Surprise After Surprise in the Debris Field
June 6, 2004
This image shows a port side forward expansion joint on the boat deck (in the vicinity of the officer's lavatory) of the bow section of the shipwreck Titanic. It is photographed 6/1/2004 by ROV Hercules.
Video image © Institute for Exploration/University of Rhode Island
The engineers and pilots staffing the control van for Argus and Hercules broke out in big smiles late Saturday for two reasons ? one mechanical, one just plain fun.First, the two exploration vehicles reached a milestone by staying on the ocean floor for more than 30 hours. That's what they were designed to do, but until a marathon fifth launch began Friday afternoon they had been stymied by a combination of bad weather and mechanical glitches.
Second, the science crew clearly enjoys exploring Titanic's debris field, which Hercules and Argus entered Saturday evening after visiting the bow.
"We love flea markets," Institute for Exploration engineer Dave Lovalvo said. "You never know what you're going to find."
Justin Manley, a Mitretek Systems consultant to NOAA who helps coordinate the vehicles' navigation with the surface ship Ronald H. Brown, said that although submersibles have picked over the field, "we've got a much better ability to find targets."
Herc's ability to hover, glide, and light up a broad swath of the ocean floor brought hundreds of artifacts into view, mostly one or two at a time. The ROV's pilots let it hunt at the end of its 98-foot (30-meter) tether like a hound on a leash. The lack of overhanging decks, davits, and rails common at Titanic's bow and stern allowed the pilots to relax a bit.
Among the objects Herc found and photographed were:
The black thruster cowling from a submersible, looking like a giant camera lens hood. Cowlings protect propellers from impact; it was not apparent how this one might have been knocked free.
A stack of serving dishes, possibly silver, covered with green slime.
A cup showing the White Star Line's red pennant. A light dusting of sea snow rested on the lip.
A torn section of hull plating with all of its rivets missing. Whether they were popped by the iceberg that sank Titanic or by the collision with the ocean floor, or whether they merely became food for microbes, was unclear.
A porcelain toilet, which landed upside down and has been perfectly preserved.
A bright orange crab scurrying from right to left in front of Herc's lights, all the while carrying a pale pink anemone. The piggyback anemone's ruby red stinging tentacles swished in the crab's wake like ruffled skirts.
Crabs often live symbiotically with anemones, explained NOAA oceanographer and Return to Titanic science crew member Catalina Martinez. "That's how they camouflage and protect themselves," she said.
Earlier Saturday, Hercules and Argus finished collecting still-frame digital images of the bow section to be stitched into a full-color mosaic. Assistant Chief Scientist Dwight Coleman said the team took more than 2,200 mosaic photographs.
During that same visit to the bow, Dr. Robert D. Ballard found more evidence of damage to Titanic from submersible visits. Impact ovals on the deck, the footprints of submersible landings, appeared as orange smudges filled with flattened caulk.
Upon inspecting the portside bow portholes, Dr. Ballard had Hercules zoom in on a recent gouge in the metal plates. It crossed over a porthole and apparently knocked curtains of rusticles to the ocean floor, microbiologist Roy Cullimore said.
A series of rusticle-free ovals next to nearby portholes may have marked where submersibles rubbed up against the side to allow passengers to peer inside.
Near the bow section, as Hercules was moving southward toward the torn back end, it found a poignant reminder of Titanic's unfinished Atlantic crossing. The brass "LETTERS" sign from a passengers' mail drop box had landed face-up on the sediment. Mail posted after Titanic left its last port, in Ireland, would have been delivered to the ocean floor.
Herc and Argus remained on the bottom late Saturday, adding to their endurance record. Their startling photographs and video will be seen at 9 p.m. ET/PT Monday during Return to Titanic on the National Geographic Channel.
(Note: nationalgeographic.com does not research or edit dispatches.)
