Here ’s an odd fact to get your head around : thewreckof the Titanic was first found by people who were only pretending to reckon for the wreck of the Titanic .
This is n’t a office where they were imply to be looking for the Titanic , but did a lot of drop the ball off and affect that they were depend before circumstantially bumping into it . The squad who discovered it – moderate by Robert Ballard and Jean - Louis Michel – were in reality on another charge and using the Titanic as a concealment history .
Ballard – a former US Navy officer – and Michelrevealedin 2008 that they had in reality been task with finding two US Navy zep . The USS Thresher and the USS Scorpion both sink in the Atlantic . As well as wanting to know the portion of the subs , and whether theScorpionhad been drop by the Soviets , the US wanted to know whether the atomic reactor that powered the ship were impacting on the environment .
The team locate both ships and determined that Thresher had likely pass after a superpower collapse , while the last hour of the Scorpion and its crew of 99 is less sure , with theories tramp from it being drop by a Soviet torpedo attack , to animplosion . Ballard ’s squad found evidence that implosion therapy had taken place at the front of the ship , while the rear remained airtight until it sink too far and pressure sensation get it to go off like component part of theTitanic .
Ballard had supererogatory ambitions for the misstep . He had first gain the job whilst examine to seek support to seek out the Titanic , but the United States Navy told him that they were interested in the engineering , but only to look for the pigboat . However , Ballard was able-bodied to batten permission from his paymasters to actuallylook for the Titanic – in between the two grinder – if he had prison term , though he was reminded by his superiors that his elementary delegation was to search for the subs .
The squad , surprisingly , find the Titanic , construct their alibi middling much airtight . When you tell citizenry you were looking for the Titanic and then you find it , nobody tends to need , " Right , what were you really up to , hmm ? ? " . The Navy , however , was not so felicitous .
" The Navy never expected me to find the Titanic , and so when that happened , they got really neural because of the publicity , " Ballard toldNational Geographicin 2008 , revealing the real nature of the military mission . " But people were so focussed on the legend of the Titanic they never connected the dots . "
