A salvage firm has been given permission to retrieve the Marconi wireless telegraph machine that broadcast distress calls from the sinking Titanic ocean liner.

A U.S. federal judge in Virginia has ruled the telegraph is historically and culturally important and could soon be lost within the rapidly decaying wreck site.

The Titanic struck an iceberg off Newfoundland in 1912. The distress calls were relayed by the lighthouse at Cape Race on the Southern Shore.

The court order is a big win for R-M-S Titanic Inc., the court-recognized steward of the ship’s artifacts. However, the company may face more legal battles, because the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the expedition is still prohibited under United States federal law and under an international agreement between the U.S. and the United Kingdom.