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Robert Ballard, the ocean explorer who found the wreck of the Titanic in 1985, has argued that the seabed holds more history than all the world's museums combined.

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UNESCO estimates that about three million shipwrecks lie on the ocean floor, left by thousands of years of trade, war and storms. In places such as the oxygen-poor depths of the Black Sea, wooden ships more than 2,000 years old survive almost intact. Ballard, an American oceanographer and former US Navy officer, found the Titanic on a joint expedition with the French research institute Ifremer, using Argo, a camera sled towed behind a ship. He went on to locate the German battleship Bismarck in 1989 and John F. Kennedy's wartime patrol boat PT-109 in 2002. In 2008 he founded the Ocean Exploration Trust, whose ship Nautilus streams its deep-sea dives live online.

Türkçe oku
1985'te Titanik'in enkazını bulan okyanus kâşifi Robert Ballard'a göre deniz dibinde, dünyadaki bütün müzelerin toplamından daha fazla tarih yatıyor.

UNESCO'nun tahminine göre okyanus tabanında, binlerce yıllık ticaretin, savaşların ve fırtınaların geride bıraktığı yaklaşık üç milyon batık bulunuyor. Karadeniz'in oksijensiz derinlikleri gibi yerlerde 2.000 yılı aşkın ahşap gemiler neredeyse bozulmadan duruyor. Amerikalı okyanus bilimci ve eski ABD Donanması subayı Ballard, Titanik'i Fransız araştırma kurumu Ifremer ile ortak bir seferde, gemiden çekilen Argo adlı kameralı bir düzenekle buldu. Ardından 1989'da Alman zırhlısı Bismarck'ı, 2002'de de John F. Kennedy'nin İkinci Dünya Savaşı'nda komuta ettiği PT-109 devriye botunu buldu. 2008'de Ocean Exploration Trust'ı kurdu; kuruluşun Nautilus gemisi derin deniz dalışlarını internetten canlı yayınlıyor.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Underwater archaeology
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