This html article is produced from an uncorrected text file through optical character recognition. Prior to 1940 articles all text has been corrected, but from 1940 to the present most still remain uncorrected. Artifacts of the scans are misspellings, out-of-context footnotes and sidebars, and other inconsistencies. Adjacent to each text file is a PDF of the article, which accurately and fully conveys the content as it appeared in the issue. The uncorrected text files have been included to enhance the searchability of our content, on our site and in search engines, for our membership, the research community and media organizations. We are working now to provide clean text files for the entire collection.
hides
For the first time in 73 years, her imposing hulk loomed forth, nearly as magnificent in death as she had been in life. French and American oceanographers had found the wreckage of the White Star passenger liner, RMS Titanic—now a target of opportunity to test new technology for the U. S. Navy.
The story has been told again and again. The warning sounded by midwatch lookout, Fred Fleet, who called to the Titanic's bridge from the crow’s nest, “Iceberg right ahead!” is indelibly frozen in history. A narrow pass on the surface, a gentle bump below the water line, and for the next two hours and 20 minutes, the most magnificent seagoing vessel ever built and 1,522 of her passengers and crew waited to die.
The Titanic's legacy is an emotional one. The stories of her survivors—both Hollywood and literary renditions— have forever etched the horror of such a loss of life into the memories of all who have heard them.
In 1985, breakthroughs in oceanography provided the technology to find the Titanic's remains. Under the leadership of Commander Robert Ballard, U. S. Naval Reserve, two expeditions were launched: the first to locate the ship’s wreck, and the second, some ten months later, to map the site and perform the Titanic's final postmortem.
Ballard had long nursed the idea of exploring underwater wrecks. His first idea was to locate and photograph the remains of Amelia Earhart’s aircraft. Then he later settled on the Titanic as a more attainable goal. With the Titanic in mind, he worked to secure his position within the Navy community through a brilliant program to supply the Navy with deep submergence vehicles that could also be used in the Titanic reconnaissance.
Ballard’s goal of looking for the Titanic finally came
together with a remarkable association of four sepata and diverse interests: ,£,
- The U. S. Navy, interested in testing the vehicles signed and built by Ballard and the Woods Hole Ocea graphic Institute (WHOI) in a real, deep-water s*tualQf
- The French Institute for Research and Exploration
the Sea (IFREMER), also interested in testing deep-wa equipment ,j,
- WHOI, whose deep-submergence laboratory vvaS
recting the work jn
- The National Geographic Society, whose interest publicizing the event, developing an advanced v'^e°S( r_ age system for images of the ocean floor, and in the hi ical nature of the venture
The ROV Links: The remotely operated ve (ROVs) that Ballard and his associates built secure ^ link between the Navy and WHOI. Actually robots, machines are unmanned and carry—singly or in bination—cameras, propulsion systems, lights, an nipulators. They are linked either to the surface or manned submersible by a tether and wiring that carries video and operational signals to and from the RO s:' .
The first ROV designed and built by WHOI was ca^r, Angus (acoustically navigated geological underwater vey). Angus is a sled fitted with three 35-mm. came ^ capable of photographing the seafloor in a swath o meters in width per exposure at ocean depths of UP 6,100 meters. The system’s 140 meter film supply is ca^s ble of exposing 3,200 images. The Angus is guided o^ station of 9 to 15 meters above the seafloor by a .tg looking sonar mounted on the sled which telemeters height to the operator on the surface. The surface ope ^ allows for the height of Angus by cable adjustments^^ gus’s inability to move or respond on its own or to ^ back live pictures has prompted Ballard and his cr ^ refer to Angus as the “dope on a rope.” Adding (0
gus’s low-tech reputation is the time required to hau__
the surface, unload its cameras, and process the fi'111
The “unsinkable” Titanic steamed out of Southampton, England, in 1912, only to strike an iceberg near Newfoundland. As she sank, her stern was ripped away, scattering boilers, wines, furniture, and thousands of other artifacts across the sea floor. The bow section came to rest in an “alpine-like countryside,” where Ballard found her in 1985.
from a submersible can be slow and quite hazardous, time required for covering even a modest area is t*l0US‘janCj of times greater than an equivalent air search over ^ because the small submarines used for this work have^ ^ ited power and endurance capabilities. The danger 0 ^
coming trapped or entangled during search and inspe operations is a concern.” wHOl
According to Mooney, the Navy contracted with and Ballard to build the ROV systems for preeisely 1
nating in the ROV systems has remedied the Navy hiatus in new initiatives” of basic oceanographic resea ^ At an August 1986 press conference, Lehman s ^0f that the WFIOI programs were set in motion as a resU
“reinitiation in the Navy of emphasis on basic
research.
before its results can be evaluated. Nonetheless, Ballard has described Angus as a workhorse, noting that it spent more time over the Titanic than any other device, logging more than 100 hours on site, and photographing and cataloguing the area in detail.
The next ROV evolution out of Ballard’s labs was called Argo (for the vessel that carried Jason on his quest for the Golden Fleece). Argo is a towed sled whose altitude above the seafloor is monitored and controlled by a shipboard operator. Like Angus, it is fitted with still cameras, but, in addition, it carries three television cameras— forward, down, and down-looking telephoto cameras. This live-action capability enables Argo’s operator to monitor the activity on the ocean floor as it happens (down to 6,100 meters) and thus represents a powerful advantage over Angus.
Finally, Jason Jr. (J. J.) was developed as a complementary system to Argo. This is a prototype of the fullblown Jason system still under development. J. J. is a small vehicle with a full axis propulsion system that enables it to swim free, controlled by an operator either on the surface or in a submersible. J. J. carries a live television imaging system and lights on board, thereby coupling its ability to maneuver in tight spaces with its ability to project live images.
Jason and Argo represent a combined Navy expenditure of $3.65 million since 1982.
The ultimate goal of the entire ROV complement of systems is to permit continuous exploration of any deepwater site from the surface without the risk and expenditure of manned vehicles.
Said Rear Admiral J. B. Mooney, Chief of Naval Research, “Conducting deep ocean search and inspection
U1IU ljuiiuiu iv oimu 11IV/ i\v T JIV/1HO ivi r ■ \t))X
reasons. Fie noted that these systems solved two Pnocean obstacles heretofore unresolved by previous deep- systems: they “cover broad expanses of the deep 1 ^
floor . . . and have a capability for close inspec 1
objects.” hmaOi
But the former Secretary of the Navy, John Le tied the development of the systems into a set o ranging goals for the Navy. According to Lehman, work of the WHOI Deep Submergence Laboratory g
archstated
ocean ’ has
“The Navy historically, over the last 100 Years’e jp been the prime funder of the scientific research 0 ^ oceanography and has been responsible for many major breakthroughs in the basic science. t0
“We began a major program just four years reinvigorate oceanography in the Navy, firstcp vigorating education and training ... in the basic ^ ences (at] the major educational institutions i° country . . . (and then with] a tremendous increas
feme
' 'j1 Mallard’s project, s^p Carly summer, 1985, Le Suroit, the French research ahea’(jaiTlVe(lon station in the North Atlantic several weeks haVe ,,°P |ter American counterpart. The French would ment P *'rst shot at finding the Titanic with their equip- Ba]i’ hough members of the American team, including cente ’ Were on board. By agreement, the search would ity 0j. around a 390 square kilometer area within the vicin- 4l > Ihe historical position of the Titanic's sinking, 41° !athude, 50° 14' west longitude, the t Ur°‘t began a methodical search of the bottom using eaCh°Wecl s°nar equipment comprising the SAR. With the bPaSS °Ver the bottom, the SAR could scan a swath of pas °ttom nearly a kilometer wide. But as the weeks AUg , ’ lbe French found no hint of the Titanic. By early theirS[,’ ^a<^ scrut>nized 80% of the search area and
U oC arter had expired. As Le Suroit had searched, the part . uSearch vessel (R/V) Knorr (AGOR-15) had de- bREMp°^S ^°*e °n^ June- On 15 August, after the inC]u.. ^ team left for home, three French scientists, ■joined"-1'8 beacl of the French team, Jean-Louis Michel,
> had
review'*U Sf*ent an exhaustive day in the control cen m0ni. In^ hours of pictures from the ocean bottom a r°om oring his underwater robots, had retired to his sta 0 read Chuck Yeager’s autobiography.
ernphasis in our funding in the development of new equipment. . . . Nearly all of the deep ocean explora- *°n equipment, including nearly all of the deep sub- ersibles, have been developed with Navy funds—and hen by Navy people.”
°f suPPort’ Ballard negotiated with the Secretary
exn j-. vy Personally to win a go-ahead for the Titanic telar' 't'°n' though the Navy could ill afford a public dee '°ns backfire, the ROVs were in need of a crucial, g0Water test on an unclassified target. Therefore, the mostCac* Was signaled. Amassed for the search was the lane SoPb'stieated array of deep-water, on-site surveil- 'vHorqU'Pment CVer assemh)led. The Alvin (DSV-2), f0rs deep submersible; Angus; Argo; and Jason Jr. tj0nse a formidable, hi-tech team that in their two expediter i Wou*^ look for the wreck of the most infamous disas- n seagoing history. The search for the Titanic was on.
JUr)ee^n,er‘can-French Team: 1FREMER was created in «ra to carry out scientific and technological pro-
Proach°n ^^alf °f the French Government. Ballard ap- l°cate or8anizati°n f°r support for his quest to
WanfeTitanic. The French scientific establishment temp a t0 tCSt *ts own deeP-ocean sonar vehicle, the Sys- coustique Remorque (SAR), and thus agreed to
For k16^norr in Ponta Delgada, Azores.
,nVo,r tae French, it had been a disappointment, but their \var(] .t016111 was not over. As the Knorr pressed on to- j°int h 6 Searcb s'te’ Michel would join Ballard as the on / C _lef scientist for the expedition, as Ballard had done e Suroit.
Th •
since^h^*130*0‘S Found: It was 1 September 1985, 17 days o , eKnorr had steamed out of the Azores. Ballai ‘
Just after 0100, the watch-on-duty saw a picture of a boiler loom into view on his video monitor. He sent word to fetch Ballard, who was located by the Knorr's cook. Dropping Yeager, and pulling his jumpsuit over his pajamas, Ballard rushed to the control center van where he confirmed discovery of a fragment of the great ship. With a common echo sounder found on most deep-water fishing vessels, the Titanic's superstructure was located near the boiler. After 73 years, the Titanic had been found lying in pieces at a depth of 3,800 meters on the ocean floor.
For the next four days, the Knorr's team scoured the ocean floor for the remains of the Titanic, and found a degree of devastation that almost no one had expected. The liner had broken in half on her plunge to the bottom; her stem was found some 600 meters from her bow, separated by a massive field of coal and debris. As she had fallen to the bottom, her boilers, wines, furniture, and thousands of artifacts had been strewn in clusters across the bottom.
The underwater robots now began an extensive sweep to catalogue the debris field for every major piece of wreckage. Angus and Argo recorded hundreds of hours and thousands of photographs. They would be necessary for the follow-up expedition, when the Titanic's resting place would be examined in detail by Ballard’s personal on-site inspection.
The Return: The Navy was now more interested than ever in testing its deep-water capabilities on this historic site. The Titanic represented an unprecedented target of opportunity—a deep-ocean site, precisely marked by satellite fixes, which would test the full range of the Navy’s new machines. The cost to the Navy would be minimal compared to the extent of new capabilities that the machines would provide. Indeed, these robots would make it possible to monitor more than 98% of the world’s ocean floor from the surface, constrained only by the weather.
Robots, ships, and men ready, the Woods Hole team departed Massachusetts on 9 July 1986. The scientific flotilla was impressive, representing the most sophisticated deep-water equipment and expertise available. The Angus would be able to catalog every detail of the site it had previously been unable to. Robot Jason Jr., ready for its first practical deep-water trials, would actually be able to be remotely directed into the Titanic herself. WHOI’s deep-water mini-submarine, the Alvin, would go along to take Ballard and his colleagues onto the Titanic's deck. The Argo’s cameras would be mounted on the Alvin. In addition to all of this, the Alvin's mothership, the Atlantis II, would provide the command center for the operations and receive communications and logistical support from the USS Ortolan (ASR-22).
Upon arrival at the site three-and-a-half days later, the second reconnaissance and final investigation of the Titanic's remains began. It would require 12 days and 11 manned dives to the Titanic.
The first order of business was to find the Titanic again. Because no marker buoys had been left, the only clues were the precise satellite navigation fixes taken nearly a year before. But with the aid of the Global Positioning
WOODS HOLE OCEAf
,n0OB*PHIC INSTT1
Satellite (which has an accuracy of tens of meters), the Atlantis II was positioned above the eastern side of the underwater canyon where the Titanic lay. After setting transponders to help position the Atlantis II, the Titanic was again located by echo sounder.
The first manned dive to the Titanic was readied. The Alvin's three most experienced crew—her pilot, Ralph Hollis; Ballard; and Jason Jr.’s pilot, Martin Bowen— would make this historic dive to survey the inherent dangers of the great ocean liner up-close.
The 3.8 kilometer dive to the ocean floor took two and a half hours. The first system to fail during descent on this first dive was the Alvin's sonar.
“You dive with decay,” said Ballard. “A very common phenomenon you have ... [is that] systems do not all come up on line. The battle is determined by what equipment is working and what equipment is not working. Once you reach 12,500 feet and something breaks, you do not get out and fix it.”
The surface navigator on board the Atlantis II took over, guiding the Alvin down through the eternal darkness found at depths below 100 meters. Then, before the Alvin had reached bottom, another major problem occurred: salt water began leaking into one of the two battery packs that
powered the sub, displacing its protective oil blanket-^ pressure was approaching 170 kilograms per square c meter and the prospects of the dive’s success d*11117? (0 As the Alvin finally neared the bottom, close enoug make out the muddy “meadow” where the Tito,nL the surface navigator, via underwater acoustic telep s(jH indicated he was also “lost.” With the battery paC ^ flooding and without directions, Ballard and ^lSgC, struck out blindly along the gloomy bottom in the tion they thought the Titanic must lie.
Finally, the Titanic rose majestically out of the ness, an endless, black steel monolith rising out o mud. A few minutes of inspection quickly consume ^ remaining time, and then the crew began their two ^ a-half hour ascent, the first humans to view the great s since 0220, 15 April 1912.
The Alvin and J. J.: J. J. would be mounted 0°^ Alvin in its specially designed “garage” for this se trip to the Titanic, and then, while tethered to the sU fine, would be released to inspect the ship up-close. ^ release, J. J. would transmit its images to its pilot m the Alvin, who would maneuver J. J. through the 7" ^
Including the ever-present Angus, which took ^ sands of images of the site in 100 hours of bottom there were 12 independent imaging systems photog ing the Titanic. In the 33 hours of manned bottom 1 ^ the expedition photographed the entire ship—bott0 and stern sections—and pieced the pictures toge* create a continuous photographic mosaic. tj,6
The most significant test of the system came when
DSV ALVIN
I WOOtoHOlf 0CIAM0H1APHII& I insTirunoM "
BATTERIES
fis£is5a&
JASON JR.
THRUSTERS'
VEHICLE
HOUSING
LIGHT
LIGHT
VIDEO
'** designed by the WW Laboratory of
i* Oceanographic Institution. n9 from the U. S. Navy's feval Research. ,
STILL CAMERA
STROBE
Alvin actually sat down on the upper deck of the liner and sent J. J. down the liner’s grand staircase. J. J. settled cautiously down four flights into the first-class section, guided by its pilot in the Alvin. The little robot, which Ballard describes as “a swimming eyeball . . . able to spin on a dime,” maneuvered around shattered and crusted chandeliers, cables, and wiring to emerge safely for the trip back.
On this second expedition the Navy was even more visible than before, with five submarine officers participating in the evaluation of the deep-water systems and in the exploration of the site.
‘‘The Navy presence was very real and they made major contributions both in diving and in running the vehicle system,” said Ballard. “We will be transitioning this vehicle system to the development group as a part of our Navy development program.” Trials such as these at great depth are invaluable to the Navy, who will find the applications—from the recovery of equipment to investigation of sunken Soviet submarines—endless.
The Titanic’j Requiesccit: All that the world knew when the Titanic slipped beneath the surface that bitterly cold night in April 1912, was that she had sustained a fatal, 100-meter gash—starboard side, below the water line— from an iceberg. Six of her 16 watertight compartments had flooded, but that had been enough; as the water rose above the watertight compartments, the ship took on too much weight and sank bow first.
This story had been almost universally and unquestioningly accepted for more than 70 years, until Ballard and his crew dove to the Titanic. They found no gash at all. Instead, her riveted plates had apparently been pushed
‘a
all
apart by the impact with the iceberg, and this had caused the ship to sink.
The damage to the great ship, all caused by the descent to the bottom, was staggering. None of her four giant stacks was found at all; their most likely fate, according to Ballard, was total consumption by rust on the ocean floor. Her stem had been ripped away. This is most probably explained by a pressure implosion: as the ship had settled to the bottom, she had trapped air in her stem, and at about 300 meters beneath the surface, the air pocket apparently collapsed, ripping the stem apart from the ship. The stem fell independently, spilling out its contents on the ocean floor, and landed 600 meters from the bow section, having rotated 180°. The stem, of course, was the site where most of the Titanic's 1,522 passengers and crew who had been unable to board life boats had assembled—and perished.
According to Ballard, “The stem was the hardest place to work emotionally because it was frozen terror. The stern was a carnage of debris and you felt it when you were there. It was not as enjoyable to work in because you
knew what final tragedy was played out on that stern sec tion. The whole appearance of it just looked violent, looked destructive and tom. ...” ,
In contrast, the bow section did not appear as damage • Said Ballard, “The bow was still majestic, [althoug clearly not something you’d drive away in. But the 0 still had its beauty . . . there was such a contrast betwee working on the bow and working on the stern.’
The bow section on the ship had struck the bottom w a slight turning motion and with an angle that had bun her bow “a good 50 feet,” according to Ballard. As> ship struck, the bow had also apparently fragmente places. “You can see all the way through the ship, throt*!^ its expansion seams. So the bow section is probably three pieces,” Ballard noted.
Ballard describes the location of the Titanic as gently sloping alpine-like countryside overlooking a SI™ canyon below. It is quiet and peaceful and a fitting P for the remains of this greatest of sea tragedies to res • No human remains were found.
A Triumph of Technology and Perseverance
Naval Research and Naval nology. The 1985 Titanic covery expedition on board Knorr was intended to be a ^ of our new search vehicle AfS
diS'
with
the 1986 visit to the site
llS
Named Scientist of the Year (1986) by Discover Magazine, Ballard is today an oceanographer for WHOI. In 1981 he started the WHOI Deep Submergence Laboratory under the institution’s department of ocean engineering. This laboratory now operates with an annual budget of about $3 million, chiefly Navy and National Science Foundation funds. It was in this laboratory that Ballard designed and constructed the new underwater instruments used in the search for the Titanic.
Ballard, a former active-duty naval officer, is now an oceanographer who has logged more submersible time than any one else. His links with the Navy are further enhanced by his having served as personal advisor to the Secretary of the Navy while holding the official title of Consultant to the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Submarine Warfare (Op-02) since 1984.
Ballard has displayed a particular genius for organizing and drawing interest to his underwater projects and for an intense personal involvement in them. His first major organizational triumph was as linchpin between the French and U. S. oceanographic communities in 1973-74 for project FAMOUS (French- American Mid-Ocean Undersea Study), which recorded evidence of plate tectonics along the Mid-Atlantic ridge.
Having finished his work on the Titanic, Ballard is headed back to the undersea mountains—his original quest. “Once we really get Argo-Jason integrated,’’ he said, “then we really look forward to going back to basic exploration, basic research. My particular love has always been the mid-ocean ridge. I want to get Jason into the mountain ranges and off the mud flats.’’
Ballard’s next expedition will be to explore the ancient trade routes of the Romans under the Mediterranean. It is planned for the summer of 1987.
Until that time, Ballard is wrapping up his book on the Titanic expeditions, scheduled for publication later this year.
Author Dennis Chamberlan interviewed Robert Ballar about the Titanic expedition •
Question: In your view, was the purpose behind the 1 tanic expeditions? . n
Ballard: The Titanic expedltl° had two primary objectives: Navy’s and mine. The Navy a strong interest in our deep submergence program and ou ability to develop advanced search and recovery technolog The Argo/Jason system is latest in a series of such el to developed by Woods Hole un sponsorship by the Offices o
m....... i r>_______ u Waval lee
R/A
the submersible Alvin allowe to test a prototype ot Jason, called Jason Jr.
Question: F»m a Navyi'i° view, were the returns wor investments?
Ballard: The Navy was ex-
jqo uupuimni wn
, b Titanic expedition]
(jg . ‘cApeumonj was done in 33 hours. It would n'ce to be able to do all of it in a couple of days instead '^everal weeks.”
Peet ,V'0USIy’ suc^ an effort would remove the human as- |°ss J^ro^be equation and virtually eliminate that risk of
describes this—operators being able to work a ?.ter sbift, without a break, as though a human were a y there—as “telepresence.”
Ho] ^ ^uture °f DeeP Ocean Exploration: Back at Woods Ca°e’ J- is being converted into Jason Sr., the fully e robot with dual manipulator arms scheduled for aeti°n in late 1989. Jason will be able to ride Argo to aseeP'water site, where it will decouple and work, much win L^romAlvin. But Ballard says the real savings ut! be in time:
tQm Inste(ad of spending just three hours a day on the bot- th ’ We H spend 24 hours a day on the bottom because lhap Wl^ n0 reason t0 recover the vehicle system. And Really important when you realize all this work [the
Former Secretary Lehman agrees on the value of the project: “What we have gotten out of it [the Titanic expeditions] is an extensive data base on the development of this kind of equipment and how it operates in those kinds of environments with a real operational problem as opposed to a laboratory environment. We believe this has been a tremendously valuable operational test for a variety of reasons. I think we’ll be able to derive a great deal more operational and basic scientific data that will assist our basic scientific efforts in the years ahead.”
Mr. Chamberland received a bachelor of science degree and a master’s degree from Oklahoma State University. He is a former naval officer who served as executive officer of the U. S. Pacific Fleet Headquarters Support Activity, Makalapa, and as Assistant for Data Analysis CinCPacFlt. He was an instructor at Trident Technical College’s Main Campus, where he taught biology, chemistry, computer programming, and the sciences. He recently took a position with NASA at the Kennedy Space Center. Mr. Chamberland has published articles in Proceedings and other magazines.
significant design problems.
Most importantly, both vehicles are now operational assets on call to meet future Navy search and inspection needs. The costs to the Navy for the two- year Titanic field program were
bC y Phased with the results ber- exPeHitions, not so much
]0cdUse lhe Titanic had been beand documented, but jrUl,Sc koth Argo and Jason Ihe'i successfully undergone
r lrst sea trials without any
relatively low since Woods Hole is a nonprofit research institution. The test program for the Navy did not incur any additional costs because it was carried out at the Titanic site.
Question: What were your personal feelings landing on the deck of the Titanic? Ballard:Viewing the Titanic for the first time gave me a very satisfying feeling. I had worked so hard to locate the ship, and equally hard to return and explore it with [the] Alvin and Jason Jr. It was both a triumph of technology and perseverance, and in both cases I am proud of what we did and how we did it. I am equally proud of the joint U. S./French collaboration which made the Titanic’s discovery and its subsequent documentation possible.
Expedition head Robert Ballard, left, and a U. S. Navy deep submersible pilot conduct pre-dive checks on the Alvin and J. J.