SHIPWRECKS · HISTORY
Robert D. Ballard
Also known as: Ballard Robert, Dr Robert Ballard
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 noted for his work in underwater archaeology (maritime archaeology and archaeology of shipwrecks) and marine geology. He is best known by the general public 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. Ballard discovered hydrothermal vents, undersea volcanic features that emit plumes of hot, nutrient-laden water which support the only ecosystems on Earth entirely independent of the Sun. He was quoted as saying that "finding hydrothermal vents beats the hell out of finding the Titanic".
IN QUEBEC, CANADA, William James Pirrie, son of William Alexander Pirrie and Elizabeth Montgomery is born.
— from Titanic
Most acclaimed
Into the Deep
"Oceanographer and marine biologist Robert D. Ballard looks back on a long and storied life that includes accomplishments ranging from discovering new life-forms to finding the wreck of the Titanic"-- Best known for finding the wreck of the Titanic, Ballard has a lifetime of stories about exploring the ocean depths. Now he gets personal, telling the stories behind his most exciting discoveries-- including how a top-secret naval mission provided the opportunity for his Titanic discovery-- and opens up about his private tragedies. The years after his Titanic find brought triumph and agony: media around the world clamored for interviews, but he grappled with the death of his son and the collapse of his marriage amid academic and military career demands. Ballard also addresses his late-in-life discovery of his own dyslexia, which he now sees as a gift that has shaped his life and accomplishments. -- adapted from jacket
Titanic
The story of the sinking of the Titanic based on first hand accounts collected in the days and weeks following the disaster. The story of the Titanic is now well known. But in the months following the disaster wild speculation was rife. On Thursday 22 May 1912, a mere 37 days after the sinking, respected London publisher Grant Richards, delivered Filson Young's book to booksellers around the capital. It was the first attempt to plot the demise of the unsinkable ship from a well-respected writer who had already argued in the light of the Oceana sinking, for proper use of the wireless on board ships. Both Filson and Grant knew victims of the sinking and both worked hard to gather first-hand testimony to use in the book. Much of his telling of the story still stands today and his speculations about the feeling of daily life aboard the doomed ship are used in books and films on the subject.
Explorations
2002
Dr. Robert Ballard is the world's most renowned and accomplished oceanographer - a scientist and adventurer whose feats of exploration and discovery have enraptured the world. Now, for the first time, Dr. Ballard tells the entire story of his fascinating undersea career - a career marked with scientific breakthroughs, awe-inspiring revelations, and personal triumphs and tragedies. We journey with him on treacherous bathyscaphes and tiny deep submersible vehicles as he uncovers the magnificent beauty and awesome wonders of the natural deep - from his team's momentous discovery of the giant clams, worms, and other exotic life forms thriving at depths previously believed unlivable, to his undersea geological proof of the theory of plate tectonics, and his discovery of the super-hot hydrothermal vents that may well be the source point of all life on Earth. But we also travel with him as he uncovers the secrets of mankind that have been hidden by the crushing depths and pure darkness that exist on the ocean's floors. We share the triumph and the wonder of the discovery of the remains of the Titanic - the majesty of inching down the "unsinkable" liner's grand staircase and the heartbreak of finding the porcelain head of a child's doll - all at twelve thousand feet below the sea. We learn the secrets that the great Nazi warship Bismarck carried with her to her undersea grave. And for the first time ever, Dr. Ballard tells us of previously classified expeditions to uncover the wrecks of Cold War nuclear submarines, to try to ascertain why they were lost, and what dangers they still carry.