A recovery expedition lifted a giant slab of the RMS Titanic's hull from its watery ocean grave, 84 years after the ship struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean, an expedition spokesman said.

The 20-ton piece of steel hull was being hauled on board recovery ship Jim Kilabuck, anchored off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, said Todd Tarantino, spokesman for New York-based RMS Titanic Inc., which is sponsoring the expedition.

Plans call for the piece of debris to be taken to Boston on Saturday and to New York City on Sunday. The wreckage has been lying in water more than 2 1/2 miles deep.

The steel-hulled Titanic, thought to be "unsinkable," struck an iceberg on April 14, 1912, and sank, killing 1,523 of the 2,200 passengers and crew on board. The wreck was located in 1985. The expedition tried unsuccessfully twice earlier this week to retrieve the hull but technical hitches and equipment problems delayed them.

As part of the recovery expedition, more than 1,700 people including three survivors of the doomed liner's first transatlantic voyage sailed in two ships from Boston and New York to the site, paying $1,500 and up for a nine-day cruise.

RMS Titanic Inc., which holds the rights to the ship's debris, has recovered some 4,000 artifacts since 1987. It hopes to use the hull section as the centerpiece of an exhibition next spring and possibly a full-fledged Titanica museum.