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[Colin Bishop]

As some people will be aware, a new expedition to survey the Titanic wreck is currently under way. The objectives are set out here:

https://expedition.discovertitanic.com/

I do rather wonder just what the point of  this is. The sponsors claim it will produce new insights into the ship but what to they mean by that? Titanic must be one of the best documented ships in history. I have several books about the vessel, one of which is an inch and a half thick and another a meticulous description of building a large model right down to the location of portholes in specific hull plates. There are numerous technical reconstructions of the sinking on Youtube and it is clear that the ship broke in half at or near the surface as might be expected given that the forward part was waterlogged and the stern still buoyant. The debris on the ocean floor confirms this with the largely intact forward section and the pancaked and imploded aft section. The wreck itself is now disintegrating rapidly and the intact sections are collapsing upon themselves as it settles, (very similarly to the Jutland wrecks of around the same vintage). In a few decades it will have dissolved almost completely.

Many items have been retrieved from the wreck and displayed in exhibitions and museums. They are of no great antiquity but only of interest because they have been recovered from the wreck. They have no historical significance otherwise.

More recently there has been a detailed scan of the wreck as it is today:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-65602182

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-65602182

It is difficult to see what the point of yet another scan is except to make more money out of the wreck. It seems very unlikely to reveal anything new and the aim to 'conserve' the wreck is nonsense as nature will take its course.

In 2016n whilst touring Nova Scotia we visited the Titanic Cemetery in Halifax. Some of those buried here have been subsequently identified such as the 'Unknown Child'.

Colin

[Neil]

I have to say, that as far as many see it, Titanic was the be all and end all of all shipwrecks, and probably have similar books to you Colin..........books that I first bought when the wreck was found in 1988?, and have never read again since.

I am of the opinion that it is a grave for many unfortunate people seeking a new life in the USA  and should be treated as such, and I just shut off when people start talking about it and going down to see it........it has even cost lives in recent months, because of [what I believe] the morbid fascination to visit it and look at a grave site.

SADLY it wont stop, but I myself would rather look at living breathing ships than a grave many hundreds of feet under the ocean where it should be left in peace with all those that went down with her in 1912.

Just my opinion though.

[Mike S]

I had not realized that there was a Titanic cemetery in Halifax Nova Scotia, Colin's photos are especially poignant. I totally agree with both Colin's and Neil's views on this latest 'expedition', what's the point?






Mike

[Colin Bishop]

what's the point?

$$$$$$$$$$$ unfortunately...

Colin

[SteamboatPhil]

And maybe more conspiracy theory...........

[dodes]

Colin I agree with you, as a retired professional sailor the only part of the story that interested me was the cause of the accident. The massive interest in the wreck etc I personally find somewhat ghoulish. The seabed of this world is littered with wrecks some known and mostly unknown, all with sad and tragic stories to tell. Talking of wrecks just read a book about the known recorded wrecks on the Goodwin's sands, the interesting bit is about salvage of cargos, customs, fiddles, local boatman antics and the beginning of the local lifeboats etc.

[Colin Bishop]

I am not inherently against the study of shipwrecks as there is often a great deal to be learned from them. The ancient wrecks in the Mediterranean have added much to the study of human history and yielded up artifacts such as the  Antikythera mechanism which is an extraordinary astronomical computer. I have seen it myself in the Athens archaeological museum. Pic attached.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism

There have also been some amazing discoveries in the Black Sea where ancient shipwrecks have been preserved due to the lack of oxygen at great depths.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-45951132

More recently, there has been a book published on the battle of Jutland wrecks which has shed new light on eyewitness accounts of the battle and the navigational positions of the ship losses. It is a fascinating read and a valuable addition to the historical record. For example, at the time, HMS Defence was believed to have been blown to pieces but the actual wreck is surprisingly intact. The revised ship positions corrrect the previous official record.

https://www.eiva.com/about/eiva-log/jutland-1916-the-archaeology-of-a-naval-battlefield

https://www.ospreypublishing.com/uk/jutland-1916-9781472835413/

The current Titanic expedition is unlikely discover anything new after all the many previous ones. The intention is simply to make money from a gravesite from which all the useful information has already been recovered.

Colin

[Umi_Ryuzuki]

I think part of the effort, as a tight knit submersible community, is to prove that it can be done properly and safely.
The company building the submersible, Triton Submarines, also built the submersible "Limiting Factor", which dove all the deepest trenches in 5 oceans in 2019. They may feel they have something to prove.