Who found the wreck of the Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean?

The Titanic wreck has been waiting to disappear meters deep in the Atlantic for 112 years. In the wreckage area, belongings of the carefully built ship, passengers' shoes, and glasses are scattered on the sand as if they have defied the years.

Although years have passed since the tragic event that made history with the sinking of the Titanic ship, the fate of the people who lost their lives on the ship continues to be a matter of curiosity.

After the incident in which the survivors were rescued, some of the bodies found in the sea were collected by ships and then transported to land. However, many bodies that were buried deep in the sea and could not be found remained a bitter secret.

The total number of passengers and crew on board the Titanic at the time of its sinking is disputed because an exact number is difficult to come by. However, according to generally accepted figures, there were approximately 2,224 people on the ship. 1,517 of them lost their lives and 706 people survived.

Robert Duane Ballard (born June 30, 1942) is an American retired Navy officer and a professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island who is most noted for his work in underwater archaeology: maritime archaeology and archaeology of shipwrecks. He is best known for the discoveries of the wrecks of the RMS Titanic in 1985, the battleship Bismarck in 1989, and the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown in 1998. He discovered the wreck of John F. Kennedy's PT-109 in 2002 and visited Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana, who saved its crew.

Today, the wreck of the Titanic ship and its surroundings have become an important study area for researchers and diving teams. Although traces of some of the bodies left in the shipwreck were found during these studies, it is known that most of them could not be found completely.

The wreckage was found 73 years after the sinking.

The discovery of the wreck of the Titanic is considered not only a submarine mission but also an important discovery that sheds light on the past of humanity. With the discovery of the wreck, the story of the ship that had been lost for almost a century and the tragedy throughout history was revived.

It is accepted that the wreck of the Titanic was first found on September 1, 1985, by a team led by French marine researcher and explorer Dr Robert Ballard. Ballard, together with scientists from the US Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and French oceanographers, led the Titanic Wreck Project to explore the wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic Ocean. This discovery occurred approximately 73 years after the sinking of the Titanic.

Who is Robert Ballard?

Robert Duane Ballard (born June 30, 1942, in Wichita, Kansas) is an American oceanographer and retired naval officer. Robert Ballard served in the United States Navy. Continuing his scientific activities at the University of Rhode Island, Ballard made a name for himself with his research in the field of underwater archaeology. His important works include the discovery of the wrecks of the RMS Titanic in 1985, the DKM Bismarck in 1989, and the USS Yorktown (CV-5) in 1998.

Robert Ballard is also known for publishing in journals the research he conducted with a research group on the formation of the Black Sea and the Bosphorus.

Finding the wreckage and missing victims

The wreckage was found and the curtain of mystery was lifted for now, but there was not a single remains of those who died in the wreckage found 73 years later. So what happened to these people? Where were the dead bodies of the other survivors, including Captain Edward Smith, who did not leave the Titanic while it was sinking and waited for death in the wheelhouse?

There are several theories about the fate of the dead people.

The reason why not even the slightest remains of these people's bodies can be found puzzles many people. There are several possibilities regarding the fate of the survivors.

Deep sea explorer Robert Ballard, who discovered the Titanic at a depth of many meters, said in his statement on this subject, "The problem here is that at depths below approximately 914 meters, you go below the so-called calcium-carbonate balancing depth. The water in the deep sea is not saturated enough in terms of calcium carbonate. "These substances are what make up the bones. Since ships such as the Titanic and Bismarck are below this depth, the bones dissolve when scavengers and sea creatures eat the flesh in the corpses and expose the bones," he says.

Those who died and disappeared on the Titanic did not just disappear because they sank to the bottom of the ocean. Although it is possible that some of the survivors were dragged to different points by the currents in the vast ocean, it could not be ignored that the water was very calm on the night of the accident. This was one of the reasons why the iceberg could not be noticed by lookouts. If the movement in the water had been high enough for the lookouts to see the waves bouncing off the iceberg, the result might not have been so painful due to the stagnant waters creating the effect of blindness in the pitch darkness.

Professor John Cassella, a forensic scientist at Atlantic Technological University Sligo in Ireland, said the bones deteriorated rapidly in salt water. “Bone consists of a mineral called hydroxyapatite, which consists mainly of calcium and phosphate but many other smaller molecules,” Professor Cassella said in an interview. Professor Cassella added that human bones may still be found in the remains even after 100 years, but this depends on saline levels, pH of the water, and the effects of microorganisms. "There may have been a lot of bones left, but they are so widely dispersed in and around the debris and covered in silt that it is very difficult to identify them," Professor Cassella said.

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Ocean explorer Robert Ballard takes us on a mindbending trip to hidden worlds underwater, where he and other researchers are finding unexpected life, resources, and even new mountains. He makes a case for serious exploration and mapping. Google Ocean, anyone?

https://www.ted.com/talks/robert_ballard_the_astonishing_hidden_world_of_the_deep_ocean