RMS Titanic

The final voyage

RMS Titanic departed Southampton on 10 April 1912 on her maiden voyage to New York, calling at Cherbourg and Queenstown before crossing the Atlantic. At 11:40 p.m. on 14 April, roughly 400 miles south of Newfoundland, she struck an iceberg and sank in the early hours of 15 April; approximately 1,500 people died, making it one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters and a direct catalyst for the first International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) in 1914.

The wreck was located on 1 September 1985 by a joint Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution–IFREMER expedition led by Robert Ballard and Jean-Louis Michel, lying in two main sections at a depth of roughly 3,800 metres (about 12,500 feet). Since then, expeditions led by RMS Titanic Inc., holder of salvor-in-possession rights, have recovered thousands of artifacts under U.S. federal court oversight, and the site is now subject to a U.S.–U.K.–France–Canada agreement and the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage.

What was aboard

Titanic carried no bullion or coin-cargo shipment; her documented valuables consist of passenger effects, registered mail, and ship's fittings, recovered and catalogued under RMS Titanic Inc.'s court-supervised salvage program.

Passenger personal effects: Jewelry, currency, and personal items recovered from the debris field, catalogued and in many cases publicly exhibited.

Registered mail: The ship carried the Royal Mail Ship designation and a quantity of registered mail from Southampton and Cherbourg.

Ship's fittings and structure: Large structural and decorative elements recovered under archaeological protocols established by court order.

How to collect

Verify RMS Titanic Inc. provenance for any artifact: Legitimate recovered material carries documentation from the court-supervised salvage program; anything without it should be treated with extreme skepticism.

Understand mail and coin are not the same as treasure: No specie shipment or bullion cargo is documented; interest lies in passenger effects and postal history, not coin hoards.

Recognize legal restrictions on future recovery: New artifact recovery is closely regulated; unauthorized recovery attempts from the site are unlawful.

Distinguish replica and film-prop items from genuine artifacts: The wreck's fame has produced a large market in replicas and props; genuine recovered material is comparatively rare and always documented.