A team of American researchers are hoping to use robots to search the remains of the Titanic and recover any hidden treasures.
Any treasures they find will be put on display at a Las Vegas casino, before being taken around the world.
The Titanic was built in Belfast and stopped at Cork on her doomed Maiden voyage to America.
The liner sank in 1912, after colliding with an iceberg roughly 596km south of Newfoundland in Canada. The tragedy resulted in the deaths of 1,500 passengers and crew members.
RMS Titanic Inc is currently the only organisation legally permitted to salvage items from the ship. They have salvaged around 5,500 items that were scattered on the ocean floor but are desperate to get inside the liner to see what else was left behind.
However, a new treaty between the UK and US is likely to restrict diving licences for teams hoping to visit the liner, which is around 3,800m below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.
RMS Titanic Inc President Bretton Hunchak says his team want to want to cut off the roof of the Titanic to allow robots in so they can salvage more relics.
Hunchak believes we can learn a great deal by salvaging the ship’s Marconi wireless radio system, which was used to send out distress signals.
He said: “The Marconi wireless can teach us so much about the last moments of the Titanic and the heroes who died that night.
“The ship is deteriorating and if we don’t take action now, we’ll be too late.
“So we’re going to bring the Marconi and other historic artefacts up to the surface where they belong.”
There will be hurdles to overcome if the plan is to get the go-ahead.
The UK signed a restrictive treaty in 2003. This was ratified by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and is now in force.
UK Maritime Minister Nusrat Ghani said: “Lying two and a half miles below the ocean surface, the RMS Titanic is the subject of the most documented maritime tragedy in history.
“It will be treated with the sensitivity and respect owed to the final resting place of more than 1,500 lives.”
Hunchak says he fully intends to treat the people who died with respect and doesn’t believe his company’s plans will fall foul of the treaty.
He added: “Of course we recognise and respect the tragedy of what happened.
“But the hard truth is that we need to share what we can see with the rest of the world.”
Written by Michael Kehoe @michaelcalling