Back in time: Ghostly RMS Titanic comes alive at Foxwoods

Mashantucket — For 73 years, Titanic's resting place remained uncharted, its story a source of undying interest.

Then, in 1985, a team headed by Robert Ballard pinpointed the liner's location on the North Atlantic floor. Salvors, scientists and moviemakers have been making periodic pilgrimages ever since.

The interest, it seems, may never ebb.

With that in mind, Foxwoods Resort Casino has imported "Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition" for a four-month run that begins Saturday. Reporters and photographers were offered a glimpse Thursday night.

Featuring more than 125 items recovered from the doomed vessel's "debris trail" by RMS Titanic Inc., the firm a federal judge anointed "salvor-in-possession" in 1994, the exhibit is one of six currently touring. RMS Titanic, a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Premier Exhibitions, is also exhibiting Titanic artifacts at Las Vegas' Luxor Hotel and Casino and in Louisville, Ky.; New York City; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Dublin, Ireland.

Premier's "Bodies Revealed," an exhibition of human cadavers and preserved body parts, concluded a 35-week run at Foxwoods last month. Some 120,000 visitors generated ticket sales of more than $2 million, according to Foxwoods.

Over the past 14 years, more than 22 million people have viewed the Titanic exhibit in museums around the world.

"People tend to gravitate toward the parts of the ship they're familiar with and that can help them judge the magnitude of it," Cheryl Muré, vice president of education for Premier Exhibitions, said Thursday. "… And the personal effects of the passengers - the back of a hairbrush, a toiletry case, a pair of cufflinks. Anything that makes you think about the people."

More than 1,500 passengers and crew perished during Titanic's maiden voyage, which ended after the mammoth ship struck an iceberg just before midnight on April 14, 1912. Fewer than half as many survived.

The exhibit tracks RMS Titanic from its construction to its sinking to the recovery of artifacts from its wreckage, and focuses on the stories of those who were onboard when it went down. Upon entering the exhibit, visitors receive a replica boarding pass of an actual passenger whose fate they eventually learn. The Foxwoods display includes recreations of first- and third-class cabins and an iceberg simulation.

RMS Titanic has accumulated more than 5,500 artifacts during seven expeditions to the wreck in 1987, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2004. During the first five expeditions, submersibles equipped with mechanical arms were used to retrieve artifacts. In 2004, vehicles controlled from the surface were employed. The salvor, which must continue to recover and preserve artifacts as a condition of its exclusive right to the site, is planning an eighth expedition this year.

Some of the artifacts that have been recovered are too fragile to be displayed, Muré said. Those made of metal, textiles or paper must be periodically removed from exhibition and allowed to "rest" in Premier Exhibits' climate-controlled lab. The collection's "big piece," a 17-ton chunk of Titanic's hull, is on display at Luxor, which in 2008 signed a 10-year agreement to host an artifact exhibition.

Ballard, who did not respond to a request for an interview this week, worried from the start that the discovery of the wreck would lead to salvage efforts that could accelerate its deterioration and desecrate what amounts to a gravesite. After returning to the wreck in 2004, Ballard, a Lyme resident and president of Mystic Aquarium's Institute for Exploration, reported that it had been seriously damaged.

"We believe (the exhibition) honors the legacy of Titanic in a unique, respectful way," Muré said. "Titanic is now in a very hostile underwater environment. Its metal is being eaten away, and it will eventually collapse onto itself. We don't want people to forget its story. It's a story of heroism and humanity - and hubris as well.

"And nothing tells the story more poignantly than the artifacts."

As salvor-in-possession, RMS Titanic does not own the artifacts it has been awarded the exclusive right to recover. U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Va., has ruled, however, that the salvor is entitled to compensation for its salvage efforts. A judge's decision in the matter is imminent.

The trove of artifacts has been appraised at more than $110 million.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com