i've always disagreed with this "grave robbing" thought process for a
number of reasons, though i know since the popular hollywood movie
about the ship it's become an equally popular point of view. funny how
popular hollywood movies do that very thing! one reason is that it's
simply history, it's a giant shipwreck, a huge disaster, and surely
deserves study to understand it. and it deserves to be studied as
cultural history also, we certainly wouldn't leave a roman galley at
the bottom of the ocean for fear of disturbing the souls on board, or a
nazi u-boat if we found one, we'd bring it to the surface, clean her
up, and stick her in a museum with bones and bearings for the world to
see. there's a lot to be gained by that, a lot to learn. and third,
and more important i would think, is that these people had families,
they were human beings. and i wouldn't want to be left there if i was
them, i'd want to be taken home and buried in the dirt, even if my
grave were unmarked with the others, so that i could rest. opinions
may vary on this topic, and since the popularity of the movie "titanic"
they certainly do, but i wouldn't want to be left in the cold dark
waters of the north atlantic. let's bring home as many as can be
found, strike up the band and finally bring her in to port, have some
parades and put the poor people to rest. if i ever go to the bottom by
all means find me! and take me home to the ground where i was born and
toss some dirt on me.

wrote:
I think it's time we left this vessel - and the 1,517 who went down wit
her - alone. These ongoing intrusions (and subsequent for-profit
displays of her contents at traveling exhibitions) strike me more as
grave robing than of 'science'.

Enough already!

MW