French Explorers Recover Dishes From Titanic

French explorers on Sunday brought back the first objects ever recovered from the wreckage of the Titanic--dishes used by the passengers aboard the luxury liner that struck an iceberg and sank 75 years ago with the loss of more than 1,500 lives.

The mini-submarine Nautile plunged 2 1/2 miles below the ocean’s surface to retrieve the objects, according to a statement released by the French Institute for Research and Exploitation of the Sea.

No other details on the artifacts were provided.

Marine salvage experts have said that any objects from the Titanic, however small, would be worth a fortune.

Diving conditions were good at the wreckage site 350 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, the statement said. The chief of the support vessel Nadir, identified in the statement only as Cmdr. Nargeollet, described the site as “extraordinary.”

The statement said more than 300 photographs taken by the three-man Nautile crew and by cameras mounted on the robot Robin were of very high quality.

The salvage operation, which began Saturday, is expected to take about a month.

Aided by the robot, the Nautile has been probing a 2 1/2-mile area around the wreck, littered with silver trays, wine bottles and other artifacts. The Nautile will not explore inside the wreck itself, Taurus officials have said, because it would be too dangerous.

The mini-sub is equipped with two arms capable of picking up objects smaller than teacups and larger than safes. The $2.5-million expedition is being conducted by the French Institute for Research and Exploration of the Sea. It has been underwritten by Ocean Research Exploration Ltd., British-registered investors. Taurus International negotiated the contract.

Among the objects seen by the diving team Sunday was a commemorative plaque left last summer by an expedition from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute of Massachusetts, said Daniel Peugeot, a spokesman for Taurus International.

The French institute and Woods Hole formed a partnership that found the wreck of the Titanic on Sept. 1, 1985.