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Looking Back: 25 Years Ago Today

September 1, 2010

The first evidence that researchers aboard the R/V Knorr had found the RMS Titanic came on September 1, 1985, from this mundane-looking photo of what turned out to be one of the ship’s boilers. Excitement over the discovery among the crew and scientists was tempered by the knowledge that they floated above the final resting place of more than 1,500 people who were lost at sea 73 years earlier. In 1986, WHOI researchers returned to the wreck and made 12 dives aboard the  submersible Alvin to evaluate the prototype remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Jason Jr. View more images of Titanic here.

(Photo courtesy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Archives)