Stiff Currents Keep Gash in Titanic’s Hull Unexplored Territory

Strong ocean currents 2 1/2 miles below the surface forced researchers to suspend plans Thursday to survey an iceberg’s fatal gash that sent the Titanic to the sea’s bottom 74 years ago, researchers said.

“Today was a hard dive,” chief explorer Robert Ballard said in a ship-to-shore report after his fifth day of diving to the site in a tiny submarine. “The current was very strong, and there was a lot of ticklish matter in the water, so it was a hard-working dive. The current seemed to be tidal.”

He said scientists, instead of sending their camera-equipped robot inside the Titanic, took still photos of outside areas they had seen previously, as well as investigating the hull’s port side, which they had not seen before.

Takes Still Photos

“The objective today was still imagery and with still imagery you don’t know what you’ve got,” said Ballard, comparing it to videotapes they have been recording since starting the post-mortem probe of the giant luxury liner.

Danar Yoerger, an ocean engineer at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, said the researchers planned to send photos and videotape from their mother ship today.

From his miniature submarine Alvin, which takes it name from its maker, Dr. Allyn Vine, Ballard said he saw “the beautiful light on the mast . . . a big brass fixture, and we could see a lot of doorknobs, things like that. Very tempting, but we didn’t do anything.” The scientists have vowed to leave the ship untouched as a memorial to those who died.

He said the researchers planned to make their first inspection today of “the debris field,” an area behind the hulk where items that fell from the vessel as it sank were scattered.

Next Assignment in Doubt

Ballard did not say whether the research team will again try to send the robot Jason Jr., named for the mythological Jason who sailed on the Argo to retrieve the Golden Fleece, into the “tear” point where the ship was opened.

Ballard had said Wednesday that he wanted to send the remote-control robot to the bow of the huge steamship to see if it can find the spot where the Titanic collided with an iceberg shortly before midnight April 14, 1912.

Ballard, who discovered the Titanic’s grave last September as head of a French-American team, said there is one discovery he is glad he has not made in the wreckage.

“I am very relieved to not find any (human) remains,” he said.

Looks at Amenities

Ballard and his two colleagues on the tiny submarine directed the robot through the Titanic’s first-class entrance Wednesday, where it peered into the ship’s gymnasium. The Titanic--the largest and most luxurious steamer of its day--also offered its passengers a Turkish bath, tennis and squash courts, a sun parlor and a swimming pool.

Jason Jr. also was sent down the grand staircase of the Titanic, repeating a trip it took Tuesday.

But Jason’s travels were not without trouble. At one point Wednesday, Ballard said, the robot’s control cord, attached to the submarine, got tangled in some jagged metal near the Titanic’s wheelhouse, which still contains the shiny brass captain’s wheel. Ballard said the robot was freed by maneuvering it back and forth.

The divers also discovered that the lawnmower-sized Jason is too large to fit through the Titanic’s portholes leading to the promenade deck.