Inside Titanic Wreckage's Discovery in 1985 and Explorer Bob Ballard's Early Submersible Vehicle (Flashback)

etonline.com:

«catastrophic implosion,» there was enthusiasm around the world after the ocean explorer provided the first photos and footage of the Titanic’s underwater grave.

Speaking with ET in 1987, the Navy vet summed up his initial reaction to finding the Titanic in one word: «Relief.»«I had been pursuing that ship for 13 years,» he explained. «It was like this big piece of pressure came off my back and I was glad.»After uncovering the ship via cameras that combed the ocean floor, Ballard and his team of researchers performed multiple five-hour roundtrip dives to the Titanic the following year. «It was a pretty tough commute,» he remembered, saying that their vessel was «a very cold, cramped elevator» surrounded by 6,000 pounds of pressure that amounted to «a Cadillac car on every square inch of you.»Of course, those dangerous voyages yielded the world’s first look at the Titanic since it struck an iceberg on April 14, 1912 and 1,500 people died when it sank within hours early the next morning. «It's a very peaceful site, actually.

It's sort of like a gentle, alpine terrain. It's like a fresh snow has fallen, except it's gray or brownish,» Ballard observed. «And the ship [sits] overlooking a canyon.

Upright on the bottom. And it's very quiet. And there's a gentle current. A breeze blowing. It's very silent and totally dark.»According to Ballard, one of the most frequent questions being put to him at the time concerned the presence of skeletal remains in the debris field, which he explained wasn’t possible nearly 12,600 feet below the ocean's surface. «Fortunately, the sea is very forgiving like that.