BALLARD. Rigorously focused approach-
Robert Ballard is the acclaimed oceanographer and “underwater archaeologist” who became famous for finally finding the murky resting place of the ill-fated Titanic luxury liner, many decades after other determined searchers’ efforts came up short.
He pulled it off with new technology including robotics and satellite mapping systems that he had helped develop.
We first learned of Ballard’s pioneering work in underwater exploration when we caught his televised lecture on “Exploring the Oceans,” a viewing experience that belatedly introduced us to the generally undiscovered wonders and marvels of the deep.
On the special telecast, Ballard wryly observed that mankind has been fixated so much on exploring outer space that it’s direly neglected investing in the easier and much more affordable task of exploring our oceans—which are made up, not just of all that water, but also of 72 percent of the globe’s topography!
After his breaking-news “rediscovery” of the Titanic with filmmaker James Cameron, Ballard has gone on to explore deep-sea trenches, which harbor, not just exotic creatures that have adapted for survival in their pitch-black underwater habitat, but also deposits of precious metals worth a king’s ransom!
Latest mission
Most recently, we caught a TV show that followed Ballard and his team of underwater explorers on their latest mission: to find the wrecks of ships that sank before the birth of Christ!
We learned that the ocean floor is littered with thousands of wrecks, with many seafarers losing their lives throughout mankind’s long history of sea commerce and navigation.
Ballard was so focused on his pioneering search that he passed up “younger” but also interesting wrecks, with their own rich cargo.
This rigorously focused approach threatened to end the mission on a frustratingly negative and unproductive note. —But, as real-life TV drama would have it, Ballard’s final target did turn out to be of “B.C.” provenance!
Even better, it was cited by experts to be older than most other finds in its archaeological class, so Ballard was proven right again!
Another TV show about the mysteries of the briny deep is “Drain the Bermuda Triangle,” which has chosen for its own specific context the exploration of the most dangerous site of them all for seacraft and sailors.
Thousands of lives have been lost in its murky and “deadly” waters, so the show strives to finally discover why. To do so definitively, it uses underwater exploration techniques developed by scientists like Ballard.
With the use of underwater mapping techniques, it figuratively “drains” the entire area of the Bermuda Triangle, to expose its heretofore hidden dangers.