The Titanic | Orphans of the Deep | 3
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Imagine it's the afternoon of April 16th, 1912. You're a newspaper reporter, on board the RMS Carpathia. You and your wife had been headed to Italy for a vacation, when the Carpathia stopped to pick up survivors of the Titanic, which sank early yesterday morning. Now the Carpathia is headed back to New York, its deck and corridors crowded with shell-shocked survivors, most of them women and children. Many are in tears.

You realize this story could be the biggest scoop of your career. You have to try and learn more about what happened. So in the lounge area, you see a woman sitting alone on a couch, wrapped in a blanket and shivering. You approach and introduce yourself. Hello, madam. I'm a reporter from St. Louis, and I just happened to be on this ship with my wife. I'm trying to find out what happened. First, though, are you all right? Yes.

The woman shrugs, then slides over to make room on the couch. You look around to make sure the captain isn't nearby. Earlier, he prevented you from sending a wireless message to your editors in New York. He warned you not to bother any of the Titanic survivors, and even confiscated your notebook. But you're determined to get the story, so you pull out your pen and a few paper napkins. Can you tell me what happened? I think they're gone. We jumped off together, but I lost them. It was so cold.

Who did you lose? My boys, Ross and Jean. They'd gotten homesick in England, so I decided to take them back to Rhode Island. We were having such a wonderful time. The woman stops mid-sentence and stares into the middle distance. I'm so sorry for your loss. I know this is a terrible time for you, but the public, they need to know the truth about what happened out there. How did you get off the ship? Well, my dear boys, they saved my life. We tried to get on a lifeboat.

But they wouldn't let Ross and Jean on, only women and children. My boys are 13 and 16. They are children. And there was plenty of room, but this horrid officer, he refused. I couldn't leave them behind, so we all stayed on the ship. What happened next? How did you survive? The woman sighs, takes a breath, and continues. We were standing together, holding the rail, when we felt the ship going down.

We jumped overboard, swam toward a lifeboat that was half underwater, some collapsible boat, but they couldn't get the canvas sides to stay up. It was more a raft than a boat, but my boys managed to push me up onto it. What did they do? Well, they tried to hold onto the sides of it, but it was just too cold. So cold. First Eugene and then Ross, they let go, slipped away. You scribble as fast as you can.

Then fold up the notes and hide them in your vest pocket. You place a comforting arm on the woman's shoulder, but you know you need to talk to more survivors. The captain of this ship wants to keep the news of the Titanic tragedy from getting out, but you're determined to tell the world what really happened.

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From Wondery, I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is American History Tellers. Our history, your story. On April 16, 1912, shocked survivors of the Titanic made their way to New York aboard the Carpathia.

On board was Carlos Hurd, a reporter from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who secretly interviewed some of the survivors. When the ship pulled into New York's harbor, he wrapped his handwritten story into a waterproof parcel and tossed it overboard to his editor, who had hired a tugboat to meet the approaching Carpathia. Hurd's story, and another one written by his wife, became the first accurate accounts of the tragedy of the Titanic, following initial reports that all the passengers had survived.

Soon, the real tragic news spread around the world, and many clamored for more details and justice for the 1,500 lives lost.

In the wake of the disastrous sinking of the Titanic, the U.S. Congress and the British Board of Trade both launched investigations, interviewing scores of survivors and crew. Their conclusions about the mistakes made that fateful night would lead to advancements in maritime safety regulations. But the public's fascination with the ship's fate would endure beyond the investigations. And with the

And within two years of the disaster, explorers started proposing schemes to find and raise the wreckage of the Titanic. This is Episode 3 of our series on the Titanic, Orphans of the Deep.

At dawn on April 15, 1912, the RMS Carpathia arrived at the Titanic's last known position in the Atlantic Ocean. After receiving the Titanic's distress calls, the Carpathia raced through the night at top speed, dodging icebergs along the way. But when it arrived, it found no sign of the mighty Titanic. Instead, the crew discovered 20 lifeboats drifting amid icy waters, loaded with shivering survivors.

The Carpathia quickly took all 700 people on board and reversed course to return to New York. It was a somber three-day journey in which dazed survivors were reunited with loved ones or mourned their losses.

Bereft mothers tried explaining to their children where their fathers were. Second-class passenger Charlotte Collier's daughter Marjorie asked, Mother, do you think Daddy is all right? Do you think he is safe in a boat? And her mother Charlotte responded, I don't know, darling, but I hope so. Charlotte would learn later that her husband died with the family's life savings sewn into his jacket.

Many third-class passengers lost everything they owned, too, including Rhoda Abbott, who had jumped from the ship with her two teenage sons before climbing onto the half-sunken collapsible lifeboat A. Rhoda survived her ordeal but lost her sons Eugene and Ross to the frigid waters, a tragic story she recounted to reporter Carlos Hurd aboard the Carpathia. Now she and the other survivors were left to reckon with their losses as the Carpathia carried them to New York.

But it would not be smooth sailing. On the second night of the journey, a storm began to rock the Carpathia. Thunder and lightning rattled the frayed nerves of all aboard. Some Titanic survivors feared they might strike another iceberg. And the next day, heavy fog forced the Carpathia to slow down, delaying the journey and further increasing the anxiety of its fragile passengers.

To provide some comfort, the Carpathia's captain, Arthur Rostron, gave up his stateroom to three of the Titanic's first-class passengers, Madeline Astor, Eleanor Widener, and Marion Thayer. All three were now widows, though they wouldn't know this for certain for several more days.

The Titanic's wireless operator, Harold Bride, whose partner Jack Phillips had died in the sinking, spent hours in an overturned lifeboat and was suffering from severe frostbite in both feet. Still, he helped the Carpathia's radio crew send a flurry of messages from passengers to their loved ones. Marion Thayer wrote to her family, Jack, Margaret, and I are safe. No news yet of Mr. Thayer.

Eugene Daly, an Irish immigrant traveling in third class with a family friend, Bertha Mulvihill, and his cousin Margaret, wrote to his loved ones, The ship sank. B, M, and I are safe. Also among the sorrowful messages was one that White Star director Bruce Ismay gave to Captain Rostrum to send to White Star's New York office, reading, Deeply regret to advise you, Titanic sank this morning after collision with iceberg, resulting in serious loss of life.

Full particulars later. This was the first official notification of the tragedy.

Ismay had survived the sinking by jumping onto a lifeboat at the last moment. Once on board the Carpathia, he spent the duration of the journey to New York in the cabin of the ship's doctor, sedated with opiates. Ismay never left the cabin and ate next to nothing. Seventeen-year-old Jack Thayer, who had met Ismay on the Titanic, tried to console him despite having just lost his own father in the sinking.

Thayer found Ismay staring straight ahead, shaking like a leaf, repeating over and over that he should have gone down with the ship. Thayer tried to convince Ismay that he had a right to escape, but Ismay acted like he didn't hear a word. Thayer later said of Ismay, I've never seen a man so completely wrecked. Nothing I could do or say brought any response. Thayer was one of about 40 people who had jumped or fallen off the Titanic but still survived.

He'd spent the night clinging to the overturned collapsible lifeboat B and was later pulled to safety on lifeboat 12, the last to reach the Carpathia. Once on board, he reunited with his mother Marion, and together they grieved the loss of Jack's father. It was not a unique story. Of the 700 survivors aboard the Carpathia, all nursed their own personal tragedies.

As the Carpathia neared New York, many on shore were anxiously awaiting its arrival. Initial news of the sinking of the Titanic had spread through wireless messages among ships and Marconi radio offices on shore, but early reports were wildly inaccurate and no one could be certain who had survived.

Many reporters fed the hunger for news by assembling bits of speculation and unconfirmed information into fabricated stories. The New York Sun headline of Monday, April 15th declared, All Saved from Titanic, and the Daily Mail of London said, Titanic Sunk, No Lives Lost. Meanwhile, London's Globe newspaper reported that the ship broke like an eggshell, but said the rescue of passengers was underway.

Other news reports claimed passengers had been crushed by chunks of the iceberg, that some survivors were in comas, that the crewman had committed suicide. One story said that Captain Smith killed himself, while another said he jumped into the water to save a drowning baby. Initially, White Star Vice President Philip Franklin, who was reached at his home by the New York Times, insisted that he had absolute confidence in the Titanic. We believe that the boat is unsinkable.

But after Bruce Ismay's telegram from the Carpathia reached Whitestar with the news, Franklin made a public statement to reporters assembled at his office, saying, Gentlemen, I regret to say that the Titanic sunk at 2.20 this morning.

But soon the survivors would arrive to set the record straight. On the evening of April 18, 1912, three days after the Titanic sank, the Carpathia finally reached New York, steaming past the Statue of Liberty as crowds lined the shore. The Titanic passengers had reached their original destination only a day late, but forever changed.

After a brief stop at the White Star Pier to drop off 13 of the Titanic's salvaged lifeboats, the Carpathia delivered survivors to Pier 54, where a crowd of 30,000 awaited, with tens of thousands more crammed into the surrounding streets amid ambulances, police, and reporters. Then, at 9 p.m., the first survivors began disembarking. While some in the crowd awaiting family members were joyfully reunited, others learned that their loved ones had perished.

And by midnight, a small group of hopeful people remained, still waiting for their family to disembark. Imagine it's just past midnight on April 19th, 1912. You've been standing in the rain at Pier 54 on the west side of Manhattan, surrounded by thousands of people waiting for passengers to disembark the RMS Carpathia. But now, you're one of just a few hundred people left.

Your wife was aboard the Titanic, and you're desperately hoping she's among the survivors just about to walk down the Carpathia's gangplank. But it's been two hours already with no sign of her. As you continue to wait anxiously, reporters shout questions and camera flash bulbs light up the rainy night sky. You turn to an older man beside you who's also waiting. I wish these reporters would go away. It seems cruel to be bombarding these poor people with questions and snapping photographs at a time like this.

I can't say I blame them. I heard the Carpathia wouldn't let any news out for three days. I've been pulling my hair out trying to get more information. Did you know someone on board? Well, my brother and his daughter were on board, coming home from London. You? Yes, my wife. She was visiting her sister in Paris. Did you know they posted a list? Survivors' names? I didn't find my brother or niece.

but I have to hope they're still on the ship. Yeah, I saw the list, but my wife's name wasn't on it either. I mean, I'm sure, though, there's been mistakes made. Some of the newspapers said everyone had been rescued. Yeah, well, probably not. And then suddenly, a new group of passengers starts making their way down the gangplank.

You watch as some run into the arms of awaiting loved ones. Reunited couples and families break into tears. Some of them collapse to the ground, overcome by relief and emotion. You crane your neck, desperate to see your wife walk off the ship. Then the man next to you cries out. "Oh, there she is. That's my niece over there. Oh my goodness, you made it." The man rushes to embrace her, but then you see him looking wildly about for her father.

You watch the young woman deliver what is clearly bad news. The old man gasps and begins to weep. You realize the crowd around you has begun to thin, and you try to convince yourself that your wife is just about to come down the gang-clank too. Maybe she was injured and is still on the Carpathia in need of someone to help her off. Maybe they misspelled her name on the list of survivors. Whatever the case, she must be alive, and you'll stand here waiting in the rain as long as it takes.

Many of the initial news stories reported the deaths of the Titanic's most prominent passengers, millionaires such as John Jacob Astor, Benjamin Guggenheim, and Isidore Strauss. The fate of second-class passengers was an afterthought, and third-class names were hardly mentioned at all. This left families scrambling to learn whether their loved ones had survived.

And it wasn't until the publication of reporter Carlos Hurd's first stories on the evening of April 18th that readers finally began to learn the scope of the tragedy. And across the Atlantic, residents in two towns were especially crushed by the news. In Belfast, Ireland, men broke down and cried at the Harland and Wolfe shipyard where the mighty Titanic had been built. And in Southampton, England, home to most of the ship's crew and staff, families began to realize the staggering loss of life.

Of the 1,500 who died on the Titanic, nearly half were crew members, and most of them, about 700, were from Southampton. At one school in town, 125 children lost a father, brother, or uncle. A reporter who visited the town described women fainting and children crying for their fathers and families waiting at the White Star office clinging to hope.

One small benefit of the news frenzy was the reuniting of two young boys and their mother. Edmund and Michel Navratil, ages two and four, had been taken from their mother's home in the south of France by their father. He died on the Titanic, but not before putting his sons into Lifeboat D. Reporter Carlos Hurd and his wife Catherine had cared for the younger boy aboard the Carpathia, but neither boy spoke English, so they could not explain where their parents were.

Upon arrival in New York, first-class survivor Margaret Hayes assumed the parents had died and took both boys into her home. Newspapers around the world carried stories about the Navratil brothers calling them orphans of the deep. But their mother, Marcel, recognized her son's photograph in her local newspaper, and Whitestar arranged to transport her to New York, where she was tearfully reunited with her boys.

News of the Titanic continued to ricochet around the globe, and it wasn't long before people began to search for someone to blame for the tragedy. Some news reports pointed fingers at Stanley Lord, the captain of the Californian, which had been within 10 miles of the sinking Titanic but failed to respond to distress calls. But the bulk of the public scorn would fall on Bruce Ismay, the man whose company built and owned the doomed ship, and who would soon face harsh questions about his actions.

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On April 18, 1912, when the Carpathia first docked in New York carrying Titanic survivors, two U.S. senators and several sheriff's marshals boarded the ship to issue a summons to White Star manager Bruce Ismay. They ordered Ismay to appear before a Senate committee inquiry at 10 a.m. the next day at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

When the time came, Ismay stood before the committee led by Michigan Senator William Alden Smith. Ismay was the first witness to testify, and his initial comments did little to convince the public that he wasn't at least partly culpable for the tragedy. A Democratic senator from Maryland stated, "...it had been cowardly of Ismay to get into a lifeboat and called him criminally responsible." Thirteen days later, Ismay would be called upon again to answer for his behavior.

Imagine it's May 1st, 1912. You're in a makeshift courtroom inside the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. It's been more than two weeks since the Titanic sank, and you had hoped to go home to your family in England. But American Senate committee leaders refused your request.

So today you've been called back to face more questions from Michigan Senator William Alden Smith. Now, before we get started, do you have anything you wish to say to this committee? Yes, Senator, I do. As I said the last time I was here, I would like to express my sincere grief at this deplorable catastrophe. Oh, a catastrophe you could have prevented. Don't you agree? I'm not sure I agree with that statement. The Titanic was...

was a state-of-the-art ship. Absolutely no money was spared in her construction. And yet she failed the ultimate test, did she not? The unsinkable ship sank. You wince. The captain and the man who designed the Titanic both went down with the ship. You're the highest-ranking official to survive, so you understand the anger directed at you. You try to remain calm. I'm here to cooperate and answer every question the committee has for me.

I have nothing to hide. Very well, then. Here's my first question. Was the Titanic traveling too fast? I mean, were you trying to get to New York as quickly as possible? Is it true you and Captain Smith had placed a bet? No, the ship was not traveling at maximum speed. We had not yet fired all our boilers. So you never urged the captain to go faster, to get to New York quicker? No, sir. That is a horrible accusation. Very well, then. Let's talk about the lifeboats.

Why didn't the Titanic have enough for every person on board? We had enough boats to fulfill the requirements of the British Board of Trade. Wouldn't it have been better to base the number of lifeboats on the number of passengers, not the weight of the ship? If the Titanic carried double the number of lifeboats, say 40, wouldn't more lives have been saved? Yes, more lifeboats could have saved more lives. One result of this horrible accident is that the question of lifeboats on ships will have to be thoroughly reviewed.

Beginning immediately, all our ships will have enough boats on board for all passengers and crew.

The senator shuffles some papers and asks the question you've been dreading. Well, now, speaking of lifeboats, how were you able to get into one yourself? Isn't it protocol for women and children to be the first to board the lifeboats? Well, yes, but in my case, there were no other women or children nearby. The boats were not filled to capacity. I judged there to be just enough room in the boat, and she was being lowered away, so

So you stepped aboard while the captain and other members of the crew went down with the ship. I assisted others as best I could, putting women and children into the boats before I ever thought about getting in myself. It was clear the ship was going down, and it was the last lifeboat to leave so far as I know. I see. The senator looks at you icily, clearly unsatisfied with your explanation. All right, thank you. No more questions for now. But again, please stay in New York in case we need to recall you.

Let's get ready for our next witness, please. You're relieved to step down from the stand, but you know these and other questions will never cease. When you return to London, you'll be expected to testify in the British Board of Trade's inquiry. But nothing you say to any committee will bring back the dead, nor will it clear your name. You know that many consider your actions the utmost of dishonorable.

Senator William Alden Smith of Michigan had met Titanic Captain Edward Smith years earlier. When he first heard about the ship sinking, Smith took the initiative and called for a Senate committee investigation to get to the bottom of the reasons behind the catastrophe. During the five-week hearing, more than 80 witnesses, including surviving passengers and crew, gave dramatic and sometimes combative testimony to Smith and seven other senators. White Star Director Bruce Ismay was questioned three times.

During committee proceedings, Senator Smith achieved some notoriety when he made what some considered reckless comments and allegations during his questioning of witnesses. He insinuated that Captain Smith and other crew members may have been drunk, and that Smith and Ismay had placed bets on how fast the Titanic could reach New York. He was also mocked for his question to one of the Titanic's officers about what icebergs were composed of. The officer replied, "'Ice, I suppose, sir.'"

Then, on May 28, just before issuing the committee's final report, Senator Smith gave a speech in which he praised Captain Rostron of the Carpathia for rescuing Titanic survivors and suggested Rostron receive $1,000 and a medal. He then suggested prosecuting Captain Lord of the Californian for ignoring obvious distress signals, and he blamed Titanic Captain Edward Smith for sailing too fast through ice fields.

He also blamed the laxity of Britain's antiquated shipping laws for the disaster and said new laws will best testify our affection for the dead. Shortly thereafter, on May 2nd, the British Board of Trade launched its own inquiry. It lasted two months under the direction of British jurist and politician John Charles Biggum, known as Lord Mersey.

The U.S. and British investigations both determined that the Titanic was traveling too fast through an ice field and that the Californian could have saved lives had it responded.

But British investigators went easier on Captain Smith and Bruce Ismay, declaring that Smith's decision not to slow down after ice had been reported was common and acceptable. Lord Mersey said he was only doing that which other skilled men would have done. Mersey also said that there was nothing wrong with Ismay's decision to get into a lifeboat and save his own life.

But both inquiries recommended that ships carry enough lifeboats for all passengers and crew, conduct more lifeboat drills, slow down when ice was reported, and be equipped with searchlights. Officials in the U.S. and U.K. also praised the performance of the wireless Marconi radios and suggested that all passenger ships be required to carry them. One British official said, "'Those who have been saved have been saved through one man, Mr. Marconi and his marvelous invention.'"

In the days immediately following the Titanic sinking, a White Star ship called the Mackie Bennett traveled to the site of the Titanic sinking to search for bodies. It was joined by other ships that volunteered to assist with the search, and together they found more than 300 bodies floating in their life jackets. Among them was John Jacob Astor, orchestra leader Wallace Hartley, and two of his musicians.

When Hartley's body was found on May 4th, his violin was still strapped to his back. It had been a gift from his fiancée and was inscribed, for Wallace on the occasion of our engagement, from Maria. Hartley was buried in his boyhood hometown of Colne, Lancashire, where 30,000 people turned out for his funeral procession on May 18th.

Many of the recovered bodies were brought ashore in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and from there returned to their families. Scores of others were buried at sea or in three cemeteries in Halifax. The final bodies found, three sun-bleached corpses aboard the damaged collapsible lifeboat A, were discovered on May 13th. The White Star liner Oceanic found them and buried them at sea.

But after all the bodies that could be found were recovered and the investigative hearings completed, attention turned to deeper questions about the disaster. To many, it seemed inconceivable that the unsinkable ship had gone down. Passengers became wary of crossing the ocean, and transatlantic travel declined. Improved safety requirements helped some, but questions would linger for decades and would only be answered with a remarkable discovery in 1985, 12,000 feet below the Atlantic Ocean.

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Shipping lanes across the North Atlantic were shifted further south, away from the threat of icebergs. Bulkheads and ships' hulls were raised to prevent the type of internal flooding that doomed the Titanic, and all ships carrying more than 50 passengers were required to be equipped with long-range wireless Marconi communication systems.

In 1914, the International Ice Patrol was created, under the direction of the U.S. Coast Guard, to search for and track icebergs in North Atlantic shipping lanes. And every year on April 15th, this ice patrol drops a wreath from a ship or airplane at the Titanic site as victims' names are read.

The White Star Line survived the crisis and renovated its fleet to comply with newer standards and to lure skittish passengers back on board. The Titanic's sister ship, the Olympic, was overhauled. 48 lifeboats were added, bringing the total to 68. The hull was strengthened and the bulkheads raised. The Olympic was later used as a British troop transport ship in World War I. It survived four submarine attacks, rammed a German U-boat, and earned the nickname Old Reliable.

But for survivors of the Titanic, the coming years brought a complicated mix of emotions. Every survivor and rescuer carried memories of the tragic events of April 1912. Some were angry, others haunted, and many experienced survivor's guilt. Charlotte Collier, who lost her husband, never fully recovered from the shock and died two years later. A number of survivors would go on to commit suicide, including first-class passenger Jack Thayer and Titanic lookout Frederick Fleet.

Margaret Brown organized a committee with other first-class passengers to provide financial and counseling support for second- and third-class survivors. Brown's own survival story was later featured in the Broadway play The Unsinkable Molly Brown.

Bruce Ismay remained with the White Star Line, but in a diminished role and suffered from depression for many years after. Many of Titanic's officers were shunned or demoted, while Captain Rostron of the Carpathia was promoted to Commodore of the entire Cunard fleet.

When the Titanic sank, it took with it not only victims who were unable to get onto lifeboats, but also many of the clues that might explain what happened and help prevent similar disasters. Almost immediately, explorers began to propose schemes to find and even raise the Titanic. As early as 1914, a Denver architect named Charles Smith proposed using large electromagnets to raise the Titanic. That plan never launched, nor did any other proposal through the subsequent decades.

Part of the problem was locating the wreck. Though the Titanic's wireless operators had transmitted her location at the time of the iceberg strike, the exact final resting place of the wrecked ship remained a mystery for many decades, until an important discovery during a secret naval mission.

Imagine it's just past midnight on September 1st, 1985. You're the lead scientist from the Woods Hole Deep Submergence Lab in Massachusetts. You've been interested in the Titanic for years, and today you're on board a U.S. Navy ship called the NOR, towing an underwater video camera mounted inside a deep water submersible called ARGO, looking for signs of the Titanic wreckage.

It's been two weeks since you began crisscrossing the area where the Titanic went down, a process you call mowing the lawn. Now, in the control room, you look over your partner's shoulder and point at a gray smudge on the screen. What's that? Looks like craters, not normal curves and ripples of mud. Something man-made could have landed there. Calls pockmarks.

Your partner, Jean-Louis, adjusts the resolution on the black and white screen. You've been working together for years, and he seems to know what you're thinking. If we're right, the Titanic left a long debris field. This could be part of the wreckage trail. Proof that the ship didn't go down in one piece. Maybe what we're looking at here is... Wait, what's that thing? You point at the screen again. That's big and it's round. Definitely man-made wreckage. Could that be, uh...

One of the Titanic's boilers? That's what I'm thinking. It probably broke free when she split apart. We should wake the rest of the A-Team. Something's down there. Your partner leaves to rouse the other team members while you adjust the depth of the Argo submersible. Then as the team crowds into the control room, all of you watch the monitors as larger pieces of wreckage on the ocean floor begin to come into view. Then suddenly, the screen fills with an image you've been dreaming about for years. Bingo! There she is!

A crew member starts handing out paper cups of Portuguese wine, and everyone cheers. You're excited too, but also overwhelmed with emotion. Then you have an idea. Hey, everyone, let's go up on deck for a moment. A moment of silence. For the people who lost their lives, I think we owe it to them.

As you exit the control room and walk toward the railing of the NOR, you feel the thrill of finally discovering the resting place of the Titanic. But there's a problem. This whole operation is classified. The U.S. Navy has only agreed to let you use this ship if you first use your cameras to locate two missing Navy submarines. You found them, but that means you can't tell the world you've just also found the Titanic. At least not yet.

On September 1, 1985, a joint French-American expedition led by Robert Ballard of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution located the wreckage of the Titanic 12,000 feet deep in the North Atlantic.

The U.S. Navy had offered Ballard funding and the use of its research ship, the NOR, but only if he first searched for two nuclear subs that sank in the 1960s. Ballard found them and then found the wreckage of the Titanic. But it wasn't until a year later, on July 13, 1986, that Robert Ballard climbed into a tiny submarine called the Alvin and made the two-and-a-half-mile descent to see the wreck up close.

Using a remote-controlled robot called JJ, Ballard took breathtaking photos of the Titanic's hull and stern, which had landed on the seafloor more than 600 yards apart. Ballard's discovery resolved a few lingering mysteries, including the fact that the ship had broken in half. Subsequent explorations would reveal that the iceberg didn't really gouge a long gash in the hull, but instead had made several punctures along the side.

By 1987, Ballard was making regular dives to the ship, though he never retrieved any items from the Titanic, considering it a grave site. But after Ballard's discovery, other public and private diving teams began to visit the site, some of them salvaging objects from the wreck. Children of victims and survivors called them vultures.

In 1991, an IMAX documentary revealed detailed footage of the wreck, and in 1995, Hollywood director James Cameron made the first of an eventual 33 dives to the site. Cameron began preparing for a massive $200 million film that would require construction of a nearly full-scale replica of the Titanic. And on December 17, 1997, James Cameron released this film, which reignited a global obsession with the sunken ship.

Featuring the fictionalized romance between characters played by Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, the film Titanic included many factually accurate details about the disaster and a few not-so-accurate ones. After hitting the screens, Titanic became the highest-grossing film in history at the time and won 11 Academy Awards in 1998.

Also in 1998, the first tourists began diving to the site in high-tech submersibles at a cost of $32,500 per trip. A company called RMS Titanic Incorporated made more than two dozen dives and recovered thousands of artifacts that it put on exhibit around the world. The final survivor of the Titanic died in 2011, just one year before the 100th anniversary of the sinking was marked with memorial services and other global events.

Eleven years after that, in June of 2023, five people in a submersible called Titan, including more tourists, descended to view the wreckage of the Titanic, but the Titan imploded and all passengers died, only adding to the number of victims at the site.

Today, the Titanic's legacy endures as a symbol of human ambition and tragedy. Its ill-fated maiden voyage and lingering themes of technological arrogance and class disparity continue to captivate the public imagination. But the disaster also spurred advancements in maritime safety regulations and deepwater scientific exploration, well after the ship that was called unsinkable met its tragic fate.

From Wondery, this is episode three of our series on the Titanic from American History Tellers. In the next episode, I speak with author Daniel Stone about the public's obsession with the wreck of the Titanic and why it's gained such traction in our collective memory.

If you'd like to learn more about the sinking of the Titanic, we recommend The Night Lives On, The Untold Stories and Secrets Behind the Sinking of the Unsinkable Ship Titanic by Walter Lord.

and The Voyagers of the Titanic, Passengers, Sailors, Shipbuilders, Aristocrats, and the Worlds They Came From by Richard Davenport Hines. American History Tellers is hosted, edited, and produced by me, Lindsey Graham for Airship. Audio editing by Christian Paraga. Sound design by Molly Bach. Music by Lindsey Graham. This episode is written by Neil Thompson. Edited by Dorian Marina. Produced by Alita Rosansky. Managing producers Desi Blaylock and Matt Gantt.

Senior Managing Producer, Ryan Lohr. Senior Producer, Andy Herman. Executive Producers are Jenny Lauer-Beckman, Marsha Louis, and Erin O'Flaherty for Wondery.

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