Existing comment:
Search for Titanic:
Proposals to find Titanic began among relatives of some of its wealthiest victims, including the Guggenheims, Wideners, and Astors. However, nobody knew the ship's exact location, condition, or depth, and technology had not evolved to examine the ocean floor. Finding Titanic would await the creation of deep-sea vehicles decades later. An oil millionaire, Jack Grimm, underwrote three expeditions in the early 1980s and sought the wreckage with sonar, but did not find it.
Finally, in 1985 a joint American-French team succeeded. Led by National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Robert Ballard and Jean-Louis Michel of the Institut Francais de Recherche pour l'Exploration de la Mer, the two combined their underwater expertise and a hunch. They plotted Titanic's last position, compensated for the current, and drew a rectangle on the map around the likely wreck site. They also believed the eyewitness account of teenage survivor Jack Thayer, ridiculed in 1912, who said Titanic had broken apart before sinking. Hull rupture would have scattered debris across the seabed. Ballard and Michel believed video cameras and lights dragged above the floor would encounter identifiable debris. Aboard the Knorr, a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution research vessel, the Ballard-Michel team towed a video camera sled in a grid pattern inside the plotted rectangle.
After three frustrating weeks, early on September 1, the crew finally spotted wreckage at 41 degrees, 43 minutes north latitude, and 49 degrees, 56 minutes west longitude. At a depth of 2.5 miles, a boiled appeared on the screen. Its rivet pattern identified it as from Titanic -- they had found the infamous ship. Jack Thayer was correct. Titanic had indeed broken apart. Additional searching revealed the bow section of the ship. The crew celebrated before holding a brief memorial on Knorr's fantail. Later that day, they released the news to the world.
Ballard returned to the wreck in 1986 and 2004, and today advocates for the possible designation of the site as a marine protected area. In addition to Titanic, Ballard is credited with tracking down other significant wrecks, including the German battleship Bismark and numerous contemporary and ancient shipwrecks. During his long career, he had conducted more than 120 deep-sea expeditions, using the latest in exploration technology, including deep-diving submarines. He is also known for his discoveries of hydrothermal vents and his pioneering work in science distance learning through the Jason project. This award winning educational program reaches more than one million students annually. |