Ballard first used side scan sonar (or SAR) to search for the Titanic wreckage on the French ship Le Suroît. When the French research mission ended, Ballard transferred to the Research Vessel Knorr.
What the public didn’t realize at the time was that Ballard was not actually just on a mission to discover the lost Titanic. Ballard’sTitanic mission was being funded by the US Navy, who had previously told Ballard that they couldn’t justify searching for the lost ship. To the Navy, however, Ballard’s intimate knowledge of underwater robots was of extreme value. During the Cold War, the US lost two nuclear submarines, the USS Scorpion and the USS Thresher, near the Titanic wreck site. It was critical for the Navy to find these lost vessels. Ballard negotiated with the Navy — the search for Titanic would be a cover story for finding the lost nuclear submarines. The government was interested in determining the state of their nuclear reactors, but didn’t want the public to know. If Ballard successfully completed the submarine mission, he would then be allowed to use the Navy’s resources to hunt for Titanic.
Ballard found the submarines in a matter of weeks.
On September 1, 1985, Ballard and his team found the RMS Titanic after following a trail of debris. Since Titanic’s discovery, Ballard has discovered the Bismark, the RMS Lusitania, the USS Yorktown, John F. Kennedy’s PT-109, as well as many ancient ship wrecks in the Black Sea.
Today, Ballard spends his life advocating ocean exploration, and makes the case that 72% of the planet has not been adequately explored.
Read more about Titanic on our Stories From The Titanic blog...
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