Condition of Wreck news

[Stuart Kelly]

I just spoke to someone who went on a dive to the wreck last month (along
with the wedding couple) and they told me the houses on the Boatdeck have
nearly all collapsed. The walls of the Grand Staircase Landing and of the
Gymnasium are away as is the starboard side of the officer's quarters. RMS
TI Inc. has also left baskets on the deck and the equipment from the
wireless room appears to have been removed. I wonder why RMS Ti Inc. does
not release more up to date footage of the wreck?

They also saw James Cameron at the port in Canada they were landing at prior
to his going out to the wreck with a 3D camera.

The scientist on the trip gives the rest of the superstructure only three to
five years before total collapse.

Stuart

 

[Christine Geyer]

Stuart, that are really bad news. I got a goose-skin reading your posting and it really makes me sad....

It's terrible to just watch it slowly disappear, not being able to do anything about it. I wish there'd be anything we could do to help. I don't know about all our friends here on the board but to me each of these facts feels like we lost her once more, again and again with each section disappearing. It's strange somehow and maybe I'm overdoing it but I really think about her like dying, even though it's a material thing.

Stuart, I completely agree about your thoughts. As stated before I feel very mistrusting about RMS Titanic Inc. They operate so secretly and so little information and photographs are made public. It's a shame.

Many regards
Christine

 

[Mark Chirnside]

That's sad. I had previously taken the reports that the structure would only last for a few years as scaremongering by RMS Titanic Inc., who were retreiving artefacts using the excuse. To have confirmation is terrible. One can only hope that A and B-decks stand up for a while longer.

 

[Henning Pfeifer]

As sad as it appears, we all know that we will see one part after the other disappearing the next years and decades. Let us try to see some positive aspects. Thanks to Ballard that we could get a view on this legendary ship before it is going to be destroyed more and more by the microbes. Aren´t we lucky? Imagine the ship would have been detected in 2020 or so.

We should keep her in mind and be strong enough to say Good Bye, respectfully without mourning. Mourning should be reserved for died people. I will not mourn - I would feel like opening the graves of my grandparents every year to look whats going on in there. I don´t want to hurt any Titanic enthusiast´s feelings but at the end even the wonderful Titanic is a shipwreck that will share the fate of other wrecks - and we had the big luck to take a look at her, as it seems just in time.

 

[Dan Cherry]

Mark,
actually, a good share of A-deck starboard side has already fallen away. There are lots of corrosion holes above and below the windows, and the shell plating has fallen off from aft virtually to the expansion joint. Last photo I saw, it was within 4 windows of going all the way to the expansion joint.
As far as salvage operations go, it has been proven that the vows to stay away from the wreck itself in retrieving items have been rendered null and void.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

Considering that the superstructure was made of lighter material then the hull, I'm surprised it's lasted as long as it has. I just hope that on future expeditions...and we know there will be plenty of those...they resist the temptation to land on the boat deck. If it collapses beneath them, rescue will be quite impossible.

Cordially,
Michael H. Standart

 

[Mark Chirnside]

<FONT COLOR="ff0000">Mark,
actually, a good share of A-deck starboard side has already fallen away. There are lots of corrosion holes above and below the windows, and the shell plating has fallen off from aft virtually to the expansion joint. Last photo I saw, it was within 4 windows of going all the way to the expansion joint.
As far as salvage operations go, it has been proven that the vows to stay away from the wreck itself in retrieving items have been rendered null and void.

Well, apparently the after A-deck is receding at the rate of one foot per year. Roy Cullimore's article goes into some detail on it.

B-deck was at least of stronger scantling as was the rest of the hull. Titanic is still in much better condition than Lusitania, etc.

 

[Colleen Collier]

Do you think that subs going down there over and over again, stirring up whatever and messing with the ship, landing on it, sending ROV's inside it, dropping ballast, (tons of chain and steel shot I have seen in video footage to lower diesel bags and lights)swirling silt and pressured water around it, and so on have caused its demise a bit sooner that if it was just left in peace? I sure do!
Henning. Good words to remember, and when her time comes, I will be strong.
It would sort of be like people picking away at the Egyptian pyramids until there was nothing left.
I seem to remember Ballard angry at the salvors and saying that if they wanted the memory preserved so badly, then they should preserve the ship itself. If memory serves me correctly, his suggestion was to get the rusticles off it and preserve it by running a current of electricity through it to kill the microbes. Did anyone else ever hear about this, and do you think it would it have worked?
Thanks. Colleen

 

[Thomas Ford]

It makes you regreat Ballard didn't keep the location a secret, i know the ship was decaying when he found her but those others certainly did more harm than good, if Ballard owned the wreck no one would be bringing up artifacts or selling coal from the wreck which particulary bothers me, that coal might have been on a stoker's shovel seconds before the wall became the floor. Dr. Ballard i think would let the ship die nobely and in peace and her state would be alot better, i am glad he found the wreck but he should never have told anyone where it was that way we could all remember the titanic as she was rather than ramsacked wreck she is now with ballast and baskets left all over the wreck. What bothers me the most is that after Titanic does collapse titanic inc would probably be first on the scene to "cleanup" as it were.

 

[Colleen Collier]

The D deck door fell off between the time she was originally found and a few years later, and they grabbed it right up!

I am most bothered by this, because the court already said "NO" to getting inside and taking items, and I almost feel as if they are trying another avenue to do it anyhow.

Ballard wouldn't have had to keep it a secret for long, as it would have gotten out by someone else. Have you ever seen the Russian IMAX special called (smile) Titanica? Not the one narrated by Leonard Nemoy, but the first one? The Nemoy version was edited to not include a few "Butt chewing" scenes when Ralph White insisted that he was going to pick up and pry open a suitcase saying "What if the Rubiot or the ships log is inside it?". Well, he had memorized the coordinants and was in the chart room when they found Titanic, and gave them to the Russian captain and there is a dialog about "Are you sure this is where the wreck is?" where he admits what he did.

I read an article once that said that Bob Ballard was really in a Catch 22. If he had gotten the rights to it, to try to protect it, he would have had to do something constantly on or around it to keep it as solely his. Remember a while back that another interested party wanted to step in and take sole posession away from RMSTI saying that they weren't out there every year and RMSTI finally proved that the "Off years" they were preserving artifacts, so the court let it stand? Lots go on.

Now just to be on the fair side, I believe that the scientific work that they did, and what they discovered and documented was fanominal. Since they had a ship that was new and knew its exact demise, they could determine all sorts of interesting work. I think that Roy Calomar (Sorry, I don't know his exact spelling)had me captivated with his findings. I first saw this on another video special and I was glad to finally find out the outcome. The number of species of animals found and the possibility that a whole colony of creatures flourished here because of this ship is an interesting look into the under sea world.

Well, enough said already!!

Hope you haven't dozed off on me

Colleen

 

[Joshua Gulch]

Colleen,
The copy of "Titanica" that I have on video is hosted by Leonard Nimoy and includes the scene with Sagalevitch and White bickering about the bag while Kristof tries to keep the peace. It's a cute little scene. Makes me smile whenever I watch it.

Josh.

 

[Colleen Collier]

Yes, but you see how they fade the conversation out to an end? The first copy they play it out.
The first one has several minutes with a well known man named Charles Sachs and some of the Russians interacting and telling stories, and has a whole different spin to it.
FIGURES YOU WOULD HAVE THE ONE WITH LEONARD NIMOY IN IT
Colleen

 

[Joshua Gulch]

Hey, what's wrong with Leonard Nimoy? Thirty-five years of Trek reruns can't be wrong.

Also, I see where you're at on the black bag conversation. I misread your original post to say the whole scene was cut entirely. I didn't know there was more to the scene.

Sorry 'bout that!

Josh.

 

[Brandon Ralph Whited]

Hello,

I also own the video "Titanica", and I think the photography is wonderful. But I can't help but laugh at Ralph White over the baggage, and ESPECIALLY when he thinks a small piece of brass is a gold fitting of some sort!

Cheers,

-B.W.

 

[Colleen Collier]

AND gets them ~stuck~ under the stern and then turns around and says, "Anatoli... you want to get us ot of here?!" I just shake my head! I agree that the footage was excellent though. Colleen