TITANIC RECOVERY FAILS; OCEAN LINER'S HULL SINKS AGAIN.

Byline: The New York Times

The Titanic, the unlucky ocean liner that sank on its inaugural voyage in 1912, sank again Friday in deep Atlantic waters - at least a large part of it did. The setback seems likely to reinforce tales that the celebrated wreck is cursed.

A section of the wreck's hull - weighing 11 tons, measuring 24 feet by 20 feet and bearing four portholes and the remnants of four others - was raised this week by an expedition 380 miles off Newfoundland.

Sponsored by a Manhattan company known as RMS Titanic, the expedition had been working for a month to salvage artifacts and sections of the rusting hulk for commercial display. The hull-raising operation was the centerpiece of the recovery effort and was witnessed by passengers on two cruise ships, the Island Breeze, out of New York, and the Royal Majesty, from Boston.

Nothing so large from the Titanic had ever before been raised to the surface from its inky grave nearly 2-1/2 miles down. Large diesel-filled rubber bags were attached to the rusting hull plate as it rested on the ocean floor and were set free to rise toward the surface. By Thursday afternoon, the piece had been raised to about 200 feet below the ocean surface.

The initial plan was to lift the hull plate onto a ship Friday for transport to shore and eventually to New York Harbor, symbolically ending the doomed voyage that began 84 years ago from Southampton, England.

But seas became rough and the salvagers decided to try to tow the hull section about 80 miles to the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, where seas were expected to be smoother. The lifting then would be easier, and if it was unsuccessful, retrieving the piece would be simpler in the much shallower waters.

But a long way from the Banks, about 3 a.m. Friday, the 11-ton section of rusting metal broke free from the towing ship and fell back to the ocean floor. The reasons are still obscure, but two of the four lift balloons apparently broke loose, causing the whole section to sink.

An acoustic beeper was attached to the hull plate and batteries in the device are expected to last two years, raising the possibility of recovering the lost hull section, said Philip S. Pennellatore, a spokesman for RMS Titanic.