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8. Ballard believed there would be extensive debris trails around the Titanic
When Titanic made its final plunge to the bottom on the frigid morning of April 15, 1912, it was witnessed by hundreds of men, women, and children. Most of those who survived to relate their experiences to investigators, reporters, the crews of the rescue ships, and anyone else who would listen told tales which often varied in details. Many reported the ship plunged straight down, bow first. Others claimed that the ship slowly but steadily slipped beneath the surface. Others still claimed that the ship’s stern rose until, unable to bear its weight, the ship broke in half, with the stern resettling into the water before being pulled down by the sinking forward section.
Officially the White Star Line and Harlan and Woolf, the ship’s builder, denied the possibility of the ship breaking up, fearful of the public reaction toward the safety of their ships in general. There was no official finding that the ship broke in two. Ballard gambled the reports of the breaking apart were true, and reasoned that there should be, as a result, a substantial debris field, which once found would lead to the main sections of the wreck, as had occurred with Scorpion, which imploded underwater at crush depth, creating a debris field which led to the remains of the submarine.