Titanic Tidbits

News and info ..................

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Titanic Discovered Off Newfoundland.

Dr. Ballard

A joint French-U.S. search Sept. 1 discovered the Titanic luxury liner

in the Atlantic Ocean some 500 miles (800 km) south of Newfoundland.

The sinking of the supposedly invulnerable ship on its maiden voyage in

1912 was one of the most famous disasters in history. More than 1,500

people lost their lives.

Location of the vessel after 73 years and many fruitless searches

created an international clamor. Expedition members tried to keep the Titanic's

exact site a secret so as to discourage salvage attempts th at

could risk lives, mar the ship and disturb the victims' resting places.

The ship, 882 feet (269 m) in length, rested upright some 13,000 feet

(4,000 m) beneath the ocean's surface. The ship's stern was split off

and one of its four smoke stacks was missing, but otherwise cold and

pressure had preserved it almost intact.

Small, recently developed remote-control submarines shot some 12,000

color photographs and extensive videotape of the ship and its

surrounding wreckage. One such submarine, the Argo, had first happened

upon one of the Titanic's boilers, simultaneously sending images

by television camera back to monitoring

scientists aboard the U.S. Navy shipKnorr.

U.S. participation in the search had been largely for the purpose of

testing the Argo and its newly developed system of lights and TV

cameras. Its use allowed scientists to scan the ocean floor for as long

as they wished while they remained safely aboard ship.

The Knorr and Argo belonged to the U.S. Navy, but the American me bers

of the expedition were drawn from the private, non-profit group that

had developed the submarine, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute of

Woods Hole, Mass. They had chartered the Navy ship and chosen the

Titanic as a quarry on which to test the Argo. Robert D. Ballard led

the group.

France's part in the search was overseen by the government Institute

for Research and Exploitation of the Sea. Jean-Louis Michel headed the

French team aboard the research ship Suroit.

The Suroit had combed some 80% of a 15-square-mile (40-sq-km) area by

means of high-precision sonar developed in France. The Argo then

happened upon the Titanic in the remaining 20% of the area, after first

receiving an indication of the hulk's site by means of the same sonar

technique.