Who Discovered the Titanic?

The Titanic was discovered by a concerted effort from French and American scientists. Dr. Robert Ballard led the American side of the operation with a submersible from Hole Deep Submergence Lab in Massachusetts, and Francias de Recherche from pour I’Exploitation des Mers Led by Jean Jerry ran the French side of things. They were armed with some of the most sophisticated underwater technology available at the time and each side had high expectations for the operation. Although the subject of public scrutiny, the effort set out to find the Titanic wreck, something that the public thought was simply ludicrous to attempt.

Ballard, the U.S. leader had been interested in finding the Titanic shipwreck since 1973, and had actually set out to locate the vessel in 1977. Ballard used a somewhat less advanced way to attempt to locate the Titanic which involved using a drilling ship to probe the bottom of the ocean. The event ended when the rigging pipe snapped off and Ballard had to once again wait to attempt the legendary vessel. Armed with better technology and the help of the French Institute Francias de Recherche pour I’Exploitation des Mers (I.F.R.E.M.E.R.), Ballard would finally be successful in locating the Titanic.

The science vessel Knorr that first discovered the Titanic

The French vessel Le Suroit towed her state of the art side scan sonar system which was the most advanced model of sonar at the time. The instrument was capable of making 3,000 sweeps of the ocean floor in each pass. Scientists would study and analyze the print outs of the images of the ocean floor, but still couldn’t find the sunken Titanic.

Le Suroit eventually was needed elsewhere and the scientists transferred to the American vessel Knorr. The ship left off right where the other vessel had with back and forth sweeps of the ocean floor. Finally, on September 1st of 1985, the seabed began to paint a picture of a different layout. Instead of the usual ripples of mud and sand, unusual marks began to show including a massive ship’s boiler.

The ALVIN submersible that helped document the Titanic wreck

After discovering the Titanic wreck, Ballard and his crew returned six months later with a submersible called Alvin and a remote controlled underwater robot by the name of Jason Junior, or JJ. Alvin was deployed with Ballard, chief pilot Ralph Hollis, and co-pilot Dudley Foster, but the trip was cut short after a low battery and a malfunction. After a few days at it, the crew was finally able to access the Titanic completely and contribute to the wealth of knowledge about the vessel that we possess today.