Almost immediately after the «Titanic», which would later become a legend, sank in April 1912, attempts were made to raise the wreckage and the bodies of those who perished along with the ship. But the limitations of the diving technology of that time made this impossible.
It was only in 1985 that the wreckage was found during a joint expedition by former Navy officer and oceanographer Robert Ballard and French oceanographer Jean-Louis Michel.
But the most interesting thing is that initially this dive had nothing to do with the «Titanic» – it was a secret mission to search for the wreckage of two nuclear submarines, the USS Scorpion and the USS Thresher. And no one knew about this for almost 30 years, until Ballard revealed the true nature of the mission.
Ballard initially met with the U.S. Navy in 1982 to secure funding for a new type of underwater technology that would allow him to find the «Titanic». The Navy agreed to fund the project, but only on the condition that it could be used to search for sunken submarines.
The USS Thresher sank in April 1963, and the USS Scorpion followed it two years later, in May 1965. These are the only nuclear submarines the Navy has ever lost.
The Navy agreed that Ballard could search for the «Titanic» if any time remained for this mission after locating the submarines – and after confirming whether the Soviet Union had played any role in their sinking.
Twelve days before the end of the mission, Ballard was able to find the «Titanic», having guessed that the ship had broken in two and left behind a trail of debris. This hypothesis proved to be true.
According to Ballard, the Navy was nervous that people would figure out the real reason they were combing the ocean floor. And the secret about the nuclear submarines could not be disclosed.
«The Navy never expected me to find the «Titanic», so when it happened, they got very nervous because of the publicity, – Ballard said. – But people were so focused on the legend of the Titanic that they never connected its search with any military vessels».
