Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 30, 1993 TAG: 9306300320
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium
"Imagine what you'd find in a 100-story Marriott, filled with people," said Arnie Geller, one of those who helped salvage artifacts from the wreckage of the Titanic. "There's everything that you need for feeding, housing and sleeping on a ship built for 3,500 people."
As a Salvation Army band played "Onward Christian Soldiers," the French ship Nadir, carrying 800 objects from the Titanic, slipped into a berth at Town Point Park in Norfolk on Tuesday morning.
It was the first time objects recovered from the Titanic have rested on American soil. About 100 people turned out for a ceremony marking the occasion.
The Titanic, dubbed "unsinkable," struck an iceberg and sank 400 miles off the southern coast of Newfoundland on April 15, 1912. Of the 2,228 people aboard, 1,523 died.
The artifacts brought to Norfolk were recovered by a 24-foot-long submarine, which made 15 dives this month.
The company, working with a French sea research institute, has made two trips to recover items from the ship. The first expedition, in 1987, recovered 1,800 artifacts. Those objects were displayed in Europe.
One of those who made a recent dive to the Titanic was historian Jack Eaton, who was written several books about the ship. Eaton laid on a cot on his stomach, peering through a tiny porthole, for the entire 10-hour dive.
"The decks almost look as if you could get out and walk on them," Eaton said. But other parts of the hull look like "spaghetti," he said.
Salvagers have agreed not to touch the ship's hull. "There's no cemetery in which the Titanic dead are buried," Eaton said. "The hull represents the memorial." The recovered artifacts were dumped out of the ship and rest in two "debris fields" near the hull.
A robot tethered to the submarine was sent inside the ship, revealing what Geller called "rust fossils," buildups of corrosion resembling "strange icicles."
"They look like if they fell on you they would kill you, but they turn to dust," Geller said.
The decades have taken their toll on some of the artifacts. Salvagers tried to pick up a wooden trunk, but the trunk crumbled, revealing a set of bagpipes, along with sheet music.
Other items are surprisingly well-preserved. The ship's brass whistles were in such good condition that the sun glinted off them when they were brought to the surface, Eaton said.
A rusting steel davit, one of the arms used to lower lifeboats, sat on the deck of the Nadir on Tuesday. When it was recovered, crew members moved forward to touch it, knowing that it was most likely touched by those lowering survivors into the sea. The Titanic artifacts were put into storage, soaking in fresh water, "someplace in Norfolk," Geller said.
The wreck was discovered in 1985 by the French research institute and the U.S. Navy. RMS Titanic Inc. first went to the scene in 1987.
The group has heard from some of the remaining 10 survivors, Geller said. One survivor identified her father's watch from the last display. Geller said the group would present the watch to the woman next month in England.
A Swedish survivor of the ship heard about the recent expedition and told a crew member, "You go out there and you find my suitcase and you bring it back," Geller said.
by CNB