Titanic families back salvage of Marconi set

FAMILIES of passengers and crew who died during the sinking of RMS Titanic have backed plans to save the ship’s “voice” during a controversial expedition.

Next summer, a US salvage firm plans to extract the famous Marconi wireless set that broadcast RMS Titanic’s final distress signals as it sank on April 12 1912.

It would mark the first time any treasures have been taken from inside the wreck itself. The project has been fiercely opposed by the UK and US governments who say the wreck is a grave site and should be left in peace.

In recent months RMS Titanic, which holds sole salvage rights to the Titanic, has won two court rulings against the US government, which claims the proposed expedition would violate a treaty signed with the UK to protect the wreck.

Now a group of Titanic historians and descendants have appealed for officials on both sides of the Atlantic to “get out of the way” and give their full backing to the idea. “I think it’s time to go and get the Marconi,” said Susie Millar, president of the Belfast Titanic Society, whose great-grandfather Tommy Millar helped build the Titanic, and sailed on her doomed maiden voyage. “When I first heard about this, I thought people should leave the wreck alone. But now I think that if we don’t get the Marconi now, then in the future someone else with far less respect for the Titanic will go down there and have a go.”

Cliff Ismay, a Titanic historian and relation to Bruce Ismay, the chairman of the White Star Line who escaped the sinking ship, said the Marconi plan was “respectful, detailed, and makes sense”.

“The Marconi has huge significance and I think it can be brought up in the right way,” he said.

RMST announced this week that it has developed a special robot to reach in through a deckhouse roof and extract the Marconi without the need to cut into the wreck.

If the set is successfully removed, RMST plans to take it on a tour of museums around the world.

‘If we don’t get it now, then in the future someone else with far less respect for the Titanic will have a go’