How the Titanic Was Discovered During a Secret Cold War Mission

We all know the story of the doomed ship Titanic

and we've all seen footage of the wreck of the Titanic in the famous movie, um, Titanic

But did you know that the Titanic's final resting place was a mystery until fairly recently

and that the race to find it was nothing less than a 20th century treasure hunt

Well, today we're looking back on how the Titanic was discovered during a secret Cold War mission

Okay, final check for icebergs, and let's get underway. Oh, no, there's one right there

The RMS Titanic was the largest ocean liner in operation when it slipped beneath the waves in the early morning hours of April 15, 1912

after colliding with a North Atlantic iceberg. Eventually, the mighty ship snapped in two pieces

and sank to a depth of about 12,500 feet, while the front of the ship, or the bow if you're a pirate

is still recognizable, the rear, or stern, has been completely demolished. The area is also surrounded by a large debris field

containing hundreds of thousands of items that fell out of the ship as it went down

and at one point, a lot of human remains. Although time and the denizens of the deep have since reclaimed most of that evidence

Despite being such a large shipwreck, actually pinpointing the precise spot on the seafloor proved a monumentally challenging task

Specifics about the ship's location were simply unavailable in the disaster's immediate aftermath

The Titanic broadcast a fixed position for the last time around four hours before it sank

As it went down, the crew did issue a distress call, but they gave rescuers an inexact position

Kind of like a drunk Uber request. Which outback steakhouse? Ashley with two H's

Ocean currents made the Titanic situation even more challenging. Lighter pieces of the shipwreck could be carried away and distributed across the vast area

This made false alarms a real possibility and significantly expanded the potential search area

Plus, early 20th century diving technology wasn't up to the task of reaching this part of the seafloor

where pressures climbed to 6,000 pounds per square inch. While that may be nothing but a few reps for Aquaman, king of Atlantis, it tends to squish human beings

So even though a strong interest in locating and salvaging the vessel was expressed by the families of the Titanic's wealthiest victims

including the Guggenheims, the Astors, and the Wideners, the project was deemed too impractical

Because it was. One alternate proposal even involved dropping dynamite into the ocean

in the hopes that explosions would dislodge dead bodies and send them to the surface

which does kind of sound like an idea pitched by a child billionaire Not coincidentally it was never actually attempted In the 1960s an English garment worker

appropriately named Douglas Woolley, proposed taking a deep-sea submersible to find the Titanic

and then attaching inflatable nylon balloons to the hull to pull it up to the surface

Woolley dreamed of bringing the Titanic to Liverpool, England and creating a floating museum

even establishing the Titanic Salvage Company to manage the project. Ultimately, Woolley was forced to abandon the idea

as he couldn't figure out how he would get the nylon balloons inflated on the seafloor

with so much pressure bearing down on them. By some estimates, it would take 10 years to generate enough gas for the balloons to fully inflate

By our estimate, it sounded like a Nathan-for-you scheme from the start. By the 1970s, the Walt Disney Company and National Geographic

also considered a potential expedition to locate the Titanic, using the aluminum submersible Aluminaut

But the costly plans were abandoned. In author Clive Cussler's 1976 novel Raise the Titanic

future McConaughey character Dirk Pitt fixes the holes in the Titanic's hull underwater

then pumps the wreck full of compressed air and surfaces it like a submarine

Of course, we now know this wouldn't be possible because the Titanic broke into multiple pieces

But you can't blame Cussler for that. He named his hero Dirk Pitt. It was in this era that oceanographer Robert Ballard first became interested in the Titanic

Throughout the 70s, Ballard gained some notoriety for his work as a marine geologist

mapping the Gulf of Maine and exploring the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in his submersible Elvin

Simon and Theodore were tragically lost at sea. In 1977, Ballard and Elvin spotted deep-sea hydrothermal vents east of the Galapagos Islands

for the first time on record, along with surrounding biological communities formed by chemosynthesis

At that moment, a bioluminescent light bulb went off over Ballard's head, and he realized he could use the same techniques to locate the Titanic

Ballard ultimately found an unconventional partner for his Titanic project, the U.S. Navy

The military wasn't particularly interested in the Titanic itself, but envisioned another possible use for Ballard's technology, recovering lost submarines

Two nuclear-powered subs, the USS Scorpion and the USS Thresher, went down in the North Atlantic in the 1960s

Both crafts had state-of-the-art technology and weapons systems on board. But by the 1980s, the military was mostly concerned about radioactive material and its possible environmental impact

They also hoped to learn what had caused the two submarines to sink and whether or not it was the work of the Ruskies Still they did not want to publicize the search for two lost nuclear subs what with the whole Cold War thing going on

And Ballard's proposed expedition to search for the wreckage of the Titanic, which he pitched to the Navy in 1982, proved an ideal cover story

The operation was kept top secret, and Ballard was even put on active duty as a naval officer for the duration of the mission

You gotta think he would have loved to brag about it to his friends. But sorry, Ballard, can't do that with the whole top secret thing

The work started in the summer of 1984, with Ballard and his team locating and photographing the wreck of the Thresher

utilizing his robotic submersible, the Argo. The following year, he returned to the North Atlantic

and located the Scorpion off the coast of the Azores, a Portuguese archipelago in the North Atlantic

Ballard's work for the Navy kept him preoccupied, allowing little time to actually search for the Titanic

So he enlisted some help from French research vessel Le Surroi. In July 1985, Le Surroi sailed into an area where it was believed the Titanic might

be located and started using sonar to perform a technique known as mowing the lawn. This consisted

of sweeping the sonar system back and forth across the search zone, scanning for any signs of metal

objects. After five weeks, Le Surroi came up empty-handed, leaving the entire job to Ballard

and his team. Hopefully, the nice old lady who lives in the ocean gave them a nickel for the lawnmow, though

After completing his missions with the Thresher and Scorpion, Ballard just had 12 days left to look for the Titanic

Fortunately, while photographing the military submarines, Ballard noticed that the ocean current carried small pieces

of wreckage as they fell to the seafloor, creating a visible chain of debris

kind of like a trail of breadcrumbs leading to the ship's final resting place. While Titanic's search and salvage operations had always focused on finding the largest and most distinctive chunks of the ship, like the hull, Ballard used the robotic Argo to seek out these long debris trails instead

Rather than inefficiently mowing the lawn from the surface, he was able to drag the Argo across the seafloor and watch a live video feed from its onboard cameras on his research vessel, the NOR

And sure enough, just with one funded day remaining on the expedition

the team spotted a boiler that had once been installed on the Titanic. The wreck was located around 2 a.m. on September 1, 1985

just in time to catch Back to the Future in theaters. Ballard's team was the first to discover that the Titanic had broken into two pieces while sinking

Well, after that guy who bounced off the propeller on the way down. They found the stern laying around 400 meters away from the bow more than 12 feet below the surface of the water Their time on the Knorr however had drawn to a close and other teams were waiting for the vessel to do research of their own

So Ballard's crew had little time to actually search around the wreckage and make further discoveries

They did manage to take some still photographs of the Titanic's hull and mask, including

the crow's nest from which the iceberg was first spotted. Both the Navy and Ballard had reasons to try to keep their discovery quiet

Ballard considered the site of the wreckage as a kind of cemetery, and had even considered keeping its specific location a secret

to prevent the site from being overrun by treasure hunters. For their part, the Navy feared that too much attention on Ballard's expedition

might expose the real reasons they had funded him in the first place, and spread the word to America's enemies that the nuclear subs had been located

The discovery of the Titanic was ultimately revealed to the general public

but the U.S. government did manage to keep a lid on the true story behind Ballard's expedition

A September 8, 1985, New York Times article claimed that the real goal had been a test of the Argo system

and that the search for the Titanic was purely incidental. The Times actually suggested that the Navy

hoped to use the technology one day in the future to potentially locate lost submarines

with no acknowledgment that it had already done so successfully. Twice. Ba-da-boom, ba-da-bing

Members of both Ballard's team and the U.S. Navy continued to deny the true story behind the expedition

for many years. always suggesting that it was purely designed to test the Argo system for future use

a cover story that held up for over a decade. Ballard returned to the site of the wreckage once more the following year

on board the Atlantis II. He also brought his old submersible Elvin along for this trip

accompanied by a small remotely operated vehicle called the Jason Jr. It could squeeze into tight spots that Elvin couldn't reach

Jason Sr. must have been so proud. This trip produced a far more detailed photographic record of the Titanic

which Ballard published in the 1988 book Discovery of the Titanic, exploring the greatest of all lost ships

In keeping with his overall personal philosophy, Ballard never personally removed any artifacts from the area

So take that, old lady Rose. Wait, I guess she did throw it back in the end

As for other efforts to raise the Titanic, The company RMS Titanic Inc. has brought a number of notable artifacts up to the surface

including luggage, dinnerware, documents preserved in steamer trunks, and even a chunk of the hull

For a stoop, maybe. Lawsuits and other bureaucratic snags have prevented the group from selling any of its findings

But many have been put on public display at a gallery at the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas

From one palace of excess wealth to another, rest in peace, Titanic