Did Robert Ballard find the Titanic by accident?

Answer 1

Answer

No. He began the search in 1973, and it continued at intervals until the wreck was found in 1985, on one of the expeditions led by him. They had already searched the area believed by many to be where the ship had gone down - Boxhall's position - but were searching further afield. The expeditions needed major funding as they involved a great many people and much equipment to undertake the research.

Answer

•Robert said : Yes, I began the development of the Argo-Jason system, which was a seven-year development, to go from my dream to reality. Along the way I was building systems and testing them. So, from 1982 to 1989, I was developing a new mousetrap. I wasn't ready to do what I had designed it for: a full-fledged scientific expedition. That takes place this August. August of 1991 is my first chance to do what I dreamed of doing ten years ago. For that ten years, I was building my equipment and testing it. So, the Titanic and the Bismarck were a part of my engineering test program. They weren'tdesigned to do science, it was designed to prove I could do science. It just turned out to be what most people go interested in. I did not do all this to find the Titanic and the Bismarck. They were a by-product, now very important to the public, but that isn't what I set out to do. I set out to build this to do exploration. My reason for developing theArgo-Jason system was to improve my ability to explore the mountains of the sea, which I have been doing all of my life. I wasn't ready to take that tool down and do thatscientific thing. But I could do other things. So I said, well, here we are at Woods Hole, we are building Argo, we've got to go and test it, and we will probably go out here in the deepest water that we can get to. Well guess who's out there? The Titanic is out there. Now if the Titanic had been in the Indian Ocean, I probably would have never found it. But the fact that it was in my backyard, I went, "Let's go find the Titanic."