Pandemic may sink Titanic plan

Project to recover ship’s radio has

been put on indefinite hold

NOR)O ., Va. )allout from the coronavirus pandemic is threatening a company’s plans to retrieve and exhibit the radio that had broadcast distress calls from the sinking Titanic, according to a court filing made by the firm.

The company, R0S Titanic Inc., said 0onday that its revenues plummeted after coronavirus restrictions closed its exhibits of Titanic artifacts, causing the firm to seek funding through its parent company. Some of the exhibitions, which are scattered across the country, are still closed, while others that have reopened are seeing limited attendance.

R0S Titanic Inc. recently missed a deadline with a federal admiralty court in Virginia to submit a funding plan for the radio expedition. The company left open the possibility that it may no longer seek the court’s approval for the undertaking if a plan isn’t submitted in the coming weeks.

The company’s update, filed with a U.S. District Court in Norfolk, was made in the midst of an ongoing court battle with the United States over whether the expedition is legal.

awyers for the U.S. government have argued that the mission is barred under federal law and an international agreement with Britain. The attorneys say the company must seek the government’s permission to remove the radio because the sunken vessel is a recognized memorial to the roughly 1, 00 people who died.

The luxury ocean liner was traveling from England to New ork in 191 when it struck an iceberg and sank. It was discovered in 19 about . miles ( . kilometers) below the surface of the North Atlantic.

R0S Titanic Inc. owns the salvage rights and oversees a collection of items recovered from the wreck as the court-recognized steward of the artifacts. They include silverware, china and gold coins as well as the Titanic’s whistles and a piece of its hull.

Exhibiting the radio will help sustain the ship’s legacy while honoring passengers and crew, the company has argued. .nown in 191 as a 0arconi wireless telegraph machine, the radio sent distress calls to nearby ships that helped save 00 people in lifeboats.

The U.S. government’s effort to stop the expedition is pending in the th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond. But the company’s funding woes appear to pose a more immediate threat.

“The pandemic and resulting governmental restrictions forced the company to temporarily close its exhibitions to the public, effectively shutting off its primary source of revenue for six months,” R0S Titanic Inc. wrote in 0onday’s filing.

The Atlanta-based company said only a few of its exhibits, including one in as Vegas and another in Orlando, have reopened. They’re operating at diminished capacity and revenues “remain very low.”

The company said it received more than $ 00,000 through the Paycheck Protection Program. And it expects to get $ million in funding through its parent company, Premier AcTuisition oldings, C.

A federal admiralty judge in Norfolk had approved the planned expedition in 0ay. But the approval was conditioned on the firm submitting a plan detailing costs and funding for the operation and conservation of the recovered eTuipment.

R0S Titanic said in 0onday’s filing that it’s still trying to finalize that plan despite missing a -an. 10 deadline.