This is our series of supplemental logs that were taken from our scientific research expedition to RMS Titanic earlier last month. I hope that you enjoy!
Moving away from the extreme stern area, I asked our submersible pilot, Genya, to visit the huge A-frame engines. As we came along side of the shattered stern section, I am amazed at how violent the implosion of this stern section was during its rapid descent to the ocean floor. Although certain items were clearly recognizable, the difficulty was trying to put these items in the overall context of what Titanic originally looked like. As we made our way to the engines, a startling sight appeared in the debris area adjacent to the main stern piece. There on the ocean floor laid a perfectly intact lifeboat davit. I had never previously seen a lifeboat davit in the stern and quite frankly was surprised. With the shearing action on the stern and its rotational descent, I would of expected the davits to have been torn off and destroyed. This davit looked in perfect condition and very similar to those found lying on the bow's decks. The finding of this davit conclusively proves that the break in Titanic was at the stern expansion joint and there should be other davits found in the stern area of the ship. However in my other previous Titanic expedition, I had never seen a davit in this area before.
Viewing the gigantic A-frame engines is an awesome sight. No words, pictures or film can capture the enormous size that these engines portray. On top of the engines is a steam release valve and a whistle. The engines completely bisect the entire longitudinal plane of Titanic and are the largest structures on the ship. The entire size of the engines can not be seen through the MIR's small portholes in one viewing, but as we move from top to bottom to top again, it is very clear that these behemoths must of been the largest ship-related structure ever built.
As our time is about to end for our visit to Titanic, we decided to take a cursory view of the debris field aft of the engines. In this area we saw one of the stern cargo cranes that was ripped off the ship during descent. Out in the debris field is littered with many pieces of ship plumbing, toilets and sinks. Additionally there are many pieces of porcelain china, bottles and floor tiles that look like a fine restaurant was dumped on its side and all the contents had spilled out. We had very little time for viewing the debris field as our carbon dioxide scrubber needed replacement and we were well over our anticipated time for being down on the wreck. When Genya asked rhetorically, "Do you want to go up?", there was no immediate answer from either myself or Robert Goldsmith. Although we had been on the wreck site for close to seven hours, neither of us wanted this experience to end. Reluctantly, I finally said to Genya that we wanted to take a few minutes to formally say goodbye. After another moment of silence to pay our respects to the dead, we expelled some of our water ballast and began to slowly rise above the ocean floor. This last moment on the Titanic will forever be ingrained in my mind as we will spend another 2-1/2 hours returning to the surface. Once on the surface, the cowboys attached a line to the support vessel Koresh and we are transported to Keldysh for extraction.
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