The title of this post is a myth of sorts as the truth is that they called her practically unsinkable.

I am researching and composing this post on the evening of April 14th. At 11:40 p.m. on this very evening in 1912, the Titanic experienced its fateful collision with an iceberg. I will post this on April 15th, the day that marks the 93rd anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.

My fascination with the Titanic dates back to the early 1990’s when I was working in Waldenbooks in Tulsa, OK and picked up this book:

and saw these images, among others:

I was hooked. I had always been interested in the depths of the ocean and this birthed an intense connection with the disaster of the Titanic. To realize that this wreckage of what was once a luxury liner filled with people was actually sitting at the bottom of the dark, cold sea filled me with an equal amount of awe and horror. Its images are beautiful and sad and scary at the same time. It is estimated that it took 2 hours and 40 minutes for the Titanic to sink to its depth of 12,500 feet. And there it sat, in total darkness, unseen by human eyes for 73 years. The ship that was ‘practically unsinkable’ and was thought impossible to find was discovered in 1985.

Robert Ballard, born in Witchita, Kansas, (and looking an awful lot like my uncle Jack) has said, “I grew up wanting to be Captain Nemo from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” And it can easily be said that he has done that and more. Robert Ballard has not only discovered the Titanic, but has found many other lost ships including two ancient Phoenician ships off the coast of Israel, the oldest ships ever found in deep water, and most recently John F. Kennedy’s PT-109.

Ballard’s 1985 discovery of the Titanic and the events leading up to it can be seen on National Geographic’s Secrets of the Titanic. This documentary is amazing and the first time I saw it I was not only stunned into silence as I saw Titanic for the first time

but also was ready to dump my current career and go hunting for lost ships! There are many amazing images from this documentary including:

a chandelier

and the ship’s wheel:

It is so creepy to think of being confined to a tin-can like submarine, sinking quietly to that depth in darkness, only to come into contact several hours later with the remains of this tragedy. A few years ago my friend Scott and I were snorkeling in a state park in Hawaii and were the only 2 people out in this area of the ocean. We were following this big sea turtle and came across a large piece of debris that looked like part of a giant engine, sitting in about 20 feet of water. It was covered with plant life and sea creatures and it really gave me the creeps because I associated it with all the other pieces of boats and ships that undoubtedly litter the bottom of the oceans. As eerie as it would be I’d love to be able to take one of those submarine tours down to view the Titanic.

Of course the discovery of the Titanic renewed interest in this unforeseen tragedy which eventually led to the much maligned Titanic movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.

I personally enjoy this movie but can easily understand why many do not. I’m not a big fan of DiCaprio but I liked Winslet in her role. The love story was a little overblown but the scenes of the ship sinking and people lying dead in the water really got to me. I think James Cameron’s ridiculous Oscar speech helped solidify public hatred for this big budget love story. If you haven’t ever seen it or just haven’t seen it in a long time I suggest you check out Titanic in 30 seconds with bunnies. It really is only 30 seconds long and amazingly enough summarizes the whole 3+ hours of Titanic in that brief period of time….with bunnies no less!!!

This renewed interest also spawned the Tony award winning Titanic: The Musical. I have no desire to ever see this. Visions of singers belting out show tunes while dancers soft-shoe their way to the icy depths horrifies me more than the actual tragedy!

In June of 2004, almost 20 years after his first visit, Robert Ballard returned to the Titanic. I have not seen this documentary but look forward to a future viewing. As expected Ballard found damage caused by the passage of time.

Unfortunately he also discovered much destruction from personal submarines landing on the deck as well as many artifacts missing. Someone had actually taken the plaque that Ballard left on the discovery mission to honor the lives of those lost. You can listen to some of the interviews Ballard did around this time period at the NPR site.

I admire Robert Ballard greatly as he has a historian’s appreciation for the things that he finds. He understands that the Titanic site is essentially the grave site for the 1,500 people who perished when it sank. He has some interesting ideas about treating these sites as museums and setting up underwater cameras so that people can “visit” these shipwrecks and explore them for themselves. I like this idea much better than pilfering the locations for their contents and having pieces scattered in various private and public museums. The sinking of the Titanic is indeed fascinating. There are as yet unsolved mysteries regarding this tragedy as well as a host of conspiracy theories surrounding its sinking. As fascinating as the story is, in retrospect it was still a horrible tragedy. I will leave you with these thoughts of Robert Ballard:

“The Titanic isn’t a ship. It’s an accident. It’s a huge debris field. The Titanic is linked to its location. When you see pairs of shoes on the bottom of the ocean where the body landed, and those pairs of shoes are perfectly preserved and sitting exactly relative to the body that’s now vanished, those shoes and their juxtaposition to one another, and sitting on the floor next to the ship are a much more compelling message — a personal message of tragedy — than some wrinkly old shoes sitting on a shelf in a museum in Memphis, Tennessee.”