His second dive proved well worth the wait for Dr. Ballard. Skimming gently over the ocean floor, Alvin came right up to the knife-edge of Titanic’s bow. Gliding up and over the forecastle deck, the forward mast was found laying back on top of what had been the wheel house. The crow’s nest was still there, though deteriorating rapidly. After they were certain it was safe, Dr. Ballard and his sub pilot Ralph Hollis landed Alvin on the boat deck and used Jason Junior (JJ) to explore Titanic’s interior. JJ was a small ROV that received it’s commands from an operator aboard Alvin via a 250 foot tether.

     The area of the forward First class staircase presented an ideal point from which to explore the interior of Titanic. Also known as the Grand Staircase, this oak paneled work of art was located between the first and second funnels. Topped by a wrought iron and glass dome, the Grand Staircase provided First class passengers with access from the Boat Deck all the way down to D Deck where the Turkish baths were. The dome was now gone; in it’s place a large gaping hole. JJ was sent down into the opening and found that the beautiful stairs themselves were gone and that little remained of the wondrous oak woodwork that had adorned them. The crystal chandeliers and light fixtures remained, however. Seeming unaffected by the ravages of time and the sea, some of the chandeliers sparkled in JJ’s flood lights. Brief jaunts down passageways adjacent the Grand Staircase revealed that little of Titanic’s former splendor had survived the ravages of time. Staterooms, once opulent quarters to the wealthy and privileged, now lay in shambles. The ornate decor is now disintegrating with the rest of Titanic.

     The 1986 expedition not only produced spectacular images of Titanic and her interiors but added a great deal to our understanding of the tragedy. But the momentum had only just begun to manifest itself when Dr. Ballard's team wrapped their investigation up. A year later, in 1987, RMS Titanic, Inc., a New York-based company funded it’s first expedition to Titanic in cooperation with IFREMER, the French oceanographic institute that had taken part in the expedition that had discovered the wreck. Sailing on the French research vessel Nadir and using a new submersible, Nautile, the 1987 expedition’s goal was not only to explore and extensively photograph Titanic, but to recover artifacts as well. Despite controversy over the morality of disturbing the tomb of well over 1,500 people, RMS Titanic, Inc. to date has recovered over 5,000 artifacts and through subsequent investigations of the wreck have helped to determine exactly what happened the night Titanic sank.

     Sending Robin, a small ROV similar to JJ, into the wreck, RMS Titanic, Inc. has obtained images of Titanic's cargo hold and lower decks. Nothing remains of the crates that once filled the cargo hold. The lower decks themselves have revealed startling evidence to lend credence to the notion that the Third class passengers were kept below while the lifeboats were being loaded. A gate separating Second and Third class sections of the ship appears to still be locked shut; another grim reminder of the many tragedies that took place that night. Pooling together the knowledge of oceanographers, naval architects, forensic analysts, and investigators in the field of disaster reconstruction, RMS Titanic, Inc. has been able to shed new light on some of the greatest mysteries surrounding the loss of Titanic. Through various expeditions in 1987, 1993, 1994, 1996 and 1998, RMS Titanic, Inc. has recovered numerous artifacts from the wreck; from luggage containing clothing, love letters and personal effects to fine china, wine bottles and kitchen items such as pots and pans. Titanic’s main whistles were recovered and in 1999 were hooked up and blown for the first time in 87 years. Through it’s many expeditions, RMS Titanic, Inc. has also sought answers to a seemingly endless list of questions surrounding the sinking.

     A ground-penetrating side scan sonar has determined that it was not a three-hundred foot gash that sank Titanic but rather a series of small slits no wider than a finger; the total area of the gashes caused by the iceberg is only twelve square feet. The majority of flooding occurred, however, when force of the collision sheered off the heads of rivets that held the plates together and as a result the plates separated, allowing large volumes of water to spill into the ship. As recently as last summer, dives to the wreck were able to actually locate and photograph some of this damage. Barely visible just above the mud line is a gap between the steel plates. All the rivets that should have held the plates together are gone.

     In an effort to understand the biological processes taking place at the wreck, the team attempted to raise and enormous section of the hull in 1996. The piece was from the debris field surrounding the shattered stern. It measured 14 feet tall by 23.5 feet long and formed part of the outer wall of two first class staterooms; C79 & C81. At 22 tons, the hull fragment proved to be an enormous challenge. It was raised to within 250 feet of the surface when rough seas caused the ropes hoisting it to snap. It shot back to the bottom of the ocean and landed about 10 miles from it’s original position, upright in the mud. Two years later the team returned and successfully raised the enormous hull fragment. Subsequent tests of the hull have answered yet another riddle. It has long been suspected that Titanic’s steel was faulty, and that this faulty steel weakened in the cold water and was susceptible to fracturing. When ore is melted and metal is extracted, a waste material called slag is produced. In steel, a high amount of slag makes the metal brittle because the slag corrupts the integrity of the steel. Under extremely cold conditions, the steel can shatter like glass. For a long time it was suspected that Titanic’s steel was extremely brittle because of the reports that the ship broke in two when sinking. And rivets recovered from the wreck had a higher concentration of slag than should have been present. Tests on the recovered hull fragment were conducted at the National Institute of Standards and Testing. The tests revealed, however, that the steel used to make Titanic’s hull plating was virtually slag free. Strength tests proved it to be extremely rigid and remarkably strong, even by today’s standards. This led investigators to another startling discovery.

     Using computer models, it has been determined that Titanic did not break up at the surface as previously suspected. While investigators are fairly certain that the superstructure of the ship did split on the surface, they believe that the two large sections of the ship did not completely separate until a depth of nearly 500 feet. The investigators have further concluded that contrary to popular depiction, Titanic’s stern never rose more than twenty or so feet out of the water. Computer models have shown that there is simply no way the stern could have been hoisted high into the air as depicted in many movies about the disaster. As the stern lifts out of the water, the stresses on the aft expansion joint surpass the maximum load bearing capability of the hull. In the area of the reciprocating engine room where a large open space in the superstructure makes for a natural weak spot, the ship wrenches itself apart, tearing down to the keel. But a portion of the keel refused to let go and held the ship together as it sank. This portion of the keel has been located. 27 feet long and 92 feet wide, it spans the entire width of the ship and the honeycomb structure of Titanic's double-bottom is clearly visible. It's twisted metal is a clear indication of the tremendous strain it underwent as the ship sank.

     The bow, filled with water, sunk to the bottom much the way a leaf falls to the ground, accelerating and decelerating the entire way down. When it does hit the ocean floor, it is doing about 45 knots and the impact buckles hull plates in the area of the forward well deck; the increase in internal water pressure blasts a hole out one side of the bow while the superstructure in the area of the break collapses. The decks compress down on one another and Titanic’s bow settles into it’s final resting place. The stern’s journey to the bottom was quite different. When it sank, it was still mostly filled with air. As the water pressure increased with depth, certain areas not flooded; refrigerated sections that were sealed, became compressed. Eventually all of the trapped air was forced out. Snaking through passageways, the blast of air made it’s way up the Third class stairwell under the poop deck. The pressure of this trapped air escaping the stern blew off the poop deck plating and peeled it back across the stern. Air escaping at other points blasted hull segments out and when the stern did finally impact on the bottom, it was shattered. Almost unrecognizable, Titanic’s stern came to rest nearly half a mile away from the bow. It was a mangled mass of metal and cabling; the reciprocating engines jutting out from the gnarled wreckage. Over the next few hours debris rained down on the wreck site until all was quiet.

     Diving to Titanic the first time, Dr. Robert Ballard noted long tubules of rust that covered the wreck, running off the hull and across the ocean floor like rivers of blood. He dubbed them "rusticles". Further study of the rusticles have revealed them to be complex biological structures, home to many previously unknown organisms. The organisms are consuming the iron in Titanic’s hull and the rusticles are a bi-product of this process. It has been determined that the organisms are removing one ton of iron from Titanic’s hull every two weeks. Scientists estimate that more that 25% of the bow had been consumed already and that by the middle of the next century, the hull will no longer be able to support itself and collapse completely; eventually nothing will remain but orange dust. Soon all we will have left of the mighty ship are the artifacts that have been recovered...