Raise the Titanic!

[Night_stalker]

RICHMOND, Va. – A team of scientists will launch an expedition to the Titanic next month to assess the deteriorating condition of the world's most famous shipwreck and create a detailed three-dimensional map that will "virtually raise the Titanic" for the public.

The expedition to the site 2 1/2 miles beneath the North Atlantic is billed as the most advanced scientific mission to the Titanic wreck since its discovery 25 years ago.

The 20-day expedition is to leave St. John's, Newfoundland, on Aug. 18 under a partnership between RMS Titanic Inc., which has exclusive salvage rights to the wreck, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. The expedition will not collect artifacts but will probe a 2-by-3-mile debris field where hundreds of thousands of artifacts remain scattered.

Some of the world's most frequent visitors to the site will be part of the expedition along with a who's who of underwater scientists and organizations such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Organizers say the new scientific data and images will ultimately will be accessible to the public.

"For the first time, we're really going to treat it as an archaeological site with two things in mind," David Gallo, an expedition leader and Woods Hole scientist, told The Associated Press on Monday. "One is to preserve the legacy of the ship by enhancing the story of the Titanic itself. The second part is to really understand what the state of the ship is."



The Titanic struck ice and sank on its maiden voyage in international waters on April 15, 1912, leaving 1,522 people dead.

Since oceanographer Robert Ballard and an international team discovered the Titanic in 1985, most of the expeditions have either been to photograph the wreck or gather thousands of artifacts, like fine china, shoes and ship fittings. "Titanic" director James Cameron has also led teams to the wreck to record the bow and the stern, which separated during the sinking and now lie one-third of a mile apart.

RMS Titanic made the last expedition to site in 2004. The company, a subsidiary of Premier Exhibitions Inc. of Atlanta, conducts traveling displays of the Titanic artifacts, which the company says have been viewed by tens of millions of people worldwide.

"We believe there's still a number of really exciting mysteries to be discovered at the wreck site," said Chris Davino, president of and CEO of Premier Exhibitions and RMS Titanic. "It's our contention that substantial portions of the wreck site have never really been properly studied."

RMS Titanic is bankrolling the expedition. Davino declined to state the cost of the exploration other than to say it will be millions of dollars.

The "dream team" of archaeologists, oceanographers and other scientists want to get the best assessment yet on the two main sections of the ship, which have been subjected to fierce deep-ocean currents, salt water and intense pressure.

Gallo said while the rate of Titanic's deterioration is not known, the expedition approaches the mission with a sense of urgency.

"We see places where it looks like the upper decks are getting thin, the walls are thin, the ceilings may be collapsing a bit," he said. "We hear all these anecdotal things about the ship is rusting away, it's collapsing on itself. No one really knows."

The expedition will use imaging technology and sonar devices that never have been used before on the Titanic wreck and to probe nearly a century of sediment in the debris field to seek a full inventory of the ship's artifacts.

"We're actually treating it like a crime scene," Gallo said. "We want to know what's out there in that debris field, what the stern and the bow are looking like."

The expedition will be based on the RV Jean Charcot, a 250-foot research vessel with a crew of 20. Three submersibles and the latest sonar, acoustic and filming technology will also be part of the expedition.

"Never before have we had the scientific and technological means to discover so much of an expedition to Titanic," said P.H. Nargeolet, who is co-leading the expedition. He has made more than 30 dives to the wreck.

Bill Lange, a Woods Hole scientist who will lead the optical survey and will be one of the first to visit the wreck, said a key analysis will be comparing images from the first expedition 25 years ago and new images to measure decay and erosion.

"We're going to see things we haven't seen before. That's a given," he said. "The technology has really evolved in the last 25 years."

Davino said he anticipates future salvage expeditions to the wreck, and Gallo said he doesn't expect the science will end with one trip.

"I'm sure there will be future expeditions because this is the just the beginning of a whole new era of these kind of expeditions to Titanic — serious, archaeological mapping expeditions," Gallo said.

RMS Titanic is still awaiting a judge's ruling in Norfolk, Va., on the 5,500 artifacts it has in its possession.

The company is seeking limited ownership of the artifacts as compensation for its salvage efforts. In its court filing for a salvage award, the company put the fair market value of the collection at $110.9 million.

U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith, a maritime jurist who is presiding over the hearings, has called the wreck an "international treasure."

Wasn't sure if I should put this in here, SLAM, or History. So, what's the opinion of the planned virtual raising?

I feel that it's going to be expensive as hell, but would be interesting to use. Being able to walk down the halls of one of the most infamous ships of all time is just amazing, I mean it's one of, if not THE most infamous ships in existence and now anyone with a internet connection can walk down the halls of it. The real quesiton is would we be seeing it as it is now, with all the collapsed hallways, or would it be restored to how it was before it sank?

[Stark]

Isn't the article talking about examining the wreck closely to re-create it, and not hauling it to the surface?

[Sea Skimmer]

The real quesiton is would we be seeing it as it is now, with all the collapsed hallways, or would it be restored to how it was before it sank?

Why would they visit the wreck at great cost to make a 3-D model... of how it looked before it sank? We have complete blueprints and extensive photographic archives of the ship before it sank already. It’s pretty darn clear that they want to document the state of the ship as it lies so people can see it, and hopefully and fewer random destructive submarine trips will be made to the ship in the future. Some areas of the deck are collapsing now because submarines landed on them so often, the area around the grand staircases is particularly bad in this respect with holes opening up. Mapping the debris field is also very important since its just never been done on a comprehensive scale.

[Night_stalker]

Isn't the article talking about examining the wreck closely to re-create it, and not hauling it to the surface?

It is like a 3-D tour. Like a virtual walkthrough of a house on the market.

[Isolder74]

I only think it will be a good idea of it includes the Edmund Fitzgerald promise that no other dives will be made on the site after the survey is completed. And that promise is kept!

The place is literally a graveyard and it needs to start being respected as such.

[PeZook]

You can say the same about every wreck, or even the entire sea.

[Thanas]

You can say the same about every wreck, or even the entire sea.

...with the exception of artificially created wrecks, of course.

That said, we have never been much good at respecting wrecks - heck, I saw a 1946 or 1947 British documentary that showed ships sunk in the mediterranean as a reminder of the cost of the war. Directly after the war.

[PeZook]

Wrecks are emotionally removed. It's hard to imagine a destroyed ship as a tomb for hundreds when all you see is a ship on a TV screen.

That said, it's impractical to treat every ship where someone died as a cementary. They have historical significance, yes, and things like the Titanic should be preserved as much as possible, but ultimately, learning about the causes and circumstances of the sinking trumps all, since it can prevent more death and clear up people's final fate. If we need to completely destroy the wreck in the process...well, too bad.

It's not like we don't just throw the recovered bodies back into the sea to be eaten by the fauna, and then call it a burial

[tim31]

Wrecks are emotionally removed. It's hard to imagine a destroyed ship as a tomb for hundreds when all you see is a ship on a TV screen.

I must be getting your angle wrong, because as I understand it, a visit to the Arizona is quite a sombre event, American or not.

That said, the Australian War Museum in Canberra has on display the consolidated remains of two Japanese midget submarines(rebuilt into one unit). A third midget from the same raid on Sydney that never returned to its mother was finally discovered a few years ago, and they're keeping a tight lid on the location out of 'respect'... Go figure.

[JME2]

The place is literally a graveyard and it needs to start being respected as such.

Agreed; the repeated visits over the last 25 years are part of the reason why the wreck's deterioration has accelerated.

[Kanastrous]

I'm just baffled by the unending fascination with the Boat That Wouldn't Float.

I'm not criticizing it, but can anyone explain what the heck underwrites this obsession with a big ol' chunk of rust at the bottom of the Atlantic?

I get Titanic as a cautionary tale in terms of engineering, safety practice, and promotion. I can't quite get a handle on why it's all so damned romantic.

[JME2]

To me, Titantic was one of the most visible symbols of the Edwardian era, of a sense of luxury and optimism and arrogance. It went horribly wrong and sounded a death knell for that era's spirit. In a way, it was a kind of spiritual prelude of the horrors of the First World War. And the rescue has been romanticized so much and become so visible in the annals of maritime history that it continues to endure. It annoys me somewhat since this wasn't the greatest loss of life in maritime history; that misfortune goes to the Empress of Ireland, I believe.

[Kanastrous]

She wasn't launched until two years after Edward's death, but I guess the carryover is legitimate since she was laid down during his reign.

I still don't feel it but you give me some understanding of what other people might see in the story.

[Sea Skimmer]

...with the exception of artificially created wrecks, of course.

That said, we have never been much good at respecting wrecks - heck, I saw a 1946 or 1947 British documentary that showed ships sunk in the mediterranean as a reminder of the cost of the war. Directly after the war.

The immediate demobilization after WW2 left the US and Britain with way more ships then they could possibly man, even to sail home for scrap. It also left them with colossal amounts of ammunition to dispose of, including huge stocks of captured axis ammo and axis chemical weapons. So they loaded the old ammo onto the unmanned ship and scuttle them at sea. This was besides all the war damaged vessels that accumulated at various ports and were never repaired for lack of yard capacity and which simply had to be scuttled. In addition Lend Lease required the British to destroy anything supplied by the US which could not be returned, so you had RN carriers shoving the whole air groups over the side, and some scuttling of ships from that too.

[Iosef Cross]

It annoys me somewhat since this wasn't the greatest loss of life in maritime history; that misfortune goes to the Empress of Ireland, I believe.

It actually was a German ship sunk by an Soviet submarine in 1945, with the loss of nearly 9 thousand lives, the MV Wilhelm Gustloff.

[JME2]

It annoys me somewhat since this wasn't the greatest loss of life in maritime history; that misfortune goes to the Empress of Ireland, I believe.

It actually was a German ship sunk by an Soviet submarine in 1945, with the loss of nearly 9 thousand lives, the MV Wilhelm Gustloff.

I stand corrected.

[Sea Skimmer]

Even if you limit things to ships sunk outside of warfare, the Philippines ferry Doña Paz was rammed and sunk by an oil tanker in 1987 with the loss of over 4,000 people. Just twenty six people survived because the tankers load spilled and turned the ocean into a wall of flames. This is the worst peacetime disaster by far.

I dunno where you could have gotten the idea that Empress of Ireland was worst, she was lost with only 2/3rds as many people as Titanic at about 1,000. A number of ships have been lost with over 2,000 dead, though nearly all of them during WW2. In terms of peacetime maritime disasters Titanic ranks no.5. Scary thing is in some of these sinkings the unknown margin of death can be over 1,000 lives. If you start counting groups of ships sank at the same place within the same hour, then IIRC the worst cases are over 10,000 death. Ships are harsh things.

[JME2]

It's been a while since I've read up on the Empress and the record of maritime disasters. My memory was fuzzy.

[Thanas]

...with the exception of artificially created wrecks, of course.

That said, we have never been much good at respecting wrecks - heck, I saw a 1946 or 1947 British documentary that showed ships sunk in the mediterranean as a reminder of the cost of the war. Directly after the war.

The immediate demobilization after WW2 left the US and Britain with way more ships then they could possibly man, even to sail home for scrap. It also left them with colossal amounts of ammunition to dispose of, including huge stocks of captured axis ammo and axis chemical weapons. So they loaded the old ammo onto the unmanned ship and scuttle them at sea. This was besides all the war damaged vessels that accumulated at various ports and were never repaired for lack of yard capacity and which simply had to be scuttled. In addition Lend Lease required the British to destroy anything supplied by the US which could not be returned, so you had RN carriers shoving the whole air groups over the side, and some scuttling of ships from that too.

No, these were ships sunk by U-boats/aircraft, or at least the documentary claimed, unless I misremember it.