A renowned deep-sea explorer has recalled the moment he finally discovered the wreckage of Titanic as he returned to Belfast to view a new gallery named in his honour.
Ballard’s Quest was unveiled earlier this month at Titanic Belfast in honour of retired American Navy officer and oceanographer, Dr Robert Ballard and explores his incredible mission to locate the wreck of the famous ship 73 years after she sank.
The National Geographic Explorer-at-Large made a number of attempts to find the ship since his first expedition in October 1977 with deep sea salvage vessel Seaprobe.
Read more: Titanic Belfast relaunches with most emotive visitor experience to date
While that mission ended in failure when the drilling probe pipe broke, in the years that followed, Dr Ballard didn’t give up hope and devised new technologies and search strategies to help in the quest.
Titanic now rests at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean after its sinking on April 15, 1912. The White Star Line ocean liner grazed an iceberg on its starboard side, opening up a deadly gash and allowing the freezing waters of the North Atlantic to flood in.
She sank in just under a mere three hours and around 1,500 people lost their lives as the collapsible lifeboats were not enough to save the over 2,200 passengers on board.
Speaking to Belfast Live during his brief visit to the city ahead of the 111th anniversary of the ship's sinking, the 80-year-old said: "Like many people I first heard the story of Titanic as a small child.
"Kids are captivated because parents aren't supposed to make mistakes and this was clearly a colossal one. Every generation rediscovers the story of Titanic so it became a challenge for me to find it. I'm very competitive and I think watching others try and fail made it even more fascinating."
In 1982, Dr Ballard approached the US Navy about Argo, the new deep sea underwater robot craft he had created – and his search for Titanic. While they weren’t interested in financing a search for the lost liner, they were keen to find two of their missing submarines.
The navy agreed to finance his quest if he first searched and investigated the two sunken submarines – which he did over a period of two years.
As part of his top secret mission and with just 12 days remaining at the end of the expedition to search for Titanic, Dr Ballard finally recovered the ship more than two miles beneath the waves of the North Atlantic on 1st September 1985. It has since become one of the world’s most historic and significant discoveries.
He added: "It was down to the last second by that point but we were thinking that we were going to fail again and join the ranks of the previous failed attempts. Then boom there it was so we naturally all jumped up and down. Someone looked up at the clock and said 'she sinks in 20 minutes'.
"With that innocent comment, we realised it was totally inappropriate to be celebrating anything. I stopped the ship and we went out and hoisted the Harland & Wolff flag before having a memorial service to commemorate those who died.
"At that point, Titanic was no longer lost as we are at the exact spot and it speaks to you. But it's a graveyard and that's why I promised to never take anything even though I saw lots of things I could have picked up. I said 'that's not right' because you don't go to a graveyard with a shovel.
"It was like going back in time as though you were on the Titanic and the deeper you went into the ship, the more preserved it was. It's a museum and there's more history in the deep sea than in all the museums in the world."
Dr Ballard's return to Titanic Belfast comes just weeks after the popular visitor attraction reopened its doors to the public after a multi-million-pound refreshment programme with some of the rarest pieces of memorabilia from the ship on display for the first time.
Visitors are also now able to delve into witness testimonies from the British and American inquiries, hear first-hand views of what happened on board Titanic on that tragic night and learn more about Dr Ballard’s quest to fulfil his lifelong dream to discover the ship's wreck.
He added: “The new galleries that have been introduced as part of the reimagined Titanic Experience add a new dimension and it is great to see the new artefacts on display, many of which I'm seeing in person for the first time.
“It’s an honour to have a part of the experience named after me and very humbling that the story of my work is being told as part of the authentic Titanic story here in Belfast.
“It’s almost 40 years since I discovered the wreck of Titanic and I’m so proud that people of all ages are now able to find out more about my quest, learn about the top-secret US Navy mission that enabled me to search for the ship, the challenges we faced and how we were able to cover such a large area in a short space of time which then led us to discovering RMS Titanic.”
Video by Belfast Live videographer Dylan Hegarty.
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