Last year, I picked up a book from our new nonfiction section, Sinkable: Obsession, the Deep Sea, and the Shipwreck of the Titanic by Daniel Stone. I was intrigued, as there are loads of historical accounts of the infamous wreck. From broad biographies chronicling the people on board to the scientific workings of the ship itself, Titanic is probably the best-documented shipwreck in the world. I picked up Sinkable, enjoying the read from the safety of my living room. Inspired, I had to watch two great documentary films, Ghosts of the Abyss and Titanica, afterward.
Undersea exploration and shipwrecks were my childhood passion. When I was seven, I found a salesman’s copy of The Story of the Wreck of the Titanic: The Ocean’s Greatest Disaster in a forgotten bin of books in the attic of my grandma’s farmhouse. I was intrigued by the illustration on the cover and asked my grandma what the book was about. We went through the pages together, her explaining the story while I looked at the pictures inside. The story stuck with me, and when Dr. Robert Ballard discovered the wreck in 1985, I stayed home sick from school so I could watch the continuous updates of his expedition on CNN. I read every one of Dr. Ballard’s exploration books, from the Titanic to the Bismark and Lusitania, and then the Lost Ships of Guadalcanal. Had my parents lived closer to the ocean, my career path would have been very different.
As of Monday, June 19, 2023, I’ve been following the missing OceanGate submarine Titan, which set out with five men to visit the wreck of the Titanic. While not an everyday tourism outing, for-profit explorers and private companies have offered this experience for at least a decade. It is a common enough occurrence that Dr. Ballard has lectured and presented evidence of submarines landing on the wreck site, wearing away sections of the bow. At the time of this blog post, the submersible is still missing.
To get a perspective of where the Titanic is situated on the ocean floor, here is a shipwreck depth comparison:
Since the submarine has gone missing, we’ve seen an uptick in requests for both nonfiction and fiction materials relating to the Titanic, its discovery, and expeditions to the wreck site. Our library has a collection of items you can check out physically from the building or download and read online.
Safe Journey,
Debra