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!
As MIR II starts its exploration on the wreck site of Titanic, we will proceed aft of the bow sprit and take photographs and video of many interesting bow features. The first thing that we see on the bow is the auxiliary anchor and its crane that sticks up quite prominently on the bow. The railings are in very good condition at this place in the bow and going aft, we see the huge anchor chains, bulwarks and capstans of this great ship. The anchor chain links are very big and appear to be about 3 feet in length and in excellent condition. On top of a few of the capstans, there are plaques that were placed by several earlier expeditions, including one placed by Dr. Robert Ballard in 1986. All the wooden decking on the bow has been consumed by the worms and other organisms; however, the caulking used to connect the wooden pieces together are still intact.
The next area that we went to was the mast section of the ship. The mast was found by the Ballard expedition of 1985 to have fallen over at its most proximal end and subsequently the distal end landed on top of the bridge area of the bow. I was particularly interested in the mast, not only because of its historical significance, but because I was very concerned about its physical condition - based on my previous observations from 2003 where the metal appeared to have severely fatigued or "crumbled" above the crow's nest opening. From a historical perspective, this crow's nest opening is where Titanic lookout, Frederick Fleet, first saw the iceberg and uttered the infamous line, "Iceberg - right ahead" to the bridge. The bell stanchion where the bell signaled an alert to the bridge is still attached to the mast but the bell is missing. In a paper that I am set to deliver to the OCEANS 2005 conference in September, my 2003 observations predicted that the mast would collapse at the area where I noticed this "crumbling" in less than 10 years. In looking at Dr. Ballard's high-definition pictures last year, the mast was still intact and I was certainly hopeful that this mast would remain this way when I visited her. Imagine my surprise to see that the mast had collapsed at the exact same point that I had earlier observed the "crumbling" and it was only two years after my previous visit. I guess that I will have to change my presentation to take into account this observation. Now the mast looks like an elongated "L" shape and from the side appears like a huge water slide as the mast extends itself down from the bridge area. One other observation about the mast reveal that it is shedding its metal exterior throughout the length of the mast like the peeling of a banana.
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