Why Norfolk’s federal court oversees Titanic cases — and how one attorney saw the wreckage for himself

NORFOLK — For the past three decades, judges in U.S. District Court in Norfolk have had a lot to say about what happens with the most famous shipwreck of all time while maintaining exclusive control over the Titanic wreck site.

Among the matters they’ve been asked to decide are whether artifacts from the luxury passenger liner’s final resting place in the North Atlantic could be salvaged, who would be allowed to collect them and what the salvagers could do with the items once recovered.

The local judge currently assigned to the case — U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith — continues to receive regular updates about activity at the site, including an advance letter about plans for the fateful expedition last month by a group traveling in a submersible called the Titan that ended with the vessel imploding, killing all five men on board.

Earlier this month, a document detailing what happened to the submersible owned by OceanGate Inc., and the investigation now being conducted by the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board, was filed with the court. Included with the filing was a map of sonar images showing where the Titan’s debris was found in relation to the Titanic’s remains.

Some matters the inquiry will seek to determine are whether any criminal or civil penalties are warranted, as well as if any new laws or regulations should be enacted as a result of the incident, according to the six-page document filed by Virginia Beach attorney Brian Wainger. He represents RMS Titanic, Inc., the company that has long had exclusive salvage rights to the ship.

So, how did a federal courthouse in Norfolk end up with control of the famous wreck site in international waters about 400 miles south of Newfoundland, Canada?

It all started with another famous shipwreck: the SS Central America, a side-wheel steamer that sank during a September 1857 hurricane off the coast of the Carolinas, according to former Norfolk attorney and retired federal magistrate judge Brad Stillman. He specialized in admiralty law and previously represented RMS Titanic, Inc. He also traveled to the wreckage in 1993 on a French submersible called the Nautile.

The Central America was hauling passengers and gold mined during the California gold rush when it sank — 425 passengers and crew, and more than 30,000 pounds of gold, went down with it. The wreckage and much of its treasure was finally discovered off the coast of South Carolina by the Columbus-American Discovery Group of Ohio, led by Tommy Thompson.

He and his group went to U.S. District Court in Norfolk to ask a judge to grant it salvage rights to the Central America. They were soon challenged by 39 insurance companies that had paid claims on the lost gold back when it sank and believed they should get control of the treasure.

“They (Thompson’s group) brought the gold back to Norfolk because it was a jurisdiction that had a history with admiralty law,” Stillman said. “Salvage law is part of admiralty law, which is a specialty assigned to the federal courts under the Constitution. The Norfolk court had judges with substantial experience in admiralty law.”

Thompson’ group eventually prevailed, and as a result, the Norfolk court became known as the place to go for shipwreck salvage cases. So in the early 1990s, when a battle for rights to the Titanic site began to brew, the case was filed there.

The Titanic wreckage was discovered in 1985, more than seven decades after it sank during its April 1912 maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City. The wreckage was discovered by a French-American expedition group led by oceanographer and retired naval officer Robert Ballard. Ballard and his team, however, never sought salvage rights, and instead believed the site should be left untouched.

RMS Titanic, Inc. made its first expedition to the wreckage in 1987. Over the course of 32 dives in a yellow French submersible called the Nautile, it recovered about 1,800 artifacts using the vessel’s robotic arms.

In 1992, a rival salvage group led by Texas wildcatter Jack Grimm petitioned the Norfolk court for exclusive rights to the Titanic. The group, Marex-Titanic of Memphis, Tennessee, argued RMST had given up its claim by not returning to the site for five years.

Stillman and his former colleague, Mark S. Davis, now the Chief Judge of the Eastern District of Virginia, led the legal team for RMST. They eventually persuaded the judge overseeing the case to award it exclusive salvage rights, which it still maintains. In return, the company assured the court it would never sell the items, and instead would preserve and display them at exhibitions.

RMST returned to the wreckage site in 1993, when Stillman was among the crew members invited to participate. In a June 1993 story in The Virginian-Pilot, the attorney said he accepted the invitation “almost without thinking.” He was given a safety briefing before he went down, and watched a dive the day before.

“I understood the risks,” he said. “I wasn’t apprehensive. I was thrilled at the opportunity.”

The Nautile was 8 meters long and could accommodate three crew members. Each had their own porthole to look out. In addition to the robotic arms, the battery-powered vessel was equipped with floodlights and video and still cameras.

“It was a very intense environment,” Stillman said. “It was cold and dank. We were in complete darkness going down and coming back up … When we landed at the bottom they turned on the lights and the first thing I saw was serenity.”

Among the artifacts Stillman remembers seeing were china plates still stacked in rows, an inkwell and a wrench. By far the item that stuck out in his mind most was a black, brown and white gingham dress with glass buttons trailing from an open-top bag made of stiff leather. A crystal decanter with a symbol of White Star Line, the owner of the Titanic, engraved on it was among the items recovered and used to win the salvage rights.

“All these things were perfectly preserved because of the lack of oxygen and the temperature,” Stillman said. “It was very sobering seeing that dress, that bag, that inkwell. They were all possessions of someone who may have or may not have survived the wreck.”

RMST conducted about a half-dozen more salvage expeditions at the site — the last in 2010. In all, it has collected more than 5,500 artifacts, including a large piece of the ship’s hull recovered during a 1998 dive. The pieces have been displayed at touring exhibitions around the world, as well as permanent displays in Las Vegas and Orlando, Florida.

Stillman’s involvement in the case ended when he was appointed a federal magistrate judge in Norfolk. During his time working for RMST, he got to know Paul-Henri “PH” Nargeolet, a French deep sea diver, Titanic expert and RMST employee who was among those killed in the Titan accident. Nargolet was there when Stillman made his dive in 1993, overseeing the expedition from a ship at the ocean’s surface.

“He was a good man,” Stillman said. “A very precise and capable person.”

The Norfolk court continues to oversee the wreck site, reviewing updates and requests sent by RMST and other companies like OceanGate that want to visit the site, said Wainger, currently the lead attorney on the case. If any litigation comes out of the Titan tragedy, it could potentially end up in Norfolk, he said.

In an April 20 letter to Smith, the judge overseeing the case, OceanGate legal advisor David Concannon wrote that the company planned to deploy the Titan in the summer to conduct a “series of photographic and scientific survey expeditions.” He assured the judge they would not disturb the site.

At the end of his letter, Concannon invited Smith to be a guest on one of the dives. The judge responded a few weeks later, writing she couldn’t at that time, but might be interested later.

“After almost thirty (30) years of being involved in this case, that opportunity would be quite informative and present a first ‘eyes on’ view of the wreck site by the Court,” Smith wrote. “Your expeditions create an even greater understanding and appreciation of the efforts made by so many to preserve the respect for the R.M.S. Titanic, and for those who lost their lives to this historic ‘graveyard of the sea.'”

In a periodic report filed just five days before the Titan’s implosion, Wainger told the judge the company would like to return to the wreckage in May 2024 to collect data, monitor the impact other expeditions may have had on the site, and recover some artifacts. Smith has not yet ruled on whether she will permit it, Wainger said.

Jane Harper, jane.harper@pilotonline.com