Discovered After Seven Decades Under The Sea

The Royal Mail Ship (RMS) Titanic sank after colliding with an iceberg on the night of April 14, 1912. Although talk of finding her remains began just days after the incident, the technology at the time didn’t permit it. Thus, its wreckage was only discovered over seven decades later in 1985.

The discovery is thanks to the efforts of oceanographer Robert Ballard, a now-retired American Navy officer. He led an expedition that primarily sought to test the submersible camera-equipped device called Argo, which was sent down 13,000 feet below the Atlantic Ocean’s surface. The mission resulted in the first underwater shots of the sunken ship.