Voyages to the Bottom of the Sea

Using high tech to explore the lost treasures of the seas

Ralph White / CORBIS

On Sept. 1, 1985, underwater explorer Robert Ballard located the world's most famous shipwreck. The Titanic lay largely intact at a depth of 12,000 ft. off the coast of St. John's, Newfoundland

After resting on the ocean floor, split asunder and rusting, for nearly three- quarters of a century, a great ship seemed to come alive again. The saga of the White Star liner Titanic, which struck an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage in 1912, carrying more than 1,500 passengers to their deaths, has been celebrated in print and on film, in poetry and song. But last week what had been legendary suddenly became real. As they viewed videotapes and photographs of the sunken leviathan, millions of people around the world could sense her mass, her eerie quiet and the ruined...

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