ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, August 23, 1996 TAG: 9608230084
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MATT CRENSON ASSOCIATED PRESS
NOTE: Below
CELEBRITIES on cruise ships will look on as a part of the ship is raised.
The Titanic's maiden voyage, abruptly interrupted by an iceberg 84 years ago, could end in New York Harbor within a fortnight.
Well, sort of.
On Wednesday, George Tulloch, former BMW dealer and ``salvor in possession'' of the Titanic's remains, plans to haul a 13-ton chunk of the ship from its watery grave 21/2 miles beneath the Atlantic. If all goes as planned, he and the chunk will be steaming into New York on Sept.1.
Critics call Tulloch's efforts a grave-robbing publicity stunt, but only Neptune can stop him. Tulloch's company, R.M.S. Titanic Inc., has legal rights to the wreck and has retrieved 4,000 artifacts from it since 1987.
``The Titanic and its artifacts are being consumed by the ocean. We need to save what we can, and we are here to do this job well,'' Tulloch said.
Robert Ballard, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientist who found the Titanic in 1985 with help from the Navy and the French government's oceanographic agency, branded Tulloch's expedition ``destructive'' and ``sad.''
``It is as if a fleet of tractors had plowed the battlefield of Gettysburg,'' Ballard said in a statement.
It's not just what Tulloch's doing, but how he's doing it.
Two cruise ships, charging thousands of dollars per cabin, will come alongside the expedition's research vessels next week as they attempt to lift a 400-square-foot section of the Titanic's hull to the surface. Three survivors of the April 14, 1912, shipwreck will be present, as will actor Burt Reynolds and former astronaut Edwin ``Buzz'' Aldrin.
But wait, there's more: Titanic buffs can purchase coal lifted from the doomed ship's remains for $25 a lump. Included are a brass plaque inscribed with the purchaser's name and a certificate of authenticity signed by Tulloch.
That's the sort of thing that suggests Tulloch cares more about making money than preserving history, said Karen Kamuda, vice president of the Titanic Historical Society in Indian Orchard, Mass.
More than 1,500 people died when the 882-foot Titanic went down after hitting an iceberg about 400 miles south of Newfoundland.
``Because a few generations have passed, why is a cruise now respectable?'' Kamuda asked.
The Discovery Channel paid R.M.S. Titanic $3million for exclusive rights to film and photograph the recovery of the hull section. In the last few weeks, the French submersible Nautile has brought serving dishes, rusty metal scraps and bottles of Bass Ale from the wreck back to daylight.
To retrieve a piece of the Titanic before it's consumed by nature, Tulloch will chain balloonlike bladders to a section of hull that appears to have rusted away from the rest of the ship and pull it to the surface.
R.M.S. Titanic spokeswoman Alexandra Foley insisted the company is only trying to preserve history before it becomes a rusty spot on the sea floor.
She argued that the cruises, souvenir peddling and contests are merely a way to pay for the effort.
The Discovery Channel's Web site - http://www. discovery.com - is offering daily updates on the expedition, through Sept.6.
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: R.M.S. Titanic Inc./Discovery Channel. Part of theby CNBrailing of the Titanic lies in 12,600 feet of water about 400 miles
off Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. color. Graphic: chart.