Titanic historian refuses to go on dive to shipwreck site and hits out at ‘graveyard graffiti’

Paul Louden-Brown, historian for Titanic Belfast and vice president of Titanic Historical Society, said he has refused to go on a dive to the sunken ship.

Mr Louden-Brown, speaking on Radio 5 Live, said: "As an historian and somebody that's been writing and researching about the Titanic since the 1960s, you're going to find out an awful lot more about Titanic, mass migration, the history of the ocean liner in a library than you will do diving on her.”

He added: “It's a terrible, terrible tragedy – a tragedy that's been waiting to happen."

He claimed that the Russian submersible, Mir, which preceded Titan was in questionable condition when it was launched in the 1990s.

He said he was offered dives on Mir by RMS Titanic (the company with the salvage rights to the Titanic) “in order to shut me up, to get me onside, to stop voicing against what they were doing”.

The historian said: “I refused to do it for a number of reasons. Number one I don't want to be involved in that circus, number two the condition of the equipment they're using was bad even back in the 90s.“Now you have Titan. It's just a tourist attraction, for people to have bragging rights.”

He said: “As an historical society we've long argued that Titanic should be left alone – it's a grave. We don't have any artefacts from Titanic in the visitors centre recovered from the ship.

"The Titanic is part of the National Curriculum here in Northern Ireland. That's as it should be because it helps children to understand about their past and the development of shipbuilding and marine engineering in Northern Ireland, a very important part of the history of this country, but we don't need to go down there and pillage the ship.

“The wreck site effectively has been destroyed. It's covered in plaques, the most spurious of messages have been left on the ship. It's almost like a sort of graveyard graffiti. So many landings have been made on the vessel the bridge structure has collapsed. It is absolutely disgraceful what's been going on.”