'It's time to move on from Titanic': As the U.S. tries to block 2024 expedition, this explorer is over it

Rob McCallum will never forget the first time he saw the Titanic through the porthole window of a submersible. Emotions welled as he contemplated a lifetime of exploring that led him to this point, 3,800 metres beneath the sea.

But now — in the wake of a disaster that claimed five lives and amid a U.S. court challenge to restrict access to the Titanic — the professional expedition leader wants the industry to call time on Titanic exploration.

"I think we're getting to the point where we're sort of saturated with Titanic information," McCallum told CBC News. "It's by far the most studied shipwreck in the world. I think it's getting time to say thank you and goodnight."

The New Zealander has led more than 1,000 expeditions around the world. He's led an expedition to the deepest point on Earth and taken researchers and tourists to the Titanic on several occasions. Few people alive have visited the wreckage more than McCallum. 

Now he feels there's nothing left to learn from it. 

"The Titanic story is a compelling one," he said. "It's one that's told and retold annually. I just can't think of anything that we need to recover from the wreck that would add new or different information than we already have."

RMS Titanic Inc., the Georgia-based company that holds salvage rights to the shipwreck, has announced plans to return to the site in 2024 and conduct an unmanned salvage mission.

Of interest to the group is the Marconi wireless telegraph machine, which was used to send distress signals after the ship struck an iceberg and began to sink. 

If the company wants to retrieve the machine, it may have to fight against the U.S. government to get it. 

All expeditions to the Titanic must be cleared by one U.S. District Court in Norfolk, VA. The U.S. government filed an application with the court to intervene after RMST gave notice of its intentions to launch a salvage mission in May.

The government is relying on a statute signed with the United Kingdom in 2019 that prohibits entering the ship's hull or disturbing the wreck without the approval of the U.S. secretary of commerce. 

"RMST's objectives are inconsistent with, if not directly adverse to, the United States' interests," reads the application to intervene. "RMST seeks to conduct activities during the 2024 Expedition that are likely to 'physically alter or disturb' the wreck or wreck site in that, at a minimum, they involve penetration of the hull and recovery of artifacts, both within the wreck and outside the wreck."

The company has yet to respond to the government's application. In an interview with business website Insider, RMST president Jessica Sanders said the company feels it's within its rights for the expedition. 

Lawyers in the United States say the fight could drag on for years if the Virginia court grants approval for the government to intervene.