King of the world

Published Dec. 2, 2009 at 10:34 p.m.
At sea with URi’s Ballard. Plus, pilin’ on Palin, and hanging with Mike and Lucia...
...There was a very nice star turn on the November 29 edition of 60 Minutes by URI's Bob Ballard, although the university got scant mention...

Tanaka in action.

There was a very nice star turn on the November 29 edition of 60 Minutes by URI's Bob Ballard, although the university got scant mention.

Ballard is a rare breed of scientist because he actually speaks English and enables mere mortals to understand what he is doing with his research. He is also a true eccentric in only the best sense. Phillipe met Bob in 1985 when he came to speak at Save the Bay's annual meeting just after he discovered the wreck of the Titanic, and P. was assigned to squire him around at a fundraiser in Newport. Halfway through the event at a private home, Ballard vanished, leaving all the attendees looking for the guest of honor. P. finally tracked him down in an upstairs bedroom playing video games with the sons of the hostess, much more content doing that than schmoozing with the bigwigs.

What was not known at that time was the true nature of the voyage that ended up with the Titanic being found. Ballard, then a US Navy commander, was actually on a secret mission to find two Navy nuclear submarines, the Thresher and the Scorpion, that had sunk in the 1960s. After accomplishing that, Ballard asked if he could have a few more days at sea to look for the Titanic, being fairly certain he knew where it was.

This turned out to be a nightmare for the Navy brass when the Titanic was duly discovered and made international headlines, because they had to come up with an excuse for what Ballard was doing for the bulk of his trip, since they wanted it to be hush-hush. Only years later was Ballard allowed to speak about it publicly.

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