Titanic Found
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For two weeks, the French and American team surveyed the target area using the American's video search
capabilities. Then on September 1, 1985 at 1:05 a.m., Ifremer's Jean-Louis Michel was on duty watching
the video monitor on the Knorr when images of metal boilers, steel plating, railings,and portholes appeared
on the screen. Michel knew that they had at last found the Titanic. Shortly before 2:00 a.m. he sent
a Crew member to awaken Robert Ballard who was sleeping in his cabin. The Crew of the Knorr then spontaneously
gathered on the vessel's stern and raised the Harland and Wolff flag in memory of the Titanic and the
disaster's victims.
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The following day the teams video cameras mounted on "Argo" again descended to the Titanic and revealed
that the wreck was resting upright on the sea bed with her bow still relatively intact. The team also
sent down a 2 ton towed device called "ANGUS" (Acoustically Navigated Geophysical Underwater Survey),
equipped with 35 mm color cameras. It was only when the Crew examined the film on the way home from the
site that they realized that the Titanic was not in one piece as they had reported to the World Press,
but was lying on the bottom in two piece's with her four funnels gone.
Almost immediately after
the discovery a dispute developed between Ifremer, and Robert Ballards company DOSS. Ifremer had expected
to recover expenses for the expedition from the sale of photographs and videotapes and their simultaneous
release in the US and France according to the contract it had signed with Ballard. Instead Ballard made
the film available to the World Media before the planned simultaneous release, depriving the French of
their expected income.
As a result of the ensuing legal dispute, the French refused to return
to the Titanic with Ballard the next summer as he had hoped. According to Ballard's original plans this
second expedition would have tested French and American deep-sea robotic technology and recover artifacts
from the Titanic's debris field using the French manned submersible "Nautile". Ballard in fact was a
strong supporter of Artifact recovery. In 1985 he testified to the US Congress that "I am in favor of
the recovery of that material, probably with manned submarines to ensure that they are protected and
the Public and the World to have the ability to touch......so to speak, and get the feel of the ship.
Instead, working without the French and their Artifact recovery technology, Ballard returned to the
Titanic in July 1986 with the US Navy vessel "Atlantis II", and the robotic vehicle "Jason Jr." A tethered
device equipped with high resolution cameras, and powerful lights. The 28-inch long J.J. explored previously
inaccessible areas of the wreck including the Grand Staircase. A three man submersible, "Alvin" also
made 11 dives to the wreck. Although the American team investigated the starboard bow, where the iceberg
hit the ship, but all evidence of damage was buried beneath ocean-bottom mud.
That same year,
the US Congress passed the "Titanic Maritime Memorial Act". The act encouraged a consortium of Nations
to set International guidelines "For conducting research on, exploration of, and if appropriate salvage
of the "RMS Titanic".
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