The Jean Charcot is back in Atlantic waters at the resting place of the sunken RMS Titanic. The ship's mission is to create a comprehensive map of the wreckage and debris field around the famed ship and this is the second time she's been there since the start of September 2010.
She has already released compelling images of the site taken with equipment not available when it was last photographed. In late August researchers took hundreds of photos and hours of video at the site with underwater 'robots' before returning to the harbor at St. John's to wait out Hurricane Earl. On Monday evening Sept. 6 she left to return to the sunken liner's resting place and arrived there on Sept. 8.
The 'unsinkable' Titanic, then the world's largest going ocean liner, sunk April 15 1912 with the loss of 1,522 lives. The site of the wreck, 600 kilometres off the coast of Newfoundland, was first discovered by Robert Ballard in 1987.
The Jean Charcot to Create High-Tech Map of Titanic Wreckage and Debris Site
The expedition is under the auspices of Christopher Davino and RMS Titanic Ltd.; Davino is the president of the company and onboard the Jean Charcot. The company and Davino have been to the site numerous times since 1989 for research and artifact collection. This mission is for research only and it is the first time in five years the Titanic has been visited.
While the 50 ship's crew members and researchers onboard would have preferred not to have interrupted their work Michael Dessner, the Director of Operations for the non-profit Waitt Institute who are a part of the expedition, said it was a choice they had to made.
"The decision to hit the road was the right one no matter how you cut it, you can’t second guess a storm that might come on and whip up 40 foot waves," Dessner said in his blog written onboard and posted at the Waitt Institute website. "Tough to do much other than survive in seas of that nature, definitely not gonna get any work done if you have to tie yourself into your chair and then bolt that to the floor "
Titanic Research: Waitt Institute and Woods Hole Oceanographic Onboard
On it's website the Waitt Institute in La Jolla, California, says that institute was founded in 2005 by Ted Waitt of Gateway Inc. and "...seeks to advance human understanding of the past and secure promise of a better future through exploration and discovery."
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution from Cape Cod is also part of the research group. WHOI has been studying the Ocean and it's relationship to the Earth since 1930 and has been involved with Titanic research previously. On a side note two members of WHOI's team were married on the Jean Charcot when the ship was at the Titanic site in August.
Dessner told Suite 101 in an email interview that the expedition is "looking at returning (from the site) around the 18th (of September)" but added that "on an expedition like this there are a number of variables that influence the date of return. "
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