How the US Navy Helped Find Titanic and Other Sunken Ships

7. Ballard learned a mapping technique over Scorpion which helped find the Titanic

During the repeated passes over the sunken Scorpion, Ballard observed that a sinking vessel left a debris trail, which could be followed to find the main portion of wreckage, if there was one to be found. This trail occurred for the simple reason that heavier pieces of wreckage sank to the bottom faster than lighter debris. In previous searches for lost vessels, the main reliance had been on using bottom and side-scanning sonars to locate large objects and then investigating. Ballard discovered that the trail of smaller objects could be followed.

With Scorpion investigated and photographed, and the debris field mapped in 1985, RV Knorr departed the area south of the Azores and rendezvoused with the French research vessel Le Suroit, which had been scanning the area using side scan sonar. With twelve days remaining before the mission was over, Ballard decided to use the technique of following the debris trail, or trails, to find what remained of the massive ocean liner which had failed to complete a single voyage before sailing into eternity, taking with it over 1,500 souls.