A SOUTHAMPTON Titanic expert has welcomed a court ruling preventing an American firm from selling artefacts found aboard the sunken ship.

A US federal appeals court has refused to let the Atlanta-based salvage company sell objects recovered from the liner, which sank in April 1912.

In a three-nil ruling, a panel of the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, upheld a decision by a lower-court judge and said RMS Titanic Inc did not have title to the objects taken from the bottom of the sea.

Brian Ticehurst, pictured right, secretary of the British Titanic Society, said: "If they were going to start trying to sell the artefacts, then they got the agreement to explore the wreck under false pretenses. It's a good thing that they are not being allowed to sell any of the artefacts they are bringing up, especially as there are still people alive who were there, and are closely bound to the fate of the ship."

The ruling came as the city marked the 90th anniversary of the ship's sinking.

The ship went down in the North Atlantic on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York after hitting an iceberg. More than 1,500 people died.

The company has used a submersible to recover about 6,000 items since the wreck was discovered in 1985.

In 1994, after a long legal battle, US District Judge J Calvitt Clarke granted RMS Titanic the exclusive rights to bring up items from the wreck.

Later, however, the company, citing financial difficulty, wanted to begin selling some or all of the items. But Clarke refused to allow it, saying he had granted sole salvage status to RMS Titanic because it promised it would make money only by displaying the artefacts at museums and travelling shows.

At the appeal hearing, lawyer Neal Walters, appointed by the appeals court to argue the case, said the company was bound by its promise.

But RMS Titanic lawyer Mark Davis argued that the judge was never given an iron-clad promise, only a non-binding business plan that had since changed. He also said the judge's ban on sale of Titanic artefacts was inconsistent with admiralty law, which governs rights to sunken ships, but the appeals court rejected that argument.

The company, which continues to salvage Titanic artefacts, said the restrictions might force it into bankruptcy.

- Originally published April 2002.