![]() By the time he returned home and asked his mother at dinner to “pass the f–king butter,” young Bob’s fate as an “old salt” was sealed. ![]() ![]() During one shore leave the teenager was dragged to a Mexican strip club, and on another he found himself in the middle of a wild melee between an angry winch operator and a drunken cook waving a butcher’s knife. He was dangled over the side of the speeding vessel in the “hero’s bucket,” just above the spraying waves, gathering water samples to test ocean temperatures. Written by Ballard and Christopher Drew, the book details the struggles the oceanographer overcame to become a famed adventurer - and finally achieve his dream.īallard first went to sea as a 17-year-old summer intern on a Scripps research ship. Bob Ballard’s life is explored in “ Into the Deep: A Memoir From the Man Who Found Titanic” (National Geographic), out Tuesday. “Absolutely,” the Gipper said to Navy Secretary John Lehman during his first term. Because he’d once been a Navy officer and then frequently worked with the Navy using his advanced under-water cameras, Ballard managed to get word of his Titanic idea all the way up the chain of command, where the White House heard and agreed. Ballard knew little would screw with the Russkies’ heads more than the American ability to find the lost passenger liner that sank in the Atlantic in 1912. Courtesy of Robert Ballardīut in the 1980s the United States was deep into a Cold War with the Soviet Union, and President Ronald Reagan enjoyed waging psychological warfare on the enemy. “Titanic? We don’t have money for that.”īefore scouring the ocean depths in search of the Titanic, Ballard went on lobster dives. “We’re doing serious, top-secret missions here!” one admiral sneered in 1980 when Ballard asked him for Navy support to hunt for the long-lost luxury liner. Ballard’s scuba-diving club thought locating the lost ship was “a pipe dream.” The academic facilities where he studied, like Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, considered Ballard’s idea a publicity stunt and not “good science.” And the US Navy, which provides logistical and financial support for many deep-water explorations, considered the search unworthy of its resources. Why the Titanic may have been cursed even before it set sailĮver since he was a boy exploring tidal pools on the California coast in the 1940s, Bob Ballard felt “called to the sea.” But the youngster who would grow into a famous oceanographer also had another dream: finding the Titanic.Īlmost no one believed it possible. Stunning full-size images show the Titanic shipwreck like never beforeġ912 linen map of Titanic sells for nearly a quarter-million bucks ![]() ‘Insane’ image reveals true size of Titanic compared to modern-day cruise ship ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |