Early Attempts
A plan to locate the wreck of the Titanic was discussed only five day's after
the tragedy. Vincent Astor, John Jacob Astor's son, declared that he wanted to find the wreck and blow
up it's hull in order to retrieve his Father's missing body. J.J. Astor's remains were discovered the
next day however, and those initial plan's were dropped. Later that year the Astor, Widener, and Guggenheim
famlies looked into the feasibility of locating and raising the Titanic's hull. They even contracted
with the Merritt and Chapman Derrick and Wrecking Company to perform the work. The firm determined that
the task would be impossible. In 1913, Charles Smith a Denver Architect proposed a plan to use a Submarine
fitted with electromagnets to help raise the Titanic's hull. A second would be salvor proposed using
magnets attached to pontoons to float the ships hull to the surface.
After thos discussions thoughts
of locating and raising the Titanic were forgotten while the Nation grappled with WW1, The Great Depression,
and WW2. In 1953 however, the hunt resumed when Risdon Beasley Ltd., a British Marine Salvage Firm took
a vessel out to the Titanic's reported location and used explosives to create anecho image of the sea
bottom. Their efforts to find the ship failed. Then in 1955, Walter Lord reawakened public interest in
the Titanic when he published "A Night to Remember". Three years later the film version was released.
The next notable effort to find the ship was a $5 million plan by an Englishman named Douglas Woolley.
In 1966 he proposed to locate the Titanic, surround it with plastic containers filled with water, and
run electricity through them to release gases that he claimed would raise the ship. Woolley also considered
raising the Titanic by rigging it with nylon balloons filled with air. In the 1970's Woolley created
the "Titanic Salvage Company", declared that he had rights to the wreck, and announced plans to find
the ship, raise it, and tow it to Liverpool. There he would restore it as a Floating Museum. He never
succeeded in raising funds to carry out his plan.
Over the years, many others have came up with
plans to find a raise the Titanic. Arthur Hickey, an English haulage contractor, proposed freezing the
inside of the Titanic's hull to float the ship up to the surface like an ice cube. Another theorist,
John Pierce planned to freeze the Titanic by surrounding her with a nitrogen filled net. Other unusual
schemes for raising the ship included a plan to fill the Titanic with Ping-Pong Balls, and another to
fill her with 180,000 tons of molten wax. None of these schemes were ever attempted.
The first
serious Scientific attempt to find the ship was initiated in 1980 by Jack Grimm, a Texas Oil Tycoon who
had financed expeditions to find the Loch Ness Monster, Noah's Ark, and Bigfoot. Grimm chartered the
vessel H.J.W. Fay and conducted sonar explorations of a 600 square mile area in the North Atlantic. Working
with filmmaker Mike Harris, Geologist Dr. William Ryan from the Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory
at Columbia University, and Scripps Institution Oceanographer Dr. Fred Spiess. Although the team discovered
14 potential wreck sites, the expedition was thwarted by bad weather. The next year Grimm and Harris
launched a second expedition aboard the US Navy vessel Gyre. This time the team refined their estimates
of the Titanic's possible location, but despite numerous sonar searches they again failed to find the
wreck. A third expedition financed by Grimm set off in July 1983, but once again failed to discover the
Titanic.
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