It was only a matter of time before this subject became a significant problem and a deep concern of mine personally. I've gone through the comments from each of you and made notes for each. I've deleted portions but have kept the meat of your comments. I don't think I've taken anything out of context and agree with each for the most part. To keep it simple to understand I've made my comments in BOLD.... Dave
1st hand although the pillaging of the wreck and landing on it's deck is unforgivable, it is still a grave site after all. People who vandalize, and people who let people vandalize, don't have rights to monuments. I personally don't feel that the titanic falls under this category, but there are plenty who do.
I don't believe that a grave site is a significant issue. Any one there is dead and couldn't care less. People have been giving tours by bus around grave yards in Hollywood for ages and no one ever says a dam thing about it. It's even publicly advertised. The grave yards even have roads so it's easily accessible to the public. The Titanic is not a monument and is just a big ship that got built, sank, and is now being visited. Submarine tours to the Titanic or any other wreck including the Edmond Fitzgerald is just a way of making money for those of us still alive. And it's no different than taking a bus ride through any Hollywood grave yard. The United States is becoming a place that is operated by Lawyers and Tree Huggers and any time some one figures out a way to make a living, some one else gets jealous and wants to put an end to it. And it's almost always a Lawyer or an already wealthy Tree Hugger.
Steven Mills wrote:
Carsten, also we are perceived as a liability and safety risk. Nonetheless, our concern should be how restrictive will it become for us with future legislation.Steve
Again this is correct but there will always be those that go where no one has gone before. There will always be those that ask "Why" and those that ask "Why Not". There will always be those that make something happen, those that watch things happen, and those that ask what happened? The legal system that is so deeply entrenched in the US is spreading to other countries and seems to be a disses out of control. This has created it's own anti virus which forces or requires some to travel outside the boundaries of the road most traveled. Activities have always occurred at night and will continue as long as necessary and loop holes will be found by those that look for them.
Ian, my fife cents - Titanic is made from mild steel and will be
gone in 50-100 years completly - with or without submersibles..
Better they visit them now and so often they can - make pictures,
videos and raise something for public museum porpose before she is a debris
field of flat plates. I can not believe that a submersible touch the deck with almost zero bouancy can badly damage a stable wreck - and a unstable wreck will go in a couple of years anyway. In the baltic sea - now virtual every wreck in german waters is protect by law for archelogical reason - even the newer ones.. there is no lost information on board of the Titanic make it worth to special-protect this wreck so that only siencetific can visit here. Its great history for shure - but a archaeological site ?best regards Carsten
Your absolutely right Carsten, the reality of any submersible causing damage to a ship that sank in 12,000 feet of water is a crazy joke. It seems to me that the real damage happened years ago when they ran into that giant ice cube floating around in the Atlantic. It was a total loss, what are these people thinking, have they forgotten how it got there. These people are stupid, when a car ends up in the junk yard, you can scratch the paint and nobody sys any thing. Even though someone may have died in the wreck.
Although must of people on the list won't get a drive a submarine
to see the Titanic, this is a high profile monument and when people
claim that it's damaged by submersibles, it gives all submersibles
a bad name...
Ian.I wouldn't worry about it to much Ian, I feel that most adults have gotten to a place that they give the media little to no credit and realize that it's just a bad late show. And as for the written press, any one that believes what they read in a news paper is never going to make an important difference in any one else's life any way. All they can do is slow us down.
Dave
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