All language subtitles for National Geographic - Secrets of the Titanic

It began here in ireiand at the
Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast.

Three thousand men would labor here
for more than 2 years.

They were building a monster

the largest ship the world
had ever seen.

In the spring of 1909

a mountain of steel began to
rise against the sky.

The ship would weigh 66,000 tons
her hull would span 4 city blocks,

each of her colossal steam engines
was the size of a 3-story house.

The huge scale of these things was
a source of delight.

It was a scene out of
Gulliver's Travels when

20 draft horses were needed to haul
the ship's anchor

through the streets of Belfast.

Some few observers found
this giant threatening

and wrote of her nightmare scale.

But their forebodings fell short of
the event,

for the fate of this ship still
fascinates the world

and her name is a synonym for tragedy.

In 1910 the huge ship taking shape
in Belfast was a supreme wonder

in world accustomed to miracles.

Every day it seemed something bigger
or better was invented.

Never had so many people been so
prosperous,

never had they taken such delight
in showing off

so this was called, "The Gildde Age."

This was a time when horses
still got most people around.

But things were rapidly changing
thanks to the machines of a new age

everything from rubber bands
to radios

from lightbuibs
to automobiles.

Progress and prosperity
money and machines,

almost anything seemed possible
and often it was.

May 31st, 1911,

the Roual Mail Ship Titanic,
slipped gracefully into Belfast harbor.

It was the largest moving object
ever made by man.

The Titanic was designed for
the rich passenger trade

on the North Atlantic.

It was not only the biggest ocean liner

it was by far the most luxurious.

Aboard Titanic it was hard to
remember that this was indeed a ship.

Advertising the delights it offered
the White Star Line called Titanic,

"a floating palace."

So confident were Titanic's builders
that her trial vouage

lasted just 8 hours.

Almost as an afterthought
she was said to be, "unsinkable."

On April 10th, 1912,
Titanic's maiden vouage began.

With their maids
valets and chauffeurs

their mountains of baggage the rich
traveled in a style almost unknown today.

In an age that worshipped wealth
the 325 first class passengers

were an awesome assembly.

Titanic was like a time capsule laden
with the splendors of the gilded Age.

In 1912 these films were shown in
theaters to a public eager

for any glimpse of Titanic

in fact, this is actually Titanic's
smaller sister ship the Olympic.

But the excitement and spectacle
were true to the event

and many people couldn't
tell the difference.

Titanic sailed from
Southampton at noon,

she was expected to reach New York
just 7days,

with 2,228 people aboard her.

There are a few authentic pictures
taken aboard Titanic

on her first and last voyage.

A vacationing priest
Father Francis Brown,

caught these poignant snapshots
of his fellow passengers.

Most of them on a voyage to eternity.

The next day Titanic made her last stop

pausing off the coast at
Queenstown, Ireland.

Here tenders brought out the
last passengers,

mostly Irish immigrants headed for
new homes in America,

and here the lucky Father Brown
disembarked,

taking these pictures on his way.

Father Brown caught Captain Smith
peering down from Titanic's bridge

poised on the brink of destiny.

Then Titanic sailed into the
twilight zone of legend

she would not be photographed again
for 73 years,

vanished in all but human memory.

The event of Titanic's last hours
have not faded with the passage of time.

The tragedy
irony and sheer terror of this night

still seize the imagination.

A British film, made in 1929

was one of the first of
many Titanic movies:

Full ahead.

Full ahead, sir.

Despite radioed warnings, Titanic
struck an iceberg.

She carried only enough lifeboats
for about 1.200 people

and not even that many were saved.

In 1986 a new chapter in the
Titanic's story began.

The men and machines involved did
not even exist when Titanic went down.

From the Woods Hole
Oceanographic institution

came the research submarine Alvin
and Dr. Robert Ballard

a geologist and undersea explorer.

For decades Ballard
had dreamed of being the man

to explore the Titanic wreck.

Now, if all goes well
he may succeed within a few days.

On July 9th, Ballard's expedition
backed by the U.S. Navy

and drawing on proven
underwater technology

puts to sea from Woods Hole.

One seven five.

One seven five.

The research vessel, Atlantis II
heads for Titanic's resting place

about 1,000 miles due east.

A rare alchemy of talent
desire and circumstance,

has led Ballard to this adventure.

Many led Ballard to this adventure.

Many have called it foolish and
at any rate, impossible,

it's been a hard sell.

No one person, no one organization
on one shared my dream.

There was pieces of it
the technology part,

the ship part, the submarine part.

It's very much like Cinderella
going to the ball.

So I had to go around and get the
shoes from somebody

and the dress from somebody
and the coach and the coachman

and then I knew everything
by midnight,

I'd turn back into a big pumpkin
so I had a sense of urgency

to get it done before
I ran out of time.

The year before
a joint French American expedition

with Ballard as co-leader
sought to locate Titanic.

A 150 square mile area was searched
by sonar devices and remote TV cameras

towed along the bottom
over 2 miles down.

But Titanic and not lie where
she was thought to be.

TV pictures revealed only a
monotonous plain of sediment

sometimes enlivened by a
sluggish fish or empty beer bottle.

Days of futile search dragged on.

It is 1 a.m., September 1st, 1985.

The search has been going on
for 56 days.

#1:Wreckage. Bingo. Yeah!

#2:Somebody ought to go get Bob.

#3:Bob's gone love this.

#4:This is it! Look at that thing.

All: Oh, alright! Yahoo!

#1:What is it?

#2:I don't know but it's manmade.

#3:There's more stuff coming.

#4:lt's the boiler!

#1: Yes, yes, that's fantastic!

#1:I'll be goddam.

The sucker exists! Gooddam!

#2:Has Cathy got the champagne?

There was an immediate outpouring
of excitement

a bunch of kids yelling and
screaming and jumping up and down,

very unprofessional.

And then the whole force of
actually being at the very spot

where this tragedy had
taken place and seeing the ship,

it was very... everyone just cracked.

Emotionally everyone just went down
into a big trough.

And we had a simple
quiet service on the fantail.

We felt better and
it was that time realized that

I was deeply affected by it.

When we came back I wouldn't
talk about the Titanic for 4 months.

I just wouldn't talk about
it with anybody.

I just went and hid.

But Ballard's
Woods Hole laboratory soon

recaptured the thrill of discovery.

Reviewing pictures taken by
remote cameras,

Ballard was eager to get a
closer look.

Ballard was confident that the
submarine Alvin couldn reach the wreck

and the U.S. Navy agreed
to sponsor an expedition.

They say the name of the ship is on
one of the capstans.

Oh, it is?

On the top, yeah.

It should be visible.

We'll have to go and take a look.

A tiny TV camera serves as the
single eye of Jason Jr.,

a robot submarine developed for the
navy in Ballard's lab.

Jason is ideal for exploring wrecks;

getting TV pictures in places
too confined and dangerous

for manned submarines.

Preparing for the Titanic expedition
Jason and his operator, Martin Bowen,

go into intensive training.

Jason is powered by 4 electric motors.

He can venture as far as 200 feet
away from Alvin, the manned submarine.

Jason is much like a dog on a
long leash,

moving on commands from his master.

Here in the lab it's easy to navigate
but deep on the Titanic wreck,

in pitch darkness
it will be another matter.

Often Martin's only viewpoint
will be Jason's electronic eye.

Now some 11months after Ballard
discovered Titanic's resting place

he is returning aboard Atlantis II.

It's clear by now

that no one knew Titanic's precise
location when she sank.

This original confusion explains why
the wreck was so difficult to locate.

There are no landmarks

the coast of Nova Scotia
is some 350 miles away.

The sea tolerates
no gravestones or monuments

only the knowledge of what
lies 21/2 miles below

gives this place identity.

When you're out at sea
it's just a big, monstrousthing.

It has no dimensions.

You tend to wander around in the
ocean and not feel that you're

any where at any on time.

Then when you find the Titanic
it rivets you to that one spot.

You know exactly where you are and
you know exactly what took place

right where you are and that's eerie.

You want to see lifeboats or people
in the water that you can

take drowned right around you.

Yeah, you hear them, you feel it.

Very much so.

The grey down of April 15th,1912

revealed a scattered
fleet of life boats.

Hundreds of bodies floated
in the surrounding waters.

The boats contained just
705 survivors.

Aboard the liner Carpathia
amazed passengers took these snapshots

as the survivors were rescued.

Her compliment of passengers
doubled Carpathia raced for New York.

Everything was quiet calm and orderly.

It was too soon to explain and
too late to cry.

Tragically rumors and confusion
kept hope alive that others might

have been saved by other ships.

Slowiy, as fragmented and
conflicting radio reports came in

the world began to realize
what had happened overnight.

In London, silent crowds gathered
at the offices of the White Star Line

Here many of Titanic's passengers
had bought their tickets

and here a precious few were
reported alive.

In Liverpool, homeport of Titanic
the streets were full of dazed

and grief-stricken families
begging for news

and reeling in shock when it came.

In New York wild rumors circulated

one paper reported Titanic
still afloat and everyone safe.

Anxious and incredulous crowds
gathered in front of newspapers

and offices of White Star.

Suspense and uncertainty grew
for 4 days.

Finally, on the evening of April 18th,
Carpathia arrived at last.

Then as night fell there followed
a chilling pantomime which

brought home the full impact
of what had happened.

In the glare of photographers
flashlights survivors

lined Carpathia's rails

but as thousands waited Carpathia
first unloaded Titanic's lifeboats.

Seeing finally was believing
13 small boats,

all that remained of the greatest
ocean liner in the world.

By the next day survivors
had dispersed.

Frustrated newsreel cameramen were
left to film mere boys,

young stewards who clowned
and laughed even as the rest

of the world mourned.

There remained the task of bringing
in bodies

only some 300 were found out
of 1,523 people lost.

In fear and superstition

Many ships avoided these waters for
years afterward.

Brought ashore at Halifax some
victims were claimed and shipped home

For others the maiden voyage of
Titanic ended here in Canada

just a few miles from
the North Atlanic shore.

Today these graves still are tended
at the expense of the

shipping line which took over
from the owners of Titanic.

The disaster is memorialized
like a great battle which

changed the course of history.

But what was the meaning of it all?

It caused only an instant's
hesitation in the march of technology.

But, somehow, Titanic made people
think and they are thinking still.

Every 5 years the valiant dwindling
band of Titanic survivors

is invited to attend a convention
of the Titanic Historical Society.

Thank you very much.

You look pretty good.

Thank you.

There are only about 24 known
survivors alive today.

But the number of people
interested in Titanic is growing

and this fascination reached
a fever pitch when

the wreck of Titanic was found.

July 13th, 1986.

The first attempt
to reach Titanic by submarine is

planned for this morning.

Bob Ballard and 2 companions will
ride to the bottom

in the research submarine, Alvin.

In his enthusiasm Bob Ballard has
perhaps made things seem too easy.

This morning he has
many promises to keep.

The crew compartment of Alvin
is a sealed,

7-foot, titanium sphere jammed with
equipment and 3 uncomfortable humans.

Alvin is a tried and trusted design.

It has mapped underwea mountains
located a lost H-bomb,

and now is poised over the most
celebrated shipwreck of modern times.

Once launched Alvin is independent
of its mothership.

The crew can communicate
with the surface,

but in the deep they are
so far from help,

they might as well be on the moon.

To conserve electrical power Alvin
will fall to the ocean bottom

only as fast as gravity allows.

The slow plunge will take 21/2 hours

a time of tedium and growing suspense.

Alvin, this is A-two, over.

Go ahead.

Roger. Ralph
we have the tracking running well

and the bow section should be a
range of about 800 meters,

bearing two three zero degrees, over

Ballard reports that Alvin's
batteries are leaking and

its sonar system has failed.

He must rely on
imprecise directions from above

and he cannot stay down much longer.

Alvin, this is A-two.

According to tracking you just
drove over the forward section.

Suggest you come to course 280
and travel for 200-300 meters, over.

I can't believe they can't see it.

I can't believe they cannot see it.

They can only see 30 or 30 feet.

It's... of water.

Atlantis II, Atlantis II
this is Alvin.

We are at the Titanic, over.

Roger, Alvin, we understand
you found the Titanic, over.

Roger, we're sitting at the base
it appears be near the stern

or the midsection.

We are deciding what to do next
because we're running low on power.

No sooner is Titanic found than
the dive must be abandoned.

It takes another 21/2 hours for
Ballard to regain the surface.

We had problems with the submarine
so we had to abort the dive

and immediately head up.

So I saw it for 10 seconds
and that was it.

So, well have to go back and
do it tomorrow.

What happens next?

Well, they're gonna be up all night.

They've got a sick puppy and they
got to fix it,

and it's gonna take them all night.

Alvin is quickly repaired but
the mood next morning is uncertain.

Everyone has been reminded
that technical problems,

bad weather, or a combination of
both could terminate the expedition.

This time everything goes according to plean

Titanic, no longer lost,
no longer legend.

There are people aboard the great
ship once again after

74 dark and silent years.

Now, like astronauts newly arrived
on a distant planet

Alvin's crew is learning
something new every second.

A disappointment; Titanic's decks
thought to be intact

have been consumed by
wood-boring organisms.

What speared to be planks turns
out to be ridges of caulking.

A revelation; standing all alone
is the bronze peaestal

where Titanic's wheel was mounted.

It gleams as if brand new.

What we thought was organic growth
appears to be rust.

The ship looks like it's
bleeding steel

and it's rusting down its entire side.

All over it's draped in rust.

It's formed a river and little veins
that flow down the side

and out onto the sediment.

All right,
let's terminate conversation.

We are losing our light energy
and we'll see you on the surface, over

On the return to the surface a near disaster

the robot submarine Jason,

is dislodged from its garage
on the front of Alvin and almost lost.

Only quick word by divers saves
the million dollar robot.

Well, that's one way to come home
Jason-swimming.

That's right.

Repairs will go on all night as
Ballard reports what he's seen

and prepares for tomorrow's dive.

We come in on the debris field,
right through here.

Titanic is a frightening place
to explore.

Everywhere there are wires,
rails and tubing which could trap.

Coming in along the mud line toward
the ship should be fairly safe.

But the robot, Jason
can get close to such hazards

and venture inside the wreck
without risking human lives.

Alvin's crew is skeptical about robots
in general and Jason in particular.

But, Ballard ignores today's
problems and plans to send

Jason deep into Titanic's interior
on the next dive.

The funnels are all gone.

We've never even seen one
in the debris field.

The idea is to bring Alvin down
in a vertical sense

and land at certain places.

Naturally we'd like to enter the
bridge and we'd like to go

down the staircase and there's a
nice landing pad right here.

That staircase goes down many
many flights

so it would be a question of
how deep you wanted to go in.

But certainly at least 2 to 3 decks in

On succeeding dives special
cameras aboard Alvin pierce

the darkness and reveal
spectacular aerial views

of the wreck;

traveling aft, passing over the cargo
holds and cranes...

the bridge area
where the wheel pedestal stands alone

the hole where the first
funnel once stood

big enough to admit a locomotive.

Now on the third dive Alvin
makes a landing at the edge

of Titanic's grand staircase.

Make sure that that lip won't
jam J. J so he can't get out.

Don't get too close.
Right.

Jason is launched with
Martin Bowen at the controls.

Go forward. Tethering out.

I'll be taking shots periodically.

Further out.

That lip is right in front of me.

Yeah okay.

If you can just head out over the edge

Like a frightened puppy
Jason seems to want to dive back

into his garage and go home.

Gaining control and confidence
Bowen sends Jason down

into the grand staircase.

Seventy for years have taken
their toll

this is what Jason's camera sees
this is what once was.

Seem-ingly there's nothing
recognizable here

but, then, pillars define a room.

One of these light fixtures still
hangs from the ceiling

suspended both in space and time.

The elaborate ornamental clock is gone

leaving only its outline on the wall.

Jason bumps into something
causing an avalanche of rust.

Alarmed, Ballard and
Martin Bowen decide to withdraw.

Keep knocking that rust off.

Yeah

Now, 2 miles down
Jason salutes his creator.

For man and machine
it's a moment of eerie victory.

In further tests

Jason skims over the wreck like an
inquisitive humming-bird.

He can move more safely and
quickly than Alvin and

get in close to capture small details.

Something door for use...

This door for bridge...

This door for use of crew only.

Napier Brothers Company Engineers,
Glasgow. Napier Brothers Limimted.

Some parts of the ship seem almost new

paint still clings to
these window frames

handles and hinges still turn,

and the awesome steel anchors

still hang from Titanic's bow.

Soon Baliard's work for the Navy
may produce robots

so sophisticated everything can be
seen and controlled from the surface.

On some jobs manned submarines
like Alvin may not be needed.

The success of Jason on Titanic
is a major step toward that goal.

Bring it around A little more,
there we go.

Okay, if we want to drop
weights I'm happy.

Okay.

Success.

God, that was not easy.

In one spectacular dive
Robert Ballard and Martin Bowen

have accomplished all
their major objec-tives.

We had a chandalier right there!

We were taking pictures, of it.

We went dancing in the ballroom.

Now for 9 days
Atlantis gather information on Titanic

Deployed each night,

an unmanned instrument package
captures some 57,000

photos of the wreck site.

I want to go through regions,
not specific targets.

There's only a couple targets left.

Ballard and his colleague
Dr. Elizar Yuchupe,

begin to create a detailed map
of Titanic's remains.

That's it
There's nothing else but that.

It reveals new information
and sometimes contradicts

accepted accounts of the disaster.

That's right down here, you see
that's where it would be.

So south of the...
South of the wine bottles.

Most strikingly the wreck lies
in 2 major sections,

1,800 feet apart.

This supports some
eye witnesses who said the ship broke

in 2 as it went down.

Between the 2 sections of the
wreck lies a vast field of debris

and scattered throughout the wreckage
are many common place objects;

a bottle of champagne still corked

and a cup, sitting on a 57 ton boiler

where it gently came
to rest 74 years ago.

Ballard brought nothing up from
Titanic and had vowed not to

interfere with the wreck.

But that was before Alvin came upon
the assistant purser's safe

The handle turns
but the door won't open.

At any rate,
experts say it was emptied

by the crew before Titanic went down.

As the wreck is explored
the Titanic story is relived

and in some cases revised
to suit new evidence.

It is 11:40 p.m., April 14th, 1912.

From the crow's nest
an iceberg is spotted dead ahead

by lookout, Fredrick Fleet.

Fleet immediately rings on alarm bell
and calls the bridge

where the First Officer
William Murdoch, orders the wheel,

"Hard a starboard,"
and the engines, "Full astern."

Titanic grazes the ice,

possibly causing only
a few crumpled hull plates

but enough to tell Captain
Edward Smith that his ship is doomed.

Captain Smith personally walks back
from the bridge to the radio room

where, soon after midnight
the first distress call is sent.

Radio is its infancy and the newly
adopted signal, S.O.S.

Is a novelty to operator
jack Phillips.

Orders are given that women and
children must board lifeboats.

Near the boats
some first class passengers

gather here in the gymnasium.

One is multi-millionaire
John Jacob Astor,

on an extended honeymoon with
his young second wife, Madeline.

Astor's wife boards a lifeboat here,
on Titanic's port side.

But an officer
refuses Astor and so,

he meekly chooses to stand aside,
and die.

Few yet realize that
because of inadequate laws

there are only enough boats for
half the people aboard.

Distress rockets are fired from
the starboard wing of the bridge.

To the north there is a ship,
the British steamer, Califarnion

Titanic's rockets are
reported to her captain,

Stanley Lord, but he does nothing
goes back to sleep

and will spend the rest of his life
trying to explain.

Many lifeboats are still being
lowered half empty.

Few understand that Titanic
is actually sinking.

The lifeboat davits are still
extended here at boat station 2,

where Second Officer
C.H. Lietauer is in charge.

Lietauer sends half a dozen
crewmen to open doors

and help fill the boats
from decks lower down.

The men were never seen again
but one set of doors still hangs open.

Here a twisted davit once
held boat number B

and here stood an aging
distinguished couple,

Mr. And Mrs. Isadore Strauss.

Offered a place on the boats
Mr. Strauss refused it,

then Mrs. Strauss refuse to leave him,

and so, they perished together.

In a single first class cabin

there was a wealthy woman
traveling along.

She was a tough and earthy character,
requiring no assistance.

She boarded a lifeboat
boldly took over command

and was known from then on as
"the unsinkable Molly Brown."

And now, at last, 1,500 people
began to realize that

soon they were going go die.

But on the boat deck near the entrance

to the grand staircase
the band played on.

No one could agree later what
tunes were played

and all the musicians drowned.

But Titanic's band,
and its leader Wallace Harltey,

became immortal heroes of
this disaster on the sea.

Few honored Captain Smith
who had ignored many warnings

as he sailed boldly into history.

He went down with his ship
his last words disputed.

Some said he told the crew
"be British,"

others, "it's every man for himself."

When the Titanic expedition ended

Bob Ballard left behind
a plaque honoring those who died here.

Titanic is their monument
more than 2 miles beneath the sea.

It's memorial to this period of time

to that mistake of arrogance.

It's a whole bunch of things
all bundled up

and now,
down at the bottom of the ocean

it's a very peaceful place
a very quiet place.

It's sitting upright on the bottom
very nobly and at rest.