Texan Loses Battle to Salvage Titanic Artifacts

A Texas oilman seeking to salvage artifacts from the sunken Titanic lost his case Friday in federal court.

U.S. District Judge J. Calvitt Clarke Jr. upheld the 5-year-old claim of another group.

The judge made permanent an injunction he had granted Titanic Ventures of Southport, Conn., prohibiting Jack Grimm of Abilene, Tex., from salvaging artifacts.

After the ruling, Grimm, who said he has spent more than $1 million on expeditions for the sunken luxury liner since 1980, immediately began talking with Titanic Ventures officials, apparently trying to work out a deal.

But Arnold Geller, the Connecticut group’s fund-raiser, said he wasn’t interested in a deal.

The Titanic sank in April, 1912, on its maiden voyage. It lies in international waters about 400 miles south of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic.

Titanic Ventures, with support from France, conducted a salvage operation in 1987 that brought up more than 1,800 artifacts. Those pieces were taken to France for preservation, and some have been displayed in Europe.

Grimm, 67, said he conducted searches for the Titanic in 1980 and 1981, and photographed what he believes is a propeller from the ship.

However, credit for the discovery of the wreck has gone to underwater explorer Robert Ballard of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts, who conducted an expedition in 1985.