FEBRUARY/MARCH 2001
GRAD EXPLORES TITANIC FOR ARTIFACTS
Few have ventured among the lost souls and precious artifacts of the sunken Titanic. But Florida State graduate Michelle Turman has been there, and she went with a little bit of FSU in her hand and her heart.
As a member of the RMS Ti-tanic expedition, Turman carried an FSU-imprinted Styrofoam cup 12,545 feet down to the sunken wreckage.
"I thought wouldn't it be great if FSU was the first collegiate team to be part of the Titanic," Turman said.
After her dive, Turman sent what was left of the history-making cup to FSU.
The 6,800 pounds of pressure per square inch during the dive
had shrunk the cup to 25 percent of its original size.
At FSU during the early 1990s, Turman was an art history major.
She graduated in 1995 and then went to the University of South
Florida for a master's. While she was at the University of South
Florida, Turman worked as a curator on a Titanic exhibition,
and as soon as she graduated, she went to work for RMS.
Although she is trained as a curator, Turman was in charge of logistics on the Titanic expedition. That job, as she described it, entailed a little bit of everything. "When on the dive, I brief everyone. I tell them what (artifacts) we're looking for and what condition we want them in."
In contrast to the public, which can leisurely view the ruins of the Titanic in a submersible, a high-tech submarine, for a mere $35,000, for Turman and the rest of the RMS crew, every dive is a working dive.
Turman was among 12 who worked at the Titanic site on the Ocean Intervention, an expedition ship, for an entire month and a half. The other members of the crew mixed their duties at sea with trips to shore. A typical work day would begin at 7:30 a.m. and last until 1:30 a.m. Divers would spend at least 12 hours a day in the water.
"Our days were very long," Turman said simply.
Even when two hurricanes hit, Turman and the crew stayed on the
water, moving to a different locale in the Atlantic Ocean for
safety.
Turman said RMS wanted two kinds of artifacts: items used by women, such as clothing and luggage, and artifacts from the Titanic crew.
The artifacts the crew found included perfume, a pair of opera glasses in perfect condition, small bottles of medicine, a bag of small combs and an alligator bag with an insurance claim ticket inside.
In addition to managing logistics, Turman was part of two
of the 28 dives to the massive ruins. RMS had three on the crew,
each with his or her own job: One drove the sub, one videotaped
the wreckage, and one (Turman) recorded x,y coordinates to enable
the crew to map the site.
During each dive she spent 12 hours in the sub lying on her stomach.
"I compared it to going to space," Turman said.
Besides threatening weather and long days, Turman had to deal
with those who believed they had claims to the possessions left
on the Titanic, and others who want the Titanic remains to be
declared a monument.
A U. S. federal court has ruled that the RMS is the sole owner of all items recovered from the site.
Turman said the search for artifacts won't last more than five or 10 more years because of the ship's deterioration. She says RMS is helping to preserve the Titanic, not harming it. She said the expedition never entered the ship, and collected artifacts only outside in the ship's debris field.
She is in the process of beginning an internship program at RMS for FSU students. "I thought let's plant the seed and see where it goes," Turman said.
Even with all her accomplishments, Turman hasn't forgotten
her beginnings in Tallahassee. "I never knew that FSU would
have helped me get to this point," Turman said.
- Kati Bexley
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