Titanic Blog

Hurricanes Danielle and Earl sent R/V Jean Charcot into safe harbor in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and for the past week, the team has worked on upgrading equipment, and the tasks of downloading, and analyzing the incredible amount of data collected during the first part of the expedition. As the underwater robots work 2 1/2 miles down, they collect sonar data, still images and video simultaneously. All of that must be sorted and converted into maps, measurements and then be assessed with human eyes to discern details, patterns to the distribution of artifacts, and in particular, identify those high-priority areas for more intensive, detailed survey and assessment when the ship gets back on to the site.

The primary task is a complete, detailed map of the entire wreck site. This has never been done before. When the mission was planned, and as we set out last month, the team estimated that as much as 40% of the Titanic site was unmapped and essentially unknown. We now know that more than 50% of the site was unknown because of the sonar mapping we have already accomplished.

One of the more important aspects of the expedition is creating a permanent digital record of Titanic as it is NOW as a baseline for future surveys. A great deal of discussion has taken place in the past over the rate of change on the site, and some have suggested that the shipwreck is rapidly deteriorating, and that perhaps in a matter of decades much of Titanic will be gone or unrecognizable. Having been to the wreck 10 years ago, diving with the Shirsov Institute of Oceanology from Kalingrad, Russia in the Mir submersibles, I see some changes to the wreck, but nothing major. What this detailed record of Titanic will allow is for measured scientific visual assessment of the wreck on future missions. It also provides, for viewers now and in generations yet to come, to see Titanic as it is and was in 2010, in 3D. A virtual tour, and access to this shipwreck for the public as well as scientists, is another important goal of Expedition Titanic.

Understanding how and why shipwrecks change underwater is an important part of nautical archaeology. The processes of change must be understood and then reversed in the laboratory after excavations or recovery. Assessing Titanic is more than watching steel rust underwater. It is far more complex, and what is occurring down there is still not fully understood. Rather than rusting, Titanic’s steel is being consumed biologically, by microbes, and assessing that life form and what it is doing is key not only to understanding what is happening here, but perhaps on other deep water shipwrecks. As archaeologists and scientists we need to know, especially if decisions are to be made on what will next happen to Titanic. Should more work be done to recover artifacts and information? How can we conserve what we find? What is the likely state of more ancient metal in older wrecks down there?

The hurricanes have passed, the rough seas are subsiding, and the team is reassembling now to head back out to sea and to Titanic.  Jean Charcot should sail within the next 48 hours.  Stand by for more reports….

Jim Delgado

August 28, 2010

It is 10 pm and the team has been glued to the screens in the laboratory since early this morning when the Remora ROV reached the bow of Titanic after a slow descent of a few hours into the cold darkness of the North Atlantic. The lights on the vehicle slowly illuminate the hull, and gradually it appears, at first dark blue, and then a brilliant wash of colors as the ROV hovers off the starboard bow.

The day spent mapping and imaging the bow section of Titanic is only one part of the mission, albeit an exciting one.  The AUVs have returned with high resolution sonar maps and images of the site, which we now know is twice the size we once thought it was.  15 square nautical miles of sea bed encompasses the material remains of Titanic and the “Night to Remember,” with the two well-known sections of the hull (the bow and stern) and a large number of detached hull pieces, machinery, fittings, and artifacts ranging from cooking pots, ceramics, and personal effects of the passengers and crew.  We’ve started to develop an archaeological site plan that maps the Titanic site both large and small (all the way down to a 1 meter square).  The stern assemblage, a field of artifacts that surrounds the detached stern of the ship, is one of the densest concentrations of artifacts, but there are other assemblages and features such as identifiable sections of the hull that tore free as Titanic sank, as well as concentrations of artifacts from discrete areas of the ship that previous expeditions have identified such as an area dominated by artifacts from the ship’s galley.

The result of the mapping is what Dave Gallo from Woods Hole is calling the “Google Earth” view of Titanic and its environment, from every piece of the ship and the artifacts, to huge sand dunes and contours of the sea bed.  Like Google Earth, the data will allow us to zoom in from above and focus on a specific artifact or feature just like you can zoom in from space to see your own home on Google.  Embedded in that image on the Titanic site plan will be its location because this is a detailed and accurate map.  This is an important scientific step; all science begins with observation and measurement.

The three-dimensional images of the bow provide a clear, wide-screen view of it, and everyone’s jaw drops at the sights passing before us we spend hours slowly capturing a 3D video mosaic of the bow from above and the along the side of the hull.  It is as if we are swimming over the wreck (a physical impossibility at those depths with 6000 lbs. per square inch pressures) but the magic of the 3D and the clarity in a darkened room puts you down there in a way I never thought possible,  Thanks to Bill Lange, Evan Kovacs and the the rest of the team in the lab, as well as the hardworking ROV crew on the deck below who are driving the ROV with careful precision, the system deployed on Titanic is an incredibly valuable scientific tool that allows for meticulous inspection, and the collection of archaeological, biological, geological, historical and oceanographic data through images (and through sensors when mounted on the ROV). 

We inspect areas that fill in gaps in our knowledge of the site as we also map it with accuracy.  The lights reveal a ship fundamentally unchanged since the last time I saw it 10 years ago, which says to me that well-publicized fears of the wreck’s deterioration are exaggerated.  There are changes, especially in the lighter metals in the superstructure, but this site will be here for many years to come.  Because all things change, including shipwrecks in the deepest parts of the ocean, the 3D documentation of the site as it is in 2010 will become a permanent record not only for science, but also for the public.  James Cameron’s brilliant documentary on the wreck and his own 3D images of Titanic have shared the ship with many, and now this new record from the 2010 expedition will add even more.  I am eager to share the documentation with colleagues, and I am also keen to see the results shared with the public, because the 3D is magic.

One thing is clear at the end of this day; archaeology under water has changed thanks to technology.  As we work on Titanic, off the coast of Turkey, Dr. George F. Bass and colleagues are re-surveying and re-excavating the Gelidonya site, where 50 years ago Bass led the first expedition to scientifically map, excavate, conserve and publish an ancient shipwreck.  At that moment, scientific nautical archaeology was born, and George Bass proved to the the world that archaeology is archaeology whether practiced on land or beneath the sea.  We have not looked back since.  What expeditions like this prove, and specifically what the technologies like those deployed today on Titanic demonstrate is that the paradigm has shifted and that archaeology is possible, and to the highest standards, regardless of depth.  Our colleagues at the RPM Nautical Foundation are proving that with surveys and excavation down to 1,000 feet, the Institute for Exploration at the University of Rhode Island is proving it with their work, Woods Hole is proving it on other sites and here, and with  our other partners on this Titanic expedition, we are showing how archaeology can be done 2 1/2 miles down.

The evening ends with a warning that Hurricane Danielle is bearing down on us, and another storm, Earl, is right behind her.  With forecasts of 40-foot high seas, making work impossible, we depart the site and start back to St. John’s, Newfoundland, to sit out the storms before we return to pick up where we left off.  We know the exact spot, both on and below the sea, thanks to technology and the people who developed and utilize it.

- Jim Delgado

R/V Jean Charcot is positioned above the Titanic wreck site. From the ship, all we can see is the vast, unbroken expanse of the North Atlantic stretching to the horizon in all directions. Two and a half miles below us, however, two of the expedition “robots” are seeing a great deal as they systematically survey the wreck site for the first of a series of 18-hour missions to the bottom of the sea.

It is eternally dark at those depths, and the ambient pressure is 6000 lbs. per square inch. The survey vehicles are specially built and equipped to work in those conditions. Programmed to dive and work independently from the ship, they are Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) provided by the Waitt Institute for Discovery and operated by a team from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Waitt Institute.

The type of AUV deployed on the Titanic mission is a REMUS 6000. Looking like a minature, yellow submarine because of its hydrodynamic outer coating of syntactic foam, the REMUS is one of the latest high-tech tools that allows science to conduct detailed surveys of the ocean floor. On these dives, the two AUVs are systematically cruising above the sea floor, sending out sonar to precisely map through the reflection of the sound, much like a medical ultrasound works. This is at a higher resolution, though,  and at  2 1/2 miles beneath the sea. Running in carefully spaced lanes, and criss-crossing the 6 square mile survey area, the two AUVs are doing what we call “mowing the lawn”" to systematically document the site. They will surface just after midnight. We will then download the data, and determine those areas to survey at an even higher resolution. Methodically, carefully, scientifically, we will create a comprehensive map of the Titanic site at a level of coverage and detail never before seen on this or any other deep ocean shipwreck site. This is truly archaeology on the frontiers of science – and in earth’s final frontier.

- Jim Delgado, on board R/V Jean Charcot, 26 August 2010

The technical description of the REMUS follows:

The vehicle consists of a tapered forward section, a cylindrical midsection and a tapered tail section. An internal titanium strongback, which extends much of the vehicle length, provides the structural integrity and a mounting platform for  syntactic foam, equipment housings, sensors and release mechanisms. The maximum vehicle diameter is 0.66 meters and the overall length is just under  3.95 meters. Vehicle weight is less than 850 kilograms. The outside skin of the vehicle is primarily fiberglass coated syntactic foam. The cylindrical midsection has a large cavity, in which are located the main electronics housing with its junction box and the two battery housings. Sensor payload sections are located just forward and aft of the mid-section cavity. Most sensors and other components are mounted in cutouts in the foam, but the antenna assembly, emergency flasher, transponders and acoustic communication transducer extend outside the vehicle skin, and are protected with metal guards.

It is 9 pm in the North Atlantic, and we are 24 hours out of St. John’s, Newfoundland, heading straight for a site known not only to mariners but to a global audience as the final resting place of the best known shipwreck of the 20th century, Titanic.

INA has joined a consortium of government, other non-governmental organizations, and the private sector to conduct a purely scientific mission to map the wreck, prepare an archaeological site plan, and a final archaeological report on Titanic. As the principal investigator and archaeologist for this expedition, I am joining a world-class team of scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, the National Park Service’s Submerged Resources Center, and the Waitt Institute for Discovery, all assembled to work together with the support of RMS Titanic, Inc., the salvor in possession of the wreck. RMS Titanic has recovered more than 5,000 artifacts from the site since 1987. Those artifacts are now touring or are on permanent display at various locales around the United States.

The partnership is a unique one, and until now, an unlikely one. Like many archaeologists, I had misgivings and concerns over RMS Titanic’s role and activities on the wreck site in the past. I have been on occasion a staunch critic in print and on television.

What’s changed?  A detailed forensic audit of their activities proved to many of us that they have mapped their recoveries, conserved their finds, and that the artifacts are not to be sold but kept in publicly accessible museums. RMST’s President, Christopher Davino, and his company made a compelling argument to all of the partners that they wish to focus on the longterm preservation of the site and to see it properly and scientifically studied, mapped, and for discussions to begin on the future of the site based on hard science, not profit. So all of the partners, particularly with this being a scientific mission with no recovery of artifacts, agreed to participate. We are not being paid, or compensated in any other way; INA and the agencies have joined to help ensure that an archaeological plan, a report, and a blueprint is drafted for a future in which the site is protected, studied and its important and powerful stories continue to be shared with the public as well as other scholars.

What can be learned from such a “modern” wreck, and for what archaeological reasons is INA involved?  The answers are simple. Titanic sank nearly a century ago, in an age that was a pivotal one for the western world. It was a time of ongoing industrialization, societal change, global immigration, and attitudes both different and similar to our own. Titanic‘s wreck is like most shipwrecks a nearly Pompeii-like archaeological record of the ship as it was, the events that sent it to the bottom, and the people on board. Whether they are Bronze Age mariners or Edwardian seafarers and passengers, the stories of those people are important, and many of those stories remain untold, silenced at the time by social and economic disparity, or the cold waters of the North Atlantic. As INA has learned with other “modern”"wreck sites such as the steamboat Heroine in Oklahoma’s Red River, or the recently found Klondike Gold Rush steamer A.J. Goddard in Canada’s Lake Laberge, human stories of relevance emerge from these sites, and our discoveries give voice to the silenced and forgotten.

On a technological level – and for archaeology – this mission is important. After 25 years, nearly half of the site is unknown and unmapped. Those areas of the 6-square mile  site, as well as the better known and well-photographed remains of the ship’s bow and stern and associated artifacts will now be digitally mapped in three-dimensions with accuracy that will enable us to pinpoint artifacts as small as a button or a spoon.

50 years ago, George F. Bass showed that archaeology to the highest standard could and henceforth should be done under water. Until then, no one thought it possible. For decades, others have thought the same about doing proper archaeology in the deep, beyond the reach of light, or human divers. Technology, especially the new sonar and optical mapping technologies being used on this mission, as well as the vehicles being used – the Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) – bring archaeology to the deepest ocean, 2 and 1/2 miles down. The paradigm shift first demonstrated by Dr. Bass now goes to the ultimate depths of the final frontier, and INA is there.

Follow this blog, as well as the expedition reports on Facebook and on the expedition website:

www.expeditiontitanic.com &  facebook.com/rmstitanicinc

You can also follow the expedition each day on MSNBC. Archaeology and science should be shared with the public, another important lesson George Bass taught us in his consistent outreach to the public in the pages of National Geographic, in the popular media, and on film.

Signing off now, 150 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, and 18 hours away from Titanic.

Jim Delgado