Dans les profondeurs du Titanic by Paul-Henri Nargeolet

Author:Paul-Henri Nargeolet
Language: fra
Format: azw3
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-03-23T13:00:11+00:00

Strangely, until 1992, no one had bothered to take the official steps to become salvor in possession of the wreck of the Titanic, neither the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute nor Ifremer. Robert Ballard, though primarily interested, was unable to do so for one simple reason the law stipulates that an object from the wreck must be presented in order for the claim to be admissible, but the director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution had forbidden him to take anything from the wreck. Titanic. To benefit from the law, he would have had to outlaw himself... Perhaps he hadn't thought of that, and neither had Ifremer. The situation was made all the more inextricable by the fact that Ballard himself had taken the lead in opposing any recovery. With Ballard out of the picture, Jack Grimm, who had not given up his claim to the wreck, felt he had a card to play.

On August 7, 1992, the Texan billionaire applied to the federal court in Norfolk, Virginia, to have Marex Titanic recognized as a company salvor-in-possession and attached to his request the requested proof, a small glass vial from, he claimed, the Titanic. Knowing Jack Grimm's reputation, Judge J. Calvitt Clarke Jr., in charge of the case, investigates the joint Ifremer/Titanic Ventures expedition of 1987. He could find no trace of Marex Titanic at that time. Grimm insisted, asking for more: not only did he want to be recognized as the salvor in possession, but he also demanded the return of the 1,852 objects brought up by Ifremer in the name of his anteriority, since he always claimed to have discovered the wreck as early as 1981. Titanic Ventures counter-attacked, and the testimonies multiplied (their transcription occupies 425 pages). One day, the judge questions Marex's representative:

— Where does the bottle presented as having been recovered from the wreck of the Titanic?

— It was given to me during the 1987 expedition.

— By whom?

— Paul-Henri Nargeolet!

Called to the stand - I will later make a sworn written statement - I formally deny that, to avoid this type of incident, all objects placed under my surveillance on board the Nadir were in a container locked with two padlocks. The commander had the key to one, and I to the other. Two people were needed to open the container and remove items. I also explain that some objects were taken aboard the second expedition support ship, over which I had no control. And that it is very likely that this is where the bottle was spat out. The judge will have little sympathy for the fact that Marex's claims are based on a stolen object...

Despite a number of tortuous maneuvers, Jack Grimm and Marex Titanic were unsuccessful in a legal battle that made history in the annals of American law. Grimm disappeared from the scene, and Titanic Ventures' claim to be recognized as a "shareholder" was rejected salvor-in-possession in order to prevent further legal action, continued until June 7, 1994, when the Norfolk Court confirmed this status.

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