Divers say decay threatens to collapse Titanic bow section

NORFOLK, Virginia (Reuters) -- Sections of the sunken Titanic are in danger of collapsing as the sea claims the remains of the world's most famous shipwreck, divers confirmed this week during the latest expedition to the wreckage site.

The ship's bow section, resting about 2-1/2 miles deep on the ocean floor, "is on the verge of a catastrophic failure," and now paper-thin interior walls of the ship are crumbling, salvors said on an Internet Web site (http://www.rmstitanic.net) chronicling the expedition.

"The ship is in a state of horrible deterioration," company spokesman Greg Zink, who is chronicling the expedition, said in a message from the salvage ship. "The depths have no respect for persons or man-made objects. The sea is about to claim the Titanic as we know it."

During a nearly month-long expedition to the Titanic that departed from Norfolk, Virginia, July 21, salvors will make the first manned submarine dives into the wreckage seeking to recover items from the front cargo hold.

During initial dives this week, salvors pulled up a cast-iron table base with brass feet, a four-sided bottle with the cork still intact, and a large leather suitcase containing several books and postcards from the ship, which sank on its maiden voyage in 1912 after striking an iceberg.

But there was no news on the real focus of this expedition: a possible treasure trove consisting of a $300 million diamond shipment and passengers' jewelry salvors believe may be contained in sturdy leather pursers' bags in the cargo hold of the ship.

After steaming through stormy seas last week to reach the dive site, the expedition was met with a chilling order from a U.S. federal court banning the company from selling any of the artifacts lifted from the wreckage.

Clearwater, Florida-based RMS Titanic Inc., a publicly traded company that owns the exclusive salvage rights to the Titanic, was ordered by U.S. District Judge Calvitt Clarke not to sell or dispose of any items raised from the ship and not to cut into the wreckage.

Although salvors had abandoned plans to cut holes into the ship, the company on July 27 claimed it has "the absolute right to sell and may sell items of non-historical and archeological significance recovered from the Titanic wreck site."

Company officials have not been available this week to comment on the ruling, which likely will be the subject of an annual court hearing this autumn into the status of the salvage operation.

RMS Titanic was declared "salvor in possession" of the Titanic wreckage in June 1994 by the Norfolk court, making the company exclusive owner of items recovered from the depths, it said. Company officials during an annual hearing update the judge on results of its latest dive and plans for upcoming salvage operations.

The company, which trades its stock on the OTC bulletin board, in five earlier dives since 1987 recovered about 5,000 objects, including a 20-ton section of the hull, worth far more than the company's market capitalization of about $35 million.

RMS Titanic on its books carries the value of the artifacts -- some priceless-- recovered so far at about $9 million, or about the cost of recovery, and is seeking a listing on the American Stock Exchange, a company official said.

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