1985
Wreck of the Titanic found
Seventy-three years after it sunk to the North Atlantic ocean floor,
a joint U.S.-French expedition locates the wreck of the RMS Titanic. The
sunken liner was about 400 miles east of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic.
American Robert D. Ballard headed the expedition, which used an
experimental, unmanned submersible developed by the U.S. Navy to search for the
ocean liner. The Argo traveled just above the ocean floor, sending
photographs up to the research vessel Knorr. In the early morning of
September 1, Argo was investigating debris on the ocean floor when it
suddenly passed over one of the Titanic‘s massive boilers, lying at a
depth of about 13,000 feet. The wreck was subsequently explored by manned and
unmanned submersibles, which shed new light on the details of its 1912 sinking.