The Millennium Project aims to realise the dream of one man-Mr. Douglas John Faulkner Woolley.
As the owner of the salvage rights of both the RMS Titanic & Queen Elizabeth 1, two of the most famous liners ever to have sailed, Mr. Faulkner Woolley has formed the above company with the intention of working towards the ultimate salvage operation of the Titanic-based on his book ‘Titanic-One Man’s Dream.’ The ultimate aim is to allow the great liner to be returned to her home port of Southampton or Liverpool, England, to be converted into a museum in a similar fashion to that of the Mary Rose, whose remaining timbers were raised from the Solent, in the south of England, and taken to Portsmouth. With a group of leading marine engineers and a dedicated team of divers headed by Steven J. Bilsby, the intentions are to use a series of air bags secured to the hull of the Titanic. These will be filled with hydrogen generated by electrolysis at the ocean bed site.
Despite reports to the contrary, the hull of the vessel, although believed to be spread around several locations at the site, is still in a worthy enough condition to withstand the salvage operation. As with any operation of this nature, there is a huge financial implication and it is hoped that enough interest will be generated by The Millennium Project to raise a) The investment required and then b) The Titanic herself.
In The Shadow Of The Hecate
It has come to our knowledge that certain people on the various internet sites are not very knowledgeable about matters relating to the R.M.S Titanic, as they don’t know the real facts of the story. The Titanic salvage project was formed in 1966 and finally amended on 29th April 1972 in Jersey (Channel Islands). All this was made to form the legal contracts for the salvaging of the Queen Elizabeth 1 (Seawise University) and R.M.S Titanic.
At this time Mr. Philip Slade was accountant and secretary to both Seawise and Titanic Salvage companies. A considerable amount of activity of both legal and scientific was going on at this time in Hong Kong, Jersey and Budapest and in answer to the sceptics you must understand the entire workings of the project. The project itself was reported in a magazine in America and U.K called ‘Chemical and Engineering News’ and also in the encyclopaedia ‘The History of Ships , part 52, 1974, New English Library. We later set up a company named ‘Seawise and Titanic Salvage Ltd,’ and this was so we could issue shares and capital to persue the venture- but this did not work out as I planned it. It is denied by the directors which were members of my team to proceed with the project as it was originally planned. On setting up of the new company £6.5m was alleged to have been raised for the survey of the Titanic, although this was never made public knowledge. The company made agreements with Fathom Line Ltd. and this was published in ‘Now’ magazine with the aid of Sir James Goldsmith.
Fathom Line is known to have passed confidential information to the Americans (Mr. J. Grimm) and Woods Hole Institute of Oceanography, which is an American sponsored organisation. At a later stage in 1978, the survey was made by H.M.S Hecate, a Royal Navy ship, with the help of Fathom Line Ltd. and Seawise & Titanic Salvage Ltd. (the company I founded). The survey was made with considerable results and photographs were placed in various newspapers, including the Observer, of which Dr. Ballard was wrongly identified with. Dr. Ballard had claimed to be out on site with Mr. Bill Tantum but were not, as the equipment was still being held in storage in Woods Hole and the authorities at Woods Hole had no notification of any expeditions taking place at this time.
The operations with the HMS Hecate were followed by HMS Enterprise but it was HMS Hecate that found, located and photographed the Titanic first. I was kept in the dark about all of this as it was done in total secrecy but based on the information given to them by Fathom Line and Seawise & Titanic, both Mr. Grimm and Dr. Ballard were acting as a team, it was was a matter of first come, first served, with the breaking news of their discovery- little to the dismay of the French company Ifremia, who were pushed out of any involvement in the actual discovery and the release of the information to the press. This statement is given support by the open letter from commander Paul-Henri Nargoleot.
All of the above were known in in the late !970s and early 1980s in the U.S press and in various books by Mr. Grimm and Mr. Hoffman and other sources. The new company (Seawise Salvors International & Monetary Investments) is a continuation of the companies from 1966-1972 and Seawise & Titanic Salvage Ltd. And follows the entire project as planned in ‘Titanic-One Man’s Dream.’ DJFW