---
kind: "section"
citation: "16 U.S.C. § 450rr"
title: "16"
title_heading: "Conservation"
number: "450rr"
heading: "R.M.S. Titanic; international maritime memorial; findings and purposes"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/16/450rr"
units:
  - "Chapter 1 — National Parks, Military Parks, Monuments, and Seashores"
  - "Subchapter LXI — National and International Monuments and Memorials"
---

# §450rr. R.M.S. Titanic; international maritime memorial; findings and purposes

- (a) **Findings—** The Congress finds that—
  - (1) the [R.M.S. Titanic](/usc/16/450rr–1.md?p=c), the ocean liner which sank on her maiden voyage after striking an iceberg on April 14, 1912, should be designated as an international maritime [memorial](/usc/16/450ss–1.md?p=2) to the men, women, and children who perished aboard her;
  - (2) the recent discovery of the [R.M.S. Titanic](/usc/16/450rr–1.md?p=c), lying more than twelve thousand feet beneath the ocean surface, demonstrates the practical applications of ocean science and engineering;
  - (3) the [R.M.S. Titanic](/usc/16/450rr–1.md?p=c), well preserved in the cold, oxygen-poor waters of the deep North Atlantic Ocean, is of major national and international cultural and historical significance, and merits appropriate international protection; and
  - (4) the [R.M.S. Titanic](/usc/16/450rr–1.md?p=c) represents a special opportunity for deep ocean scientific research and exploration.
- (b) **Purposes—** The Congress declares that the purposes of sections 450rr to [450rr–6](/usc/16/450rr–6.md) of this title are—
  - (1) to encourage international efforts to designate the [R.M.S. Titanic](/usc/16/450rr–1.md?p=c) as an international maritime [memorial](/usc/16/450ss–1.md?p=2) to those who lost their lives aboard her in 1912;
  - (2) to direct the United States to enter into negotiations with other interested nations to establish an international agreement which will provide for the designation of the [R.M.S. Titanic](/usc/16/450rr–1.md?p=c) as an international maritime [memorial](/usc/16/450ss–1.md?p=2), and protect the scientific, cultural, and historical significance of the [R.M.S. Titanic](/usc/16/450rr–1.md?p=c);
  - (3) to encourage, in those negotiations or in other fora, the development and implementation of international guidelines for conducting research on, exploration of, and if appropriate, salvage of the [R.M.S. Titanic](/usc/16/450rr–1.md?p=c); and
  - (4) to express the sense of the United States Congress that, pending such international agreement or guidelines, no [person](/usc/16/450rr–1.md?p=b) should physically alter, disturb, or salvage the [R.M.S. Titanic](/usc/16/450rr–1.md?p=c) in any research or exploratory activities which are conducted.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 99–513, § 2, Oct. 21, 1986, 100 Stat. 2082.)

## Notes

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Short Title

Pub. L. 99–513, § 1, Oct. 21, 1986, 100 Stat. 2082, provided that: “This Act [enacting this section and sections 450rr–1 to 450rr–6 of this title] may be cited as the ‘R.M.S. Titanic Maritime Memorial Act of 1986’.”