Whose Expedition Found the Titanic?

American oceanographer Robert Ballard and French scientist Jean-Louis Michel, using the remotely operated vehicle Argo equipped with underwater cameras, located the Titanic wreck site about 600 km southeast of Newfoundland on 1 September 1985. The ship lay at approximately 3,800 metres depth, broken into two main sections about 600 metres apart. The discovery was partly funded by the US Navy, which had secretly asked Ballard to first locate the wrecks of two lost nuclear submarines (USS Thresher and USS Scorpion) — finding the Titanic was essentially a cover story for the classified military mission. Ballard chose not to salvage any artefacts, arguing the site should be treated as a memorial. Subsequent expeditions by RMS Titanic Inc. (a salvage company) have recovered over 5,500 artefacts. The wreck is being consumed by iron-eating bacteria (Halomonas titanicae) and may collapse entirely within the next few decades.