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WHO IS
RMS TITANIC INC?

Following the discovery of the Titanic wreck in 1985, RMS Titanic Inc. (originally known as Titanic Ventures), was founded in 1986 to explore the Titanic wreck and preserve her artifacts. Resting over 12,500 feet beneath the ocean’s surface, the Ship has endured more than a century in a harsh and ever-changing underwater environment. Titanic’s fragile state is further exacerbated by the presence of iron-eating bacteria, which accelerates her deterioration. Given Titanic’s historical importance, stewardship remains crucial to ensuring that her remarkable story lasts for future generations.  

RMS Titanic Inc. is dedicated to preserving Titanic’s legacy and honoring those on board through artifact recovery and stewardship. We foster meaningful public connection and understanding of the voyage, tragedy, and wrecksite through responsible exploration, ongoing conservation and research, and immersive exhibitions that will inspire generations to come. 

our mission

What is RMS Titanic Inc’s vision?

Our vision is to be the world’s leading authority on Titanic, ensuring her legacy through artifact preservation, education, and innovation. We envision a future when Titanic’s story continues to inspire curiosity, remembrance, and responsible exploration by fostering a global appreciation for maritime history and the lessons it imparts. 

What is stewardship, and how does it relate to Titanic? 

“Stewardship” is defined as the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care. As salvor-in-possession, RMS Titanic Inc. has been entrusted with stewardship of the Titanic wreck. It is the company’s responsibility to respectfully oversee the historic site. We work with professionals to document and preserve the Ship’s legacy through artifact recovery, underwater mapping, and permanent and internationally traveling TITANIC: The Artifact Exhibitions. The real artifacts on public display are a testament to our continued commitment to conservation and stewardship, ensuring Titanic and the souls on board are always remembered. 

SO YOU’RE SAYING YOU OWN TITANIC?

PUBLIC RESPONSIBILITY

We don’t own Titanic, but we do own our responsibility. RMS Titanic Inc. was granted exclusive salvage rights to the wreck of Titanic by a United States Federal Court order in 1994 and reconfirmed in 1996. The court award includes the exclusive rights to recover artifacts from the debris field. We act only as the stewards of the wrecksite and do not own the area or the Ship.  

As the salvor-in-possession, we must demonstrate to the U.S. government our commitment to ongoing preservation, research, and stewardship through adherence to the Covenants and Conditions that govern our active care and monitoring of the Titanic artifact collection and the wrecksite itself. We are required to regularly complete and submit reports to the U.S. government, demonstrating our legal and ethical commitment to artifact conservation and responsible management. These reports detail how trained professionals care for and preserve the collection through meticulous documentation and conservation efforts. Additionally, after every expedition, we file a comprehensive report outlining our activities, findings, and the condition of the site, ensuring transparency and accountability in our ongoing mission to protect and honor Titanic’s legacy

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT'S COVENANTS AND CONDITIONS
The RMS Titanic Maritime Memorial Act of 1986 was the first piece of federal legislation to recognize the wrecksite as an international maritime memorial, following Titanic’s discovery in 1985. This was followed by the Agreement Concerning the Shipwrecked Vessel RMS Titanic, signed by the U.S., U.K., Canada, and France in 2003 and entered into force for the U.S. in 2019, which set international guidelines for preserving the site. To enforce this agreement domestically, Congress passed Section 113 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017, making it illegal for any U.S. entity to explore, salvage, or disturb the Titanic wreck without permission from the Secretary of Commerce. The salvage rights of RMS Titanic Inc.—granted and reconfirmed by a U.S. federal court since 1994—do not override these protective laws, meaning the company must obtain federal approval before any future expeditions or artifact recovery.
In 2012, Titanic became protected under the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage because the Ship had been submerged for over 100 years. This status helps safeguard the wreck by discouraging intrusive salvage operations and unregulated tourism while promoting preservation through international legal and ethical guidelines, ensuring respectful and responsible stewardship of the site.

LEARN ABOUT THE WRECKSITE
Yes, Titanic rests in international waters, but that doesn’t mean everyone can interact with it. Under international agreements, no single country owns the wreck, and there are legal protections in place. RMS Titanic Inc. is the only entity with the legal rights to recover, conserve, and share Titanic’s artifacts from the site, granted through U.S. federal court rulings and recognized internationally. Other research teams and expedition groups can visit the wrecksite, but they cannot legally remove or disturb anything. These protections help ensure Titanic is treated with respect as a historic site.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) works with RMS Titanic Inc. in its role as salvor-in-possession of Titanic. While we operate under U.S. federal court rulings, NOAA has an oversight role to ensure responsible artifact recovery and site preservation, particularly in alignment with the RMS Titanic Memorial Act of 1986 and the Agreement Concerning the Shipwrecked Vessel RMS Titanic. As a government agency dedicated to oceanic and atmospheric research, NOAA works to protect maritime heritage sites such as Titanic by offering scientific expertise and advocating for international preservation efforts.
The U.S. federal courts recognize RMS Titanic Inc. as the salvor-in-possession of Titanic, granting us exclusive rights to recover artifacts from the wrecksite. This status is based on maritime salvage law and has been upheld through legal rulings since 1994. The RMS Titanic Memorial Act of 1986 and Agreement Concerning the Shipwrecked Vessel RMS Titanic encourage the U.S. to work with the U.K., France, and Canada—countries with key historical ties to Titanic—to develop international preservation agreements.

what artifacts do you collect and why?

THE COLLECTION

At RMS Titanic Inc., our mission is to respectfully preserve and share the legacy of Titanic through responsible artifact recovery. Our recovery expeditions are limited to the debris field: the 15-square-mile area of ocean floor that surrounds the two halves of the Ship. We carefully document and preserve artifacts without disturbing the wreck.

What are your recovery ethics? 

We do not interfere with the Ship, as maintaining structural integrity is a top priority. We only recover artifacts from the debris field that help tell Titanic’s story, selecting pieces that effectively communicate her legacy to the public and ensure her preservation for future generations. We maintain the only collection of recovered Titanic artifacts, so it is our responsibility to keep the collection together as a single, curated archive. This ensures that recovered items are studied and displayed as part of a unified historical record. While we do not sell artifacts, we do offer limited quantities of coal recovered from the debris field. As a natural resource, coal is permitted for sale, and proceeds support our ongoing conservation efforts. 

We believe that it is imperative to maintain the integrity of the collection by keeping it together to ensure that artifacts remain in their full historical, archaeological, and research contexts. Therefore, artifacts are not given to individuals. For the few artifacts recovered whose ownership we can trace, most have no direct living descendants. Only one living survivor had a direct connection to an artifact: Edith Brown Haisman, who was a 15-year-old second-class passenger on Titanic traveling with her parents. She was still alive when her father’s pocket watch was recovered from the debris field in 1987. The watch was returned to her for the remainder of her life on the condition that it revert to the collection when she passed. Edith passed away on January 20, 1997, and the watch is now with the rest of the collection.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE ARTIFACTS COLLECTION
Our collection goes beyond the 5,500 recovered artifacts—it also includes video footage, photographs, and other media from over 40 years of expeditions, dating back to 1987. The media collection contains recordings from nearly 200 dives to the wrecksite as well as composites and comprehensive digital mapping of the site from 2010. Additionally, we are currently processing and reviewing the latest data from our 2024 expedition. All original recording and viewing systems for footage and data are housed at our collections care facility, where thousands of hours of video and photographs are processed, backed up, and catalogued by trained specialists.

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR EXPEDITIONS
We maintain a full-time team of professionally trained specialists in collections care, data management, media, and research. Together, we ensure that the physical, intellectual, and historical integrity of the Titanic artifact collection is preserved according to best practices in the field of museum management.

To protect the physical artifacts, we ensure our collections care facility is climate-controlled and use archival-quality materials to prevent damage from light exposure, dust, corrosion, mold, and pests. All handling of artifacts, including installation and deinstallation for exhibitions, is carried out by professional artifact care specialists and white-glove logistics services. Artifacts are tracked using standardized cataloguing protocols and managed through a centralized database. They are rotated periodically to preserve their condition and align with curatorial objectives. It is equally essential to preserve and catalogue each artifact’s historical and archaeological context, which is documented alongside its exhibition history within the database. Artifact recovery expeditions in 1987, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2004 were documented using analog media, which have been digitized since. The digital archive is carefully catalogued and managed with strict security protocols and standardized file organization to ensure long-term accessibility and integrity. We also continue to preserve the original analog media as part of the complete record.

Ongoing research is a cornerstone of our stewardship. We continually reassess artifacts as new technologies or historical insights emerge, often through collaborations with partner institutions that support our research efforts.

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR RESEARCH AND CONSERVATION WORK
RMS Titanic Inc. partners with researchers on projects at its discretion. We currently maintain research partnerships with France’s La Cité De La Mer, the National Museum of Northern Ireland’s Ulster Museum, TH Entertainment, and Titanic: Honor and Glory. We have collaborated with prominent organizations including the Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), National Geographic, and Discovery Channel. We also work with individuals to conduct and share research. Previous individual collaborators include Dave Gallo, Rory Golden, Bill Sauder, Charlie Haas, Jack Eaton, Roy Cullimore, Tim Foecke, Rhonda Wozniak, Ken Vrana, Buzz Aldrin, and John Joslyn, among others. For more information, or to submit a request, please see our use and access policy.