WI: Jack Grimm discovers the wreck of the Titanic

[Crunch Buttsteak]

For some background, in 1981, 82, and 83 oil tycoon Jack Grimm funded multiple expeditions to find the wreck of the RMS Titanic.

While the expeditions did not bear fruit at the time, due to technical problems and poor weather, with what we now know about the wreck site, we know that his search pattern took him directly over the stern section, and only a malfunctioning magnetometer kept him from detecting the Titanic’s stern.

How would things be different if Grimm has been the one to discover the wreck before Ballard?

Especially in terms of salvage rights as Dr. Ballard famously did not claim salvage rights for the wreck, leading to others making that claim.

 

[aaronupright]

If Grimm's expedition had any chance of succeeding, the USN would have contacted him long before. He sailed right over it, Big deal. So did the 1912 expedition.

 

[aaronupright]

As an aside, there are persistant claims that the the USN, RN and even the Red Fleet had a good idea where the Titanic was pre Ballard due to classified work done there sinc the 1960's and that the first two basically told Ballard where to look.

 

[Dorknought]

So Titan the monkey gets all the credit?

 

[aaronupright]

So Titan the monkey gets all the credit?

Considering the fairly credible claims that the USN and RN had already discovered her years earlier, thats not totally off base.
The French group was pretty certain that Ballard had made them go in circles until their time there ended and then suddenly voila he finds it. Because he was told where it was.

 

[Dorknought]

Considering the fairly credible claims that the USN and RN had already discovered her years earlier, thats not totally off base.

I'm not really sure on the credibility of those claims. The ability to find the sunken nuclear subs and retrieve a hydrogen bomb from the depths was based around having sonar recordings that were not around in 1912. Ironically, Ballard was championing remote vehicles to find the Titanic, and that's what the USN had funded him for and yet we now we have come full circle with squished tourists who decided to hazard their way in a submersible.