NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — The U.S. government will try to stop a company's planned salvage mission to retrieve the Titanic's wireless telegraph machine.
Federal attorneys are arguing the expedition would break federal law and a pact with Britain to leave the iconic shipwreck undisturbed.
In their filing, the agreement with the U.K. says disturbing the Titanic where so many lives were lost should be respected.
U.S. attorneys filed a legal challenge before a federal judge in Norfolk, Virginia, late Monday.
The expedition is expected to occur by late August.
The U.S. government filed its challenge before the same federal judge who ruled last month that the salvage firm could recover the radio.
Its distress calls to other ships are credited with saving the lives of some 700 people after the Titanic struck an iceberg in 1912.