Titanic Law and Policy: The wreck's role in changing international maritime safety and salvage law

Today, September 1, 2026. is the 41st anniversary of the discovery of the RMS Titanic wreck site by a joint US-French team led by Dr. Robert Ballard and Jean-Louis Michel.  Titanic needs no introduction to most, whether through the well-known stories of the people on board, captured in the iconic Walter Lord classic, A Night to Remember, the British film of the same name, and of course, James Cameron’s epic Titanic.  A vast library of books explore nearly every aspect of the ship, its passengers and crew, the disaster itself, and Titanic’s impact in media and popular culture.  But one story remained untold – until now.

The Ocean Foundation’s cultural legal and cultural advisors, Ole Varmer and Dr. James Delgado, and with Louise Sanger of the Lloyds Register Foundation, have just published, through international academic publisher Springer, TITANIC LAW AND POLICY: THE WRECK’S ROLE IN CHANGING INTERNATIONAL MARITIME SAFETY AND SALVAGE LAW.  This is the first, comprehensive exploration of the wreck’s long legal history, from the initial responses to the disaster, its discovery, and the subsequent salvage of artifacts.  It is also a detailed look, at times from behind the scenes, at how the United States Government took an active role, the U.S. Coast Guard (the fabled Ice Patrol) starting with the U.S. Congress, and ultimately extending to U.S. Courts, the U.S. State Department and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Titanic’s post-sinking story is one of litigation and legislation, but it is also, as Varmer and Delgado explain and document, been a means by which the wreck has been protected from unauthorized interference, led to international agreement on the wreck site as a memorial and archaeological site, provided a mechanism for supervised commercial activity (not that everything done makes everyone happy).  Titanic remains in the news more than a century after its loss, as relics recovered afloat or from the families of victims are auctioned at high prices, exhibitions of those artifacts and those recovered, conserved, curated and displayed by RMS Titanic, Inc. tour the world, new disasters such as the loss of the Titan submersible and all on board while diving to the wreck of Titanic, and Titanic and its artifacts’ long and ongoing history in the courts.

Varmer and Delgado have along history, much of it shared, with historic shipwrecks, shipwreck law and policy, and especially Titanic.  In their retirement from government service with NOAA, they wrote the book, with Louise Sanger addressing the key role of Titanic in changing the laws of safety at sea, to explain not only how but why the U.S. Government took an active role, the various legal cases, and the at times behind the scenes negotiations that led to the international agreement on the protection of Titanic. Varmer’s career has included a number of key legal cases surrounding shipwrecks. Both were there both in the courtrooms and in the diplomatic discussions that led to the agreement. Delgado also has been to Titanic twice, diving in the Mir 2 submersible to assess the wreck, and in 2010 as the chief scientist for the first complete mapping of the wreck site.  

While the U.S. Government’s decision to seek a non-adversarial approach to work with RMS Titanic, within the limits of law and policy had been opposed by some  historic preservationists as a matter of principle, the book lays out and examines how the court used the maritime law of salvage, admiralty jurisdiction, and its jurisdiction over the salvors and their activities to provide effective tools for the protection of Titanic and the conservation of the collection of artifacts in the public interest. Once again, the wreck of Titanic played a historical role of consequence, albeit one not well known or understood, even in historic preservation circles.

The book discusses this and provides a look at how a proactive precautionary approach stressed, whenever possible, working with RMS Titanic, Inc. as the legally authorized “salvor-in-possession,” to consult and seek agreement on the international agreement, and the Covenants and Conditions It is important to highlight that RMST proposed developing the C&Cs after the 4th Circuit Court rejected their claim of ownership under the law of finds and ruled their only remedy was under the law of salvage, but that the District Court had the authority to put conditions on the salvage award to reflect the public interest in Titanic.  After RMST´s negotiations with the USG (Justice, Commerce and NOAA) Judge Smith incorporated them as conditions to her order awarding the collection of salvaged artifacts to RMST. That order and the C&Cs were recognized by the bankruptcy court that resulted in a settlement with debtors instead of the proposed auction of artifacts. A key factor of the C&Cs was to ensure that many promises by RMST that the collection would be kept together and there would not be broken up by a piecemeal sale of artifacts, and the establishment of a fund for ongoing conservation, and in doing so, in a manner consistent with historic preservation law. As this blog appears today, once again, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, which has held jurisdiction over the case for decades, is once again about to rule on a request to split off and sell some of the artifacts to alleviate RMS Titanic’s debts. 

The book couldn’t be more timely. Ultimately, Titanic: Law and Policy offers a coherent, empirically grounded, and policy-relevant treatment of RMS Titanic that connects underwater cultural heritage, maritime law, and management practice for a broad professional readership. The volume’s strongest contribution is its sustained legal–policy analysis of Titanic as a test case in the development and application of admiralty jurisdiction, the maritime law of salvage, and emerging regimes for the protection of underwater cultural heritage on the high seas. It may provide an example of the use of jurisdiction to protect both natural and cultural heritage found in the high seas in the implementation of the High Seas Treat (aka BBNJ).  

Thanks to a generous grant for open access from the Lloyd's Register Foundation, Titanic Law and Policy, published a week ago, is now available as a free downloadable PDF by Springer as the latest title in Springer’s Briefs in Archaeology. It meets ePub standards for accessibility.  Within a week the book had already been downloaded by nearly a thousand readers worldwide.