Why Did the Titanic Sink?

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The titanic had a sistership, the olympic, an older sistership. She had a younger one under construction that they were going to call gigantic. Se the titanic was stapled together with rivets, not welded. And then fatally, when they spotted it dead ahead, and they called to the bridge iceberg dead ahead. They attempted to avoid hitting it. But by turning sideways, they had took it with a glancing blow. Had they gone head on end, they would have survived. There'd been a lot of people that probably got killed going up against a bulkhead, but the ship itself wouldn't have sink. It would have crushed.

In this conversation about his memoir and National Geographicspecial on his life, Robert Ballard takes us along his many journeys to find the Titanic, the Lusitania, the Bismarck, Nazi submarine U-166, the USS Yorktown, JFK’s PT 109, and two missing nuclear submarines under the cover of searching for the Titanic. Ballard is also a scientist, and he recalls his many important discoveries that include 750°F hydrothermal vents, undersea volcanoes, black smokers, and the confirmation of the theory of plate tectonics. Now the captain of E/V Nautilus, a state-of-the-art scientific exploration vessel rigged for research in oceanography, geology, biology, and archaeology, leads young scientists as they map the ocean floor, collect artifacts from ancient shipwrecks, and relay live-time adventures from remote-controlled submersibles to reveal amazing sea life. For the first time, Ballard gets personal, telling the inside stories of his adventures and challenges as a midwestern kid with dyslexia who became an internationally renowned ocean explorer. Here is the definitive story of the danger and discovery, conflict and triumph that make up his remarkable life. Among his many honors he holds the Explorers Club Medal, the National Geographic Hubbard Medal, and the National Endowment for the Humanities Medal.