she posted Jan. 31 on an Internet bulletin board.
She implied that Norfolk's federal judges, who have overseen the Titanic's salvage since 1992, might be interested in investigating her allegations.
``This will get the ball rolling,'' Turman wrote. ``Maybe with a little luck it will roll all the way to Virginia.''
Now Turman's allegations have landed in court, but not in the way she intended.
Last week, the Atlanta-based R.M.S. Titanic Inc. slapped Turman and six others with a libel suit in New York City. It accuses them of spreading lies about the company on the Internet bulletin board, called Raging Bull, where investors trade information on stocks and corporations.
The lawsuit also accuses the seven of violating the Federal Telecommunications Act by posting information to ``annoy, threaten or harass'' the company while hiding behind aliases.
The company seeks $1 million from each of the seven, all of whom are Titanic enthusiasts and small-time investors in the company.
At issue are 170 posts to the bulletin board ragingbull.lycos.com since August. Three of the seven posters, including Turman, were sued by name. Four were sued as John Does until the company learns their real names.
Until now, the company has ignored the posters' allegations, including claims that the Titanic's artifacts are rusting away, and that company president Arnie Geller has been incompetent and perhaps criminal in managing the company's money.
Those same posts are now included, verbatim, in the company's libel lawsuit.
In one, for example, Turman wrote under her own name, ``There were artifacts misplaced, damaged and handled by (exhibition) employees. LP3 (a French conservation lab) and I have condition reports and photos to prove that.''
``Mark my words: Watch when they travel to South America,'' Turman wrote. ``The artifacts will be damaged or, worse, looted due to the poor outside structure of the crates.''
Geller believes most of the venom stems from his 1999 hostile takeover of the company. Most of the posters, he believes, are loyal to former company president George Tulloch. Geller fired Turman as curator in December.
Mostly, Geller says he is furious at the level of viciousness in the posts. Some, for example, called his 1999 takeover illegal and openly encouraged federal regulators to investigate.
Others accused Geller of lining his own pockets and padding the company payroll with relatives and friends.
``They made a lot of sick, negative comments, many of them untrue,'' Geller said last week from Atlanta. ``I could not allow these kind of lies to continue. I had to call them on the carpet.
``We will have a day in court with this. They will have to prove all their lies.''
But the critics are not backing down.
Catherine Nichols, a 49-year-old housewife from Indianapolis, made 149 posts to the bulletin board since September, nearly all of them slamming Geller and the company. She is being sued over 20 of those posts.
Nichols is a Titanic enthusiast whose fascination began when she saw the 1958 movie ``A Night To Remember'' as a child with her grandmother. She owns 100 shares of R.M.S. Titanic stock, now worth about $100.
``I've had the strangest dreams about the Titanic,'' she said. ``They're very real -- very dark and very cold. It's grown all these years.''
In her posts, using the alias Catnic, Nichols has reviled R.M.S. Titanic and Geller. ``I do not think Mr. CEO thinks of anything but lining his own pockets,'' she wrote on Dec. 5. Two weeks later, she added another post: ``If we could exercise our rights, Geller would be in jail now awaiting trial.''
In February, she wrote a letter to two federal judges in Norfolk -- J. Calvitt Clarke Jr. and Rebecca Beach Smith -- who oversee the Titanic's salvage and have the power to revoke R.M.S. Titanic's status as sole salvor. That letter is now part of the court file.
``There is . . . evidence to support these artifacts that are in memory of over 1,500 lives lost and the liner herself are likely being improperly cared for, improperly insured (if at all) and obvious lack of security watching over them,'' she wrote.
She implored the judges: ``It is the duty of everyone with a conscience to save these artifacts.''
Clarke wrote back that Nichols should bring her concerns to the court in a properly filed motion.
Now, facing a $1 million libel lawsuit, Nichols is angrier than ever.
``I really feel like Mr. Geller has gone too far this time,'' she said this week. ``I feel like it kind of robs me of my freedom of speech.''
The reaction among Titanic enthusiasts has been swift.
Mark E. Taylor, who runs a popular online Titanic discussion list, immediately taunted Geller.
``Sue me, Arnie!'' he wrote in an open message. ``You probably have handed, in the long run, the anti-salvagers a victory. I hope you have a good stomach for some of the nastiness that is sure to come.''
Other list members joined the chorus. ``Go ahead, sue me too, Arnie!'' another wrote.
``Talk about grade A stupid P.R. moves!'' a third chimed in.
Meanwhile, most of the seven defendants are laying low, referring questions to their lawyers. They have virtually stopped all Internet postings.
Geller said he was forced to file the libel suit.
``We think we are doing the right thing here,'' Geller said. ``We think we have honorable intentions. . . . The people on Raging Bull are there because there is sour grapes. They really hope that the management of this company fails. They are negative rabble rousers.''
The dispute may yet drop into Norfolk's federal court. Turman, in her posts, hinted that is where she might eventually tell her tales.
``There is a code of ethics for my profession,'' she wrote in January. ``It is one that cannot be bought, extorted or silenced. It has no regard for people, only the artifacts. . . . The day the courts are in need of legitimate evidence of the mismanagement of the collection, there is only one who will have it.''
Reach Marc Davis at 446-2303 or mdavis@pilotonline.com
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