RMS Titanic, Inc. - The Expeditions


		Titanic LIBRARY - Research and Recovery (1) The Expeditions
		The first expedition to the Titanic after 1986 was organized by Titanic Ventures, a partnership formed to explore the wreck and surrounding oceanic areas. In August 1987, Titanic Ventures contracted with IFREMER to conduct approximately 60 days of research and recovery operations at the Titanic wreck site. Using the French oceanographic institute's state-of-the-art technology, the team recovered some 1,800 objects in the course of 32 dives. Of particular significance, many of the ship's instruments from the stern docking bridge were recovered from the debris field, after being extensively photographed "in situ." The expedition also yielded some 140 hours of video footage and 7,000 still photographs from the wreck site. All of the recovered objects were conserved and preserved by Electricité de France (EDF), the French government-owned utility.
		On May 4, 1993, RMS Titanic, Inc. (RMST) acquired all of the assets and assumed all the liabilities of Titanic Ventures. The following month, RMST and IFREMER conducted a second joint expedition to the Titanic's wreck site. The French-American team recovered approximately 800 artifacts, including one of the ship's whistles, a double lifeboat davit and part of the Titanic's reciprocating engine. The team also explored the Titanic's hull with Robin, a remote-controlled robotic camera capable of investigating areas that are too dangerous for IFREMER's manned submersible Nautile. The expedition produced approximately 105 hours of video footage in the course of 15 dives. All of the objects underwent restoration and conservation processes at the LP3 conservation laboratory in Semur-en-Auxois, France. In the summer of 1994, RMST and IFREMER returned to the Titanic's wreck site and completed 18 additional dives. The team recovered artifacts including a gold pocket watch, souvenir plates from Holland, a passenger's binoculars and a 3-ton set of bitts which once secured the Titanic's mooring lines.
		RMST's fourth Titanic mission, in the summer of 1996, conducted grounbreaking scientific investigations into the wreck of the Titanic. Using the most sophisticated research tools available and advanced techniques of reverse engineering, forensic science, and crash investigation, an international team of scientists from five countries examined the Titanic and attempted to solve many of the mysteries surrounding the disaster. The month-long research and recovery expedition-conducted in conjunction with IFREMER, the Discovery Channel and France's Ellipse Program-was accompanied by a team of naval architects, microbial biologists, metallurgists, and historians. In addition, a team of scientific experts on both sides of the Atlantic analyzed the expedition's findings and added further insights into the events of the Titanic's sinking. In addition, using new sonar technology employed by geologists for seismic profiling, the expedition team was for the first time able to image the iceberg damage hidden by mud that conceals the forward 20-foot section of the Titanic's bow. The sonar imaging revealed that the iceberg damage was not a huge, 300-foot slash as had long been assumed; instead, it was a series of six thin slits totaling no more than 12 square feet.
		To understand how and why the ship broke into two pieces on its way to the ocean bottom, forensic engineers constructed a virtual Titanic through computer modeling, based on new information from the 1996 expedition as well as some of the Titanic's design plans. The engineers concluded that the Titanic began bending on the surface as the stresses on her midsection increased, causing the steel plates in the keel to compress and buckle. As her bow pulled down, her stern rose 25 stories into the air, resulting in stresses on the deck of 35,000 pounds per square inch-pressures so enormous that the Titanic broke apart. To determine how fast the Titanic is corroding on the sea bed, Canadian microbiologist Roy Cullimore conducted investigations into the "rusticles," elaborate colonies of iron-consuming microorganisms, that cover nearly every surface of the hull. Cullimore concluded that as much as 20 percent of the bow has already been consumed by the iron-eating microbes. As the ship continues to lose iron, he predics, it will eventually collapse on the ocean floor.
		RMST's fifth Titanic Research and Recovery Expedition, conducted in the summer of 1998, continued many of the scientific investigations begun in 1996. The expedition team also recovered remarkable artifacts including a 20-ton section of the Titanic's outer hull, known as "The Big Piece," as well as a port-side gangway door. Both of these artifacts will travel with RMST's public exhibitions. The 1998 expedition also established, for the first time in history, a live fiber-optic television link at the deep bottom of the ocean, permitting viewers to watch, real-time, the exploration of the wreck by a manned submersible. In addition, the bow and stern sections were mapped by ultra-high-resolution digital photography to create a detailed photomosaic of the wreck. New debris fields were discovered, including an area west of the stern section that contains a large amount of passenger baggage. An international scientific team also continued research into the microbiology of the wreck, the Titanic's steel and rivets, the "third piece" of the hull, as well as bends and cracking in the bow section of the wreck. New examinations of the hull, however, have made it clear that the Titanic is deteriorating rapidly. As a result, there may be less time than expected to complete ongoing investigations and answer remaining questions about the physical events and consequences of the Titanic's sinking.
		Advertise With Us