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posted by martyb on Sunday December 16 2018, @05:24AM   Printer-friendly
from the real-story-'surfaces' dept.

In the 1980s oceanographer and Naval Reserve commanding officer Robert Ballard found the resting place of the Titanic. It turns out that as part of the deal to get funding for the search from the US Navy, he was to first find the two missing nuclear submarines, the Thresher and the Scorpion, both of which sank in the 1960s. After finding both submarines, he located the remains of the Titanic in only 8 days by finding and following its debris trail, leaving the last 4 days of the mission to examine the wreck.

It starts in 1982, when Ballard, who had performed a number of top-secret Naval missions during the Cold War, was developing his own remotely-operated underwater vehicle.

Unable to get science grants, he asked Deputy Chief of Naval Operations Ronald Thunman if the Navy would help fund his project. "He said, 'All my life I've wanted to go find the Titanic.' And I was taken aback by that," Thunman recalled. "I said, 'Come on, this is a serious, top secret operation. Find the Titanic? That's crazy!'"

Thunman did say yes, but only if Ballard used the funds and the time to find two missing U.S. nuclear submarines – the Thresher and the Scorpion – which had sunk in the Atlantic in the 1960s.

Earlier on SN:
Titanic Engineering Facts (2015)


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday December 16 2018, @12:13PM (2 children)

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Sunday December 16 2018, @12:13PM (#775090) Homepage Journal

    The captain who interviewed me wanted me to be a submarine reactor operator

    If you don't know what "Kirsk" means, don't find out.

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday December 16 2018, @12:47PM (1 child)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday December 16 2018, @12:47PM (#775094) Journal

    In a gallows humor fashion, it's always funny when the uninformed want to "rescue" the crewmen after a submarine disaster. I remember the publicity surrounding the disaster.

    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 17 2018, @03:42AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 17 2018, @03:42AM (#775277)

      Twenty three men in the rear compartments survived the explosion and sinking of the Kursk, but it was too deep to safely use the escape hatch, and they couldn't reach the lifeboat in the conning tower. They all died when an emergency oxygen generator caught fire, but it is known that they lived for at least six hours due to notes they left behind. If not for the fire, it is estimated they could have lived for about three days, which should have been plenty of time to get a rescue sub to them.