Titanic Was Found During Secret Cold War Navy Mission

Titanic Was Found During Secret Cold War Navy Mission

I recently watched this special on National Geographic Channel called Titanic: The Final Secret. It was a very interesting look into the search and discovery of the Titanic by Robert Ballard in 1985 which in reality was a cover story for a top secret mission to discover the fate of 2 U.S. submarines which had sunk during the 60's. Ballard was told he could search for the Titanic only after he had completed his mission for the Navy.

The search for the Thresher and the Scorpion were top secret missions to determine if the nuclear reactors of these two submarines were environmental dangers and also to determine if the Soviets had sunk the Scorpion with a torpedo. In the end, mechanical problems of some kind doomed both subs to the depths. The reactors were also found and determined to not be an environemental hazard.

Each sub had a debris trail over a mile long which gave Ballard a clue on how to search for the Titanic. He only had 12 days to conduct his search, but stumbled upon it's debris trail which led him to the Titanic.

One interesting note from the TV program that wasn't in the article linked...

The Scorpion was loaded with two nuclear torpedoes which were not found in the wreckage. It appeared that no one had been down to this wreckage before, so it is assumed that the two torpedoes are still inside the submarine.

Very interesting find. Flagged. I never knew this story, and I'm what you call a history buff. I laughed out loud at the part where the Navy wanted to determine if the nuclear reactors on the subs were an environmental danger. No, you think? After a forty years when stuff starts corroding...ugh...what a mess that'll be. Hopefully the world will end beforehand.

It an amazing documentary, and we have only been told a part of the story.
Its funny because now you will never hear Ballard talk about the real mission, to find 2 lost submarines, finding titanic was just a bonus.

Great find. There is alot of stuff that the USN navy did during the cold war that has yet to come to light.

I remember I seen a documentary about this.

It reminds me a bit of Project Jennifer.

en.wikipedia.org...

can anybody find the documentary.

I would be interested in seeing it.

I searched the TV listings on NGC and didn't see it coming on again anytime soon. They do have a webpage which has a video link, but it might just be a short excerpt. Check it out here

Amazing what these Canadians can do... when employed by a three letter agency. His book is actually quite good. He cheats at cards though. Sometimes he takes the credit that others are due. Not universally well liked, especially in Canada.

It's not really the Titanic at the bottom of the ocean.

It's the Olympic, her sister ship, which was damaged in a collision with a British warship, then switched with the Titanic and sunk in an insurance scam by J.P. Morgan, who cancelled his trip on the "Titanic's" maiden voyage.

This program can be found if you had a virgin media hard drive cable box (uk only) programs on demand / factual

very interesting
like to see that equipment used on loch ness

I believe it has now been proven from artifacts found on the wreck that it was indeed the Titanic..the production number was marked on items and at leat one was retrieved! That said we know the Olympic was modified post-build to look more like its later sibling. The loss of the Titanic enabled White Star to commission the replacement with the insurance monies, the Britannic, which of course hit a mine in 1915.

Oracle
Southampton

reply to post by GoldenFleece


I've heard of this conspiracy before, but do you have any proof to back up your claims? Any links or hard evidence?

Originally posted by Evil Genius
Titanic Was Found During Secret Cold War Navy Mission

I recently watched this special on National Geographic Channel called Titanic: The Final Secret. It was a very interesting look into the search and discovery of the Titanic by Robert Ballard in 1985 which in reality was a cover story for a top secret mission to discover the fate of 2 U.S. submarines which had sunk during the 60's. Ballard was told he could search for the Titanic only after he had completed his mission for the Navy.

I watched the same special last week as well. I think that we all know the Titanic story from the movie standpoint, but seeing this was very cool.

I had know idea that he had just two weeks to find and mark the wreck after finding the two subs though.

Yes, it is interesting that the nuc torps were never recovered.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm........
That must have been a pressure cooker!!!

Dude the olympics super structure especially the promenade deck is totally different and obviously not the ship resting off of newfoundland. the ships the titanic. the olympic had it's share of bad luck too. continual bad luck. the brittanic sunk later on, so its really the titanic down there.

Bob Ballard is one of the coolest scientists around. love that guys work.

Yeah, bob went to the navy for funding for his argo system and they said we'll help you if you do a little research for us. check out the scorpion. then head over to the threasher and check for any radiation leakage. Bob never found out the results of the tests but he did have 12 days left to look for the titanic. cool that he found it. used the same techniques to find the titanic that he developed to look for the threasher.

Bob also has had the opportunity to work on the NR1. the NR1 was a seriously kick ass sub and for a long time highly classified. WHo knows what tech they developed from the NR1 project. But any sub that is 50 feet long has a nuclear reactor can dive to crazy depths, can crawl on tank tracks on the bottom of the ocean for months at a time tapping deep underwater fiberoptic cables and spying on and messing with soviet sosus systems is pretty cool. and bob got to work with the boat a number of times doing god knows what.

What has always gotten my curiosity is the expedition by jack grimm to look for the titanic. he looked for it a couple of times before bob. he was really really close to it too but he never did find it. once he was sure he did. he was using a towed sled with a magnetic sensor and a camera. the sensor detected a massive metallic object and the camera snapped a few shots of a propeller . the thing is the propeller is the right size but the wrong shape in my opinion. the blade in the photo looked more like a submarine prop. I think Grimm accidently stumbled onto the debris field of the threasher. which bob described as looking like somebody had put the sub through a paper shredder it was so torn up.

the titanic and the olympic looked totally different. anybody who knows the difference can simply look at the wreck photos and know that they are looking at the titanic.

yeah I think the grimm guy cam across the threasher wreckage and never knew it. I've seen the propeller shot he took and it looks like a sub propeller.

reply to post by Evil Genius


did you know the titanic was sunk on purpose?

it's in here somewhere
video.google.com...