Bob Ballard: An Explorer's Life (2020) - full transcript
Bob Ballard reveals the inside stories behind his most exciting discoveries, while sharing the personal triumphs, challenges and tragedies that led him to them.
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ROBERT: I wasn't a
Titanic groupie, I mean,
I'd read about it
like everyone else,
I'd seen the movie,
A Night to Remember.
But I wasn't fixated.
And so I didn't even think
it would be a big deal.
ANNOUNCER (over TV):
This is World News Tonight
with Peter Jennings.
PETER (over TV):
Good evening there is no
more famous shipwreck
in the world,
and the discovery
of the Titanic in the Atlantic
off the coast of Canada
has been the dream
of countless deep-sea explorers.
BART (off-screen):
Scientists found the wreckage
of the ship said
to be unsinkable in the darkness
beneath 13,000 feet of water.
BILL (off-screen):
What we've seen this week
in the freezing depths
of the Atlantic
reminds us that
those legends of the great ship
Titanic were real.
ROBERT: I didn't expect
the world to go crazy.
JOHN (off-screen): From
the moment she passed through
Nantucket Sound
the Knorr was cheered home.
ROBERT (off-screen): I
can remember when we
came back and did the
press conference at Woods Hole
and then immediately went down
and did the big one at
National Geographic
and I had to do all these
interviews on all the, you know,
it was a feeding frenzy
as you can imagine.
JOHNNY: You must have
gasped when you saw that.
JUDY: Can this
ship ever be raised?
ROBERT: Fortunately not.
MARIA: Those safes could
be filled with jewels, money,
all kinds of things.
ROBERT: I finally got
home and the phone rings
and it's my mom.
She said something that
stuck with me my whole life.
HARRIETT: I really
said that he's done all
these scientific things,
but in the eyes of
the world I think he'll
be remembered for the
discovery of the Titanic.
ROBERT (off-screen):
She said, "Now they're
only gonna remember you
for that rusty ol' boat."
and I have to say,
moms are always right.
CHARLES (off-screen):
Explorer Robert Ballard
the man who found the Titanic.
TOM (off-screen): For the man
who found the Titanic,
undersea explorer,
Robert Ballard.
ELIZABETH (off-screen):
Robert Ballard who earlier
found the Titanic.
ROBERT: Titanic is sort of a
complex part of my life.
I am a part of
the Titanic forever now.
And I know my obituary's
already been written
regardless of what happens
from this day forward,
the guy who found
the Titanic died today,
end of story, stop.
Ok. You know, but I hope you'll
read a little deeper.
HARRIET (off-screen): I think
that many people do not realize
the scientific things
that Bob has done
because there hasn't been that
much you know coverage of it.
I'm hoping that they will
remember him for this
scientist that he really is.
GARRY: Now let's meet
our underwater explorer.
(applause)
CHAD (off-screen): What
is there to know about
Bob Ballard that people
already don't know?
ROBERT: Well, there's a lot
I have never told people.
MAN: My name
is Robert Ballard,
MAN 2: My name
is Robert Ballard,
ROBERT: My name
is Robert Ballard.
And I'm in the
process of fessing up.
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ROBERT (off-screen):
My archives, oh my God!
My life is documented
almost to the minute.
My grandmother had a saying
that everything had a place
and everything should be
in its place, she was German.
I was born where
all oceanographers...
I was born in Wichita, Kansas.
But I don't remember much
about it because I was born
six months after Pearl Harbor
and my father upped
and moved the family
to his relatives in California.
And so I grew up in
California and there bingo!
I saw this big blue
thing out there.
CHET: I took him and his
brother to the ocean one day
and they were just scared of
the waves coming in, you know.
And then that wave would
hit them and they'd jump
and go on until they got their
rear ends wet and then after
that they seemed to lose
the fear of the ocean.
ROBERT (off-screen): We lived
right near the ocean,
within a block of it and
I would go in a tidal pool
and it would change,
it was kaleidoscopic,
every 12 hours there's
a new cast of characters.
And I would go in there
and there might be
an octopus that's,
"How did I get here?"
Or it might be a crab
that cycles in and if
I try to pick it up
it's going to defend
its life to the death!
(growls).
And so tidal pools were
just this wonderful way of
discovering but then,
I just went deeper.
I started snorkeling and
then I started scuba diving
and I just kept going.
This is the albums my
mother made through my life
it just goes on and on and on.
There's my brother,
there I am, little hellion.
You know, everything,
all my report cards.
My brother who, was
smartest human being
I ever met in my life
Grade-A-plus-plus-plus,
that was who I
measured myself against.
Well, forget it.
I always had trouble reading.
It just took time to decode
words in my mind.
It was very frustrating.
So I knew that the only
way I could overcome
was to read twice as long.
I coped, I would just stay
up later, study harder.
They were out playing
and I was still studying.
But the pivotal moment was
20,000 Leagues
Under the Sea.
My hero was Captain Nemo but
it wasn't from sitting down
and reading Jules Vern's book.
No it's from, when
Disney came out
when I was 12 with the movie.
And there's a scene in that
movie where Kirk Douglass is
a harpoonist that's gonna kill
this monster that turns out
to be the Nautilus.
And he gets down into
Captain Nemo's quarters,
and he pushes a button
and the window opens
like the iris of a lens.
(makes sound)
And he's staring out
and he sees Captain Nemo
and his crew and they're
walking on the ocean floor.
And that was like,
the ocean has a bottom?
Because I'd always saw
this featureless horizon,
I'd always looked at
the ocean like this,
but I never thought about
that it has a bottom.
And there they were, they
were walking on the bottom.
And, you know, all
parents ask their kids,
what do you wanna
be when you grow up?
And I said, Captain Nemo.
MAN: Search the boats.
MAN 2: Aye sir, come with me.
ROBERT: Thank God
my parents didn't laugh,
they said, really?
Well tell me more
about Captain Nemo.
Maybe you wanna
go in the Navy,
maybe you wanna become
an oceanographer.
MAN (off-screen): Underwater.
ROBERT: My parents were very,
very good about helping me
transition a dream,
because that's your driving
engine, is your passion,
because when you
get knocked down,
and you will,
what gets you up?
Passion.
This is me as a dolphin
trainer and whale trainer
when I was in grad school.
I was on delay
to call from the Army.
We're all on our
own epic journey.
Mine is more easy to see cause
I'm physically moving around
so you see me on a journey.
But the journey begins with
the dream, with the passion.
Where for me I had
to go into science,
I had to do all these things.
Not because I wanted
to be a scientist,
but I wanted
to accomplish
my passion.
So you prepare yourself.
So this just goes all the
way through to the present.
I was an Army officer when
that knock on the door came.
You have six days from the
moment you open this envelope
to report for active duty.
You've got to be kidding,
I'm in grad school.
"Not according to this,
Ensign Ballard,
you're now not in the Army."
Really? "You're in the Navy."
Where am I going?
"To a place called the
Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution."
So I got in my little VW
that I drove across
the United States.
And at Woods Hole
there's a bridge,
a little draw bridge
and I'm walking across,
and I look over and
there's Alvin, and I went.
MAN (over TV): This is Alvin,
the first vehicle
of this kind ever built,
which will extend man's
first-hand knowledge
of the depths of the ocean.
ROBERT (off-screen): And
I went to Woods Hole;
it changed my life forever.
ROBERT (off-screen): You have
to understand where we are,
we're in the middle
of the Cold War.
Sputnik beat us into space,
you know it was catching up
and all of that.
So there was this, what's next?
What's the next frontier
and they said it was
gonna be the ocean.
So they began building
deep-diving submersibles.
MAN (over TV): Alvin provides
a dramatic new research tool
for the increasingly important
and vital field of oceanography.
ROBERT: My first dive
actually wasn't in Alvin.
My first dive was in
a cool submersible called
the Ben Franklin.
It could take five people
and you stayed underwater
for five days at a time.
And it had, each bunk had a
porthole, I mean, this is like,
you gotta be kidding,
this is the Nautilus.
When you enter my world,
it's totally dark.
Eternal darkness.
Most of the planet
has never felt
the warmth of the sun
and never will.
And you enter a volume
that is the ultimate space,
deep space, and I am very
comfortable down there.
A lot of people aren't,
but I'm very comfortable
in a space with no boundaries.
That window, I
looked out of it and,
now I was in my own
version of a Nautilus.
MAN: See how
peaceful it is here.
The sea is everything.
An immense reservoir of
nature where I roam at will.
ROBERT (off-screen):
That was a cool moment.
What I was able to do with
Alvin was to turn it into
a geologic jeep.
I'm a field geologist.
Most of geology's wet.
And when you study earth,
there isn't a wet
earth and a dry earth,
there's an earth and if
you're gonna study 72% of it,
you gotta study
the whole ball game.
WALTER (off-screen):
Project FAMOUS.
A joint French-American
investigation
of the Mid-Atlantic Rift Valley.
ROBERT (off-screen): I seem
to have been in the right place
at the right time
for a ton of things.
WALTER (over TV):
Robert Ballard, one
of the diving scientists
on the project explains
the plan for test-diving Alvin.
ROBERT: And then
incrementally dive deeper
until we finally attain
a new depth
for the titanium sphere,
which is 12,000 feet.
I entered this field of
geosciences during
the revolution of
plate tectonics,
which was really exciting.
You didn't wanna sleep,
you ran to class,
you were so excited
because they were just
throwing the books away.
WALTER (over TV):
Scientists hope to identify
the tectonic processes.
But there is much more data
that must be collected
and only the selective hand
and eye of man in a free-diving
craft can do this.
ROBERT (off-screen):
Plate tectonics, the idea
that the continents
moving around and
bump into each other,
had been presented
as a theory,
but no one had actually
gone down to the ocean floor
to see fresh lava coming
out as the plates separated.
We wanted to
prove it was true.
MAN (over radio):
Ready to dive.
Permission to dive.
ROBERT (over TV): So what we
want to do is to investigate
the spreading center to see
what processes are truly
fundamental to the Earth
in its formation or genesis
of oceanic crust.
OPERATOR (over radio):
Permission granted to dive.
Have a good one.
ROBERT: And it was
a grand success.
Fresh lava, coming up
out of the ocean floor
as the two plates moved apart.
ROBERT: The thing that
impressed me the most
was how terribly torn up
and fractured the
whole floor was.
ROBERT: I don't think any
of us expected it to be that,
so clearly defined.
And there it was.
Theory became law.
And that's when we threw
the geology book out.
LESLIE (over TV): But in 1977,
scientists were amazed
to discover in the Pacific
warm water springs or vents
with temperatures
up to 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
ROBERT (off-screen): Then
it was biology's turn.
LESLIE (over TV): And around
the vents a myriad of creatures
no one had ever seen before.
ROBERT (over TV): When I
came into that vent area
it was like going to Disneyland.
That's it! Wow!
Worms that were 13 feet tall
that when you cut them open
they bled human-like blood.
My God, look at that.
Isn't that fantastic?
Look at how many there are.
RICHARD: Clams, oh my gosh,
clams a foot across but when you
opened them up and dissect,
they had no internal organs,
they had no mouth,
no gut, no digestive,
they looked like a clam
but yet they had
no internal organs of a clam.
LESLIE (over TV): This
is not simply a discovery
of new creatures,
but rather a whole
new ecological system,
a system based on
chemosynthesis,
not photosynthesis.
CHRIS (over TV): Did you
realize how significant
that discovery was at the time?
ROBERT (over TV): Clearly
we knew we'd found
something very significant,
because we had never,
ever encountered anything
remotely similar to
what we had found.
But we didn't quite
realize the impact.
ROBERT: That
discovery completely
rewrote the biology book.
So we threw out another book.
LESLIE (over TV): Scientists
using Alvin have continued
to explore the
Mid-Oceanic Ridge.
ROBERT (off-screen):
But that was then followed
two years later
when we discovered
these giant chimneys.
We call them black smokers,
which was a big mistake,
they, wasn't smoke,
but it looked like it.
LESLIE (over TV): Copper,
zinc, iron, sulfur.
This is the first time
geologists have ever seen
how mineral deposits
are actually formed.
ROBERT: But what we
discovered was roughly
the entire volume of
the world's oceans
every six to eight million years
goes inside
the crust of the earth,
changes its chemistry
and comes back up.
So we were able to explain
why the ocean's chemistry
is what it is and we threw
out our chemistry book.
So in ten years, threw
out the geology book,
biology book and
chemistry book.
I mean it was just a
massive revolution going on
and uh pretty exciting times.
JANE (over TV): The gentleman
with us this morning is,
Dr. Robert Ballard.
He is a geologist with
the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution
and earlier this year,
he and other members
of his team found things
that had never before
been seen by human eyes.
What else is
underneath the seas
that is yet to be explored?
ROBERT (over TV): Well,
that's the point is that,
we're really
having, even today,
Lewis and Clark
type expeditions,
we seem to think
we know everything
and this is a vivid example
of how we don't.
JANE (over TV): Your colleague
on this trip.
ROBERT (over TV):
Fred Grassley.
JANE (over TV): Grassley
and Ballard instead of
Lewis and Clark.
ROBERT (over TV): Right.
JANE (over TV): Congratulations.
ROBERT (off-screen): I was
a Boy Scout, Cub Scout,
Explorer's Scout,
Army Officer,
Naval Officer,
so I was taught
to tell the truth.
And I must say the hardest
period of time for that ethos
was when I couldn't tell
the truth about the Titanic.
But finally and
thank goodness,
the Navy declassified
what I was really up to.
ROBERT: The Titanic
was really a cover
for a highly classified
military operation
to investigate two
nuclear submarines
that we lost during the Cold War
with all hands,
the USS Thresher
and the USS Scorpion.
They ironically turned
out to be on either side of
where the Titanic was lost.
And quite honestly, had
that not been the case,
you wouldn't be looking at
the guy that found the Titanic.
The Navy wanted complete
100% photo documentation
of both wreck sites and
to answer some questions.
What are the nuclear
reactors doing?
What's the status of
the nuclear weapons,
is there any evidence
Soviets have been there?
I said to both the Secretary
of the Navy, John Layman,
and Admiral Thunman who was
my boss as a Naval officer,
what if we use the
Titanic as the cover?
RONALD (off-screen):
I thought it was a
cockamamie story,
I mean, find the Titanic?
ROBERT (off-screen): And I
said, "Well it would be a great
cover wouldn't it."
Finally he said, thumbs up.
RONALD (off-screen): I told him:
do whatever you want,
just don't spend
any more money.
ROBERT (off-screen):
Boy did I work fast.
We pretty well knew what
happened to the Thresher.
We mapped her a year earlier.
But they knew very
little about the Scorpion.
It took me about week
to get there and map it.
We mapped it extensively
and there was no evidence
of human remains,
I mean, that would've been
tough, but no.
The reactors were intact
so that was good news.
RONALD (off-screen): There
were no other indications of
something amiss
other than the submarine had
gone down and it had imploded.
ROBERT (off-screen): As
soon as the Navy was satisfied
we headed northwest
for the Titanic.
I had 12 days to hunt.
But I had learned something
from the Thresher
and the Scorpion that I
couldn't tell anyone
because both submarines imploded
before they came to the bottom
so on their way down,
the pressure hulls went
and that implosive event
is a gigantic explosion.
And it just blew
the submarines apart.
But when I was mapping it,
we realized that the
heavy stuff went down
like a bowling ball,
reactors, boom,
but then the lighter stuff
was a big long line
and I went, "didn't the
Titanic do the same thing?"
So let's not look for
the big pieces of Titanic,
cause they're only that big;
let's look for the debris
which meant I could space my
search lines much wider apart.
MARTIN (over TV): But Titanic
did not lie where she was
thought to be.
Days of futile
search dragged on.
CHRIS (over TV): How close
were you to failure?
ROBERT (over TV): Well, I had.
I was reaching the point of
where I thought we'd failed
and I thought we
had, and I was going,
I went back to my room.
We had the watch going,
it was a mid-watch.
Everything happens on the
midnight watch, 12 to four.
I don't know why.
Everything important occurs
right around midnight.
MAN (over TV): Wreckage.
Bingo. Yeah!
WOMAN (over TV): Did we find it?
MAN 2 (over TV): Somebody
ought to go get Bob.
ROBERT (over TV): And I went in
and there it was.
I mean the boiler
was on the screen.
MAN 3 (over TV): Oh,
I love it. I love it!
ROBERT (over TV): I'll be
(bleep). The sucker exists!
Okay, does Cathy
got the champagne?
ROBERT (off-screen): We were
jumping up and down, we were
patting one another on the back,
and then someone looked at
the clock in the command center
and says,
"she sinks in 20 minutes."
it was two in the morning.
She sank at 2:20.
And that innocent
comment just grounded us.
And we realized, you
have finally put to rest
where these souls were lost
and everyone filed out
and it was a moment of silence
cause we were there.
And that was pretty,
pretty powerful.
PETER (over TV): This afternoon
I talked by ship-to-shore radio
with the chief scientist
on the Titanic expedition,
Dr. Robert Ballard.
What kind of condition
does the Titanic look in? Over.
ROBERT (over phone): It appears
to be in superb condition.
DAVID (over TV): How would
you describe the effects
on you personally
through this whole experience
over the years?
ROBERT (over phone): It's
a feeling of eeriness, uh,
it's a nice feeling though.
JOHNNY (over TV):
Would you welcome
please, Dr. Robert Ballard
ROBERT (off-screen): My
life changed after that.
I went from being a scientist
who no one ever recognized
to not being able to
go unnoticed again.
WILLARD (over TV): Bob Ballard
did something that people
have been trying
to do for 73 years,
and that's discover the
Titanic 's resting place.
You did it.
What a dramatic,
magnificent moment.
RICHARD (over tV): Summer, 1988.
A converted trawler named
Starella leaves Spain,
bound for the North Atlantic.
ROBERT: After we found the
Titanic, National Geographic
naturally said, let's
do another one of those.
So we went for the
Nazi Battleship Bismarck.
Certainly one of the
reasons for finding
the Bismarck was to take a
little edge off the Titanic.
When I did the Titanic, no
one believed I would find it.
Now, no one believes I
won't find the Bismarck.
And I don't, I think I
preferred when they
didn't think I would find it.
It should have
been up in here.
And I didn't find it.
I failed, I didn't find it.
And I said, I looked
straight at the lens,
just as I'm doing now,
and I said,
"Round one to the Bismarck."
I know where it isn't.
Give me another shot.
RICHARD (over TV): A year after
coming up empty-handed,
Ballard prepares
to renew his search aboard
the Star Hercules.
ROBERT: So, if you're in
charge of when the game ends,
you don't quit until you win.
RICHARD (over TV): For the
men who operate Argo,
like Ballard's son, Todd,
the long watch
is just beginning.
ROBERT (over TV): Come up
Todd, to 20 meters.
TODD (over TV): 20 meters.
ROBERT (over TV): Right there!
MAN (over TV): Gun decks, right
across the bridge.
ROBERT (over TV): That's it!
You got it.
ROBERT (off-screen): You just
have to have that stubborn
determination
to go the long run, don't quit.
Look at that baby!
We got it, huh!
It's in that crater.
That was an amazing
moment for me.
Because my son, Todd,
was able to go with me.
Not only the first one,
when we failed...
Just keep going.
Go on do systems check.
He was standing next to me,
when we didn't fail.
TODD (over TV): So, it was 100
meters further than what we,
wow I guess we would
have driven through.
ROBERT: And he went
with me to Geographic,
got a picture of it
right over there,
when we announced
our discovery,
and days later he was dead.
Died in a car accident
with his buddy,
taking a turn a little too
fast, hit a puddle of water,
and into a tree.
And my world came
to an end. Yeah.
INTERVIEWER (over TV):
What I'd like to ask you is,
how you feel now
about Todd's death?
ROBERT (over TV):
Well, you know.
It's awful to raise someone
a few weeks shy of
their 21st birthday.
It's very symbolic to
get close and not make it.
It's pretty tough.
ROBERT (off-screen): I was
changed, forever altered.
I didn't get to say goodbye.
Yeah, it, excuse me,
it uh...
I knew this was coming.
Yeah, it was a tough time.
A very, very tough time
to get up off the mat
and I must say I laid
there for a while.
DOUG: I was 18, and then
my brother passed away.
It was a gaping hole which
totally tore the family apart.
But for my dad,
what he had to go
through losing a kid.
Like, he was trying to heal
from losing his son,
he's trying to be a parent,
he's trying to figure
out his marriage,
you know, unfortunately my
parents did get divorced.
He would be soul-searching
and figuring out
what he's gonna do.
And he would try to
honor Todd in certain ways.
ROBERT (over TV):
You learn through sorrow.
And if anything,
it motivates me to work
twice as hard to do things
that he would have done.
ROBERT (off-screen): The fire
was out, and fortunately
I was able to reboot
the pilot light.
I was able to get back to sea.
And there's something
wonderful about the sea.
It's in charge and
it's very humbling
and you need to respect it
and understand it
and, roll with it and I
think I sought solace
in being at sea, yeah,
it was, I needed it.
And then, what really
helped me climb out was
something very
important to Todd,
and that was
the Jason Project.
HAL (over TV): Ballard's
been planning an underwater
adventure he hopes
will help revitalize
our traditional
approach to science.
And he wants
200,000 schoolchildren
to come with him on live TV
with the help
of a robot named Jason.
ROBERT (over TV): The Jason
Project meant a lot to Todd.
It's the Todds of the world
that the Jason Project
was designed to reach,
and it reached him.
TODD (over TV): I think the
Jason Project is great
because it gives a chance
for kids to see what
science is all about.
And I hope telepresence helps
and assist that process.
ROBERT (over TV): Here we
come folks, hahaha. Jaws.
Well, hello! Take a picture.
TODD (over TV): To watch
them see live footage
of the Mediterranean.
It's just riveting,
you can really,
you're breath-taken by it.
ROBERT (over TV): A lot
of action going on here,
we'll be coming back...
TODD (over TV): I'd
like to help him out someday,
if I could.
Like with the new
idea of telepresence,
I could see myself helping
him out, technologically.
ROBERT (over TV):
We could do it better.
The Jason Project really,
to me, means Todd.
MAN (over TV): Bob, standby.
We're coming out in 30 seconds.
DIRECTOR (over TV): Coming
up on the open, guys.
Let's knock 'em dead.
ROBERT (off-scree):
The Jason Project went
on for me for 15 years
of amazing adventures.
MAN (over TV): Five, four.
DIRECTOR (over TV): Three
to stand by, Bob, and go Bob,
standby to pull
back on camera one.
ROBERT (over TV):
Hello. I'm Bob Ballard.
Every year, we stopped
what we normally did
and we mounted an expedition
for children
from some exciting place in
the world and came to them.
You're looking at images
of our planet
that no one has
ever seen before.
Can you ask them
what A-5 means?
BARBARA: I met Bob when I was
working at National Geographic
on the Jason Project.
It was all about education,
science, children,
and the magic of Bob.
DIRECTOR (over TV): We
should take bets on if he
makes back or not.
BARBARA (off-screen):
I was captivated by it.
You know he brought
a lot of excitement
and energy and creativity.
So it just allows the kids to,
their minds expand a little bit
and they begin to understand
the possibilities
for themselves.
DIRECTOR (over TV): I go back to
Atlanta for a short sound bite
to come back for the Jason...
ROBERT (over TV): Uh oh!
Never mind. Science.
DIRECTOR (over TV): Here's what
Jason is looking at Bob.
ROBERT (over TV):
What we're going to do,
right now is we're gonna
go in an collect a sample
of some of these
living organisms.
GIRL (over TV): Hope
to see what Doctor Ballard
is expecting the see
'cause he didn't know what's
down there and neither do we
and when we both find it's
like we both discovered it.
ROBERT (over TV): We
wanted you to realize that
science and technology
can be a lot of fun
and prepare you for the future.
Goodbye!
Ah, I thought it was horrible.
(laughter)
(overlapping chatter).
ROBERT (off-screen):
The best way to instill
the thrill of exploration
is to take you along
and I really love
the fact that through
telepresence,
I'm trying to take people to
that world of total darkness.
It's so cool to go
looking for A and find B
and it's more interesting,
like a tubeworm that's
13 feet tall or a black smoker
that's belching
out like a factory,
or some piece of
human history.
The deep sea is the
largest museum on earth.
There's more history
in the deep sea than
all the museums of
the world combined.
So, I decided to go on a journey
that lasted about 25 years
where I wanted
to go back into time.
Alright, we're coming in
on the back of the bridge.
We found 14 warships
in Guadalcanal.
We explored the Lusitania.
There she is.
No doubt about it.
We went and
found the Yorktown.
We found President
Kennedy's PT-109.
Alright, we got it.
I focused in the Mediterranean
and the Black Sea
and the Aegean and we found
unbelievable numbers
of ancient shipwrecks.
MAN: That's it.
That's it. There we are.
WOMAN (off-screen): I
remember the first images
of this small forest,
it seemed like,
of wooden objects
rising up out of the sediment.
ROBERT (off-screen): Suddenly
coming out of the gloom,
we saw that mast of
that ancient shipwreck.
This mythical kind of ship
that we'd read about was
possible but no one
had ever found one.
Just mesmerized.
WOMAN (over radio): Beautiful.
MAN (over radio):
Ah, that looks beautiful.
ROBERT (off-screen):
When we're brushing off
the dust on these amphora,
it's like they were
made the day before.
I've been going to
sea now for 62 years,
something like that,
and during most of that
time I said, never own a ship.
It's a hole in the ocean in
which you pour outrageous
amounts of money.
You launching?
And then for some
reason I said,
what if I got my own ship?
Could I make this work?
and all of a sudden
I had the Nautilus.
I finally got
to be "Captain Nemo".
I named it the E-V Nautilus
exploration vessel.
EV Nautilus that was 2008,
and here we are 12 years later
and our program with
the Nautilus now is
like Jason on hormones.
Through Nautilus Live,
we broadcast 24-7 to people
around the world.
SCIENTIST (over computer):
Well, this definitely generates
some excitement.
We've got over 15 countries,
hundreds of viewers
tuning in right now,
watching this live with us.
It's pretty amazing.
ROBERT (off-screen): And we've
reached millions of kids I mean,
it's a massive number of people
participating in our expedition
to inspire them
and to lure them into taking
those courses they
normally wouldn't take.
OSCAR (over computer): Hello
everybody, my name is Oscar.
ROBERT (off-screen): I have
kids from the Jason Project
who work with me now
that have PhDs.
MAN (over radio): Well, I think
we'll keep moving up towards the
stern of Nautilus and then move
up to the base of the wall.
ROBERT (off-screen):
And we love to go where
no one has gone before
because we know we're
going to make discoveries,
we can't help but
make discoveries.
We were in the Gulf of Mexico,
I think we were
about 2,000 feet down,
exploring seeps and a
baby sperm whale showed up,
said hello.
SCIENTISTS (off-screen):
Oh, wow. Holy cow. Wow!
ROBERT (off-screen):
I didn't know "Wow" was
a scientific term,
but these scientists
with PhDs were,
"Wow, wow, wow, wow!"
SCIENTIST (off-screen): Zoom
out on her just a little bit.
SCIENTIST 2 (off-screen): Wow.
ROBERT: Go and watch the
octopus garden in the shade
when we came in on
these hundreds of
female octopus upside down,
nursing their eggs
in a deepwater seep
no one knew about.
SCIENTIST (off-screen):
That's really, really cool.
SCIENTIST 2 (off-screen):
Wow. This is great.
ROBERT (off-screen): Go
and look at our gulper eel.
SCIENTIST (off-screen):
That's a fish? What?
SCIENTIST 3 (off-screen): Wow.
SCIENTIST 2 (off-screen):
Looks like a ray.
ROBERT (off-screen): We didn't
know what we were looking at,
it looked like a basketball.
SCIENTIST (off-screen): Wow.
SCIENTIST 2 (off-screen): Wow.
SCIENTIST 3 (off-screen):
We really ticked him off.
SCIENTISTS (off-screen): Uh-oh.
ROBERT: And then we realized
it was an eel that had taken
its stomach outside
of its mouth.
SCIENTIST (off-screen):
It just got so big!
ROBERT (off-screen):
And then when it sees us
it puts itself back
together our very eyes.
(overlapping chatter).
ROBERT (off-screen): Swallows
its insides, rehinges its jaw,
I love it when it shook its
head, to rehinge its jaw.
SCIENTIST (off-screen):
That was awesome.
SCIENTIST 2 (off-screen):
That was awesome.
ROBERT (off-screen): And
swims away like a fish.
How can you not get excited
when you see people who aren't
supposed to get
excited lose it.
SCIENTIST (off-screen): What?
ROBERT (off-screen): And
they lose it every time.
SCIENTIST 2 (off-screen):
What have we found?
(laughter)
ROBERT (off-screen):
And you realize how
many of those moments
are waiting for us?
Countless.
And what's
wonderful about that...
Anyone can play in this game,
anyone can play in this game.
SCIENTIST (off-screen):
Oh, oh, oh, oh look.
We've got a little
octopus up in the column.
SCIENTIST 2 (off-screen): Ooh.
Oh my God is that the Dumbo?
ROBERT (off-screen): And
in fact with our telepresence
you can explore
from a wheelchair.
It doesn't matter
what your body can do.
SCIENTIST (off-screen):
Oh? Look at that.
ROBERT (off-screen): It's
what your mind can do.
SCIENTIST (off-screen):
Showing off. Hey you're
going to be famous.
ROBERT (off-screen): And
this is very exciting
because a lot of people
can now be a part of
the family of explorers,
no matter what.
SCIENTIST (off-screen): Aw man.
SCIENTIST 2 (off-screen):
Alright, we've only
another 30 seconds
or so, unfortunately.
ROBERT (off-screen): It's
clearly an adventurous life
that I live
but what's really
nice about it,
it's for a purpose.
It's not just bungee jumping
off a bridge or something,
it's an adventure
with a purpose.
SCIENTIST (off-screen):
Extraordinary.
ROBERT: Now, I see all
of these young people
full of the same adventure.
Can't get better than that.
SCIENTIST (off-screen): I've
gotta move along unfortunately.
Alright, Goodbye.
SCIENTIST 2 (off-screen):
Goodbye.
ROBERT: Alright guys,
I got your great-grandmother's
scrapbooks,
so this is your
great-grandfather, my father
who was a cowboy.
And this was my first beach
trip, Mom and the gang,
so this is the first time
I ever saw the ocean.
BARBARA (off-screen): There's
always a question mark
about what's your legacy,
and I think for Bob if
he can inspire great minds,
not just to follow
in his footsteps
but to explore their own dreams,
that would be a
lifelong ambition.
ROBERT (off-screen):
Ok, I gotta fess up.
My report card.
You guys ready for this?
"Bobby shows a very good
interest in school work.
He still must remember
not talk out of turn."
CARTER (off-screen):
Kinda like me.
ROBERT (off-screen):
Fairly recently in my life
I discovered I was dyslexic.
The word didn't exist
when I was born in 1942.
And it was only
fairly recently that I,
through my daughter, Emily,
discovered that I was dyslexic
and it's been a sobering
experience to look back.
I'm seeing myself
for the first time
I've ever seen myself.
EMILY (off-screen): We
both kind of took dyslexia
very differently,
I took it more as a,
"Oh, great, something's
wrong with me."
And my dad more took it as like,
"I finally understand
what's wrong with me!"
ROBERT (off-screen): The rules
that I had to follow were not
written by a dyslexic
and it wasn't fun,
and it was hard to
go by their rules.
You're always told you know,
"You're stupid."
You're not stupid, you,
you're actually pretty smart,
you just do things
differently.
And to see that now through
that lens is pretty cool.
I'm trying to let everyone
know that your wasting talent!
There are so many of us that
are playing by a different set
of rules and we're not taking
advantage of what they can do.
I want every kind of person,
I want the rainbow
of people we have
on this planet
to be on my team
because I know we
will have the best team if
we have everyone bring
each of their unique
characteristics to the game.
Wow, look at that!
BEN: I think my dad
is a living example of
"You never laugh at
your kid's dreams."
You should always encourage
them to pursue things even
when they seem out of reach
because he knows that that was
one of the most valuable
gifts his parents ever gave him,
and to pass that on
is a powerful thing.
And I love that about him
because he just wants
to inspire the same
passion that he's felt all
his life in others.
ROBERT: This is
what I was wearing when
I found the Titanic.
I don't know if I
can still fit in it.
You can smell Titanic,
so to speak, you can
smell the expedition.
I'm still tired of being the
person that found the Titanic.
I'd like to just sort of knock
it down into the noise level,
career-wise so that when
someone says,
"Well, who, what
did this guy do?"
They'll go, "Well he
did a lot of things."
HARRIETT (off-screen):
Honestly, I knew that
whatever Bob tried to do,
he would do.
He's done all these
scientific things.
And I am hoping that
they will remember him
for the scientist
that he really is.
ROBERT (off-screen): Hold
the shot. Zoom back, zoom back.
Lovely, lovely.
Here we go.
I think what we've done
is to show how much
more there is to do.
And that really the
potential for discoveries
are just numerous.
And I think that would be
tragic if my children thought
that all the discoveries
had been made
and they were just a
mop-up operation.
And, I will always argue
that there are countless
discoveries to be made
in every frontier
that you can pursue
and certainly
in the marine frontier.
I mean that's an
easy one, actually.
That's a guaranteed
new frontier.
Something here. What's this,
what's this, what's this?
Seek and ye shall find.
I know if you look, you'll find.
So start turning over rocks
like I did as a little kid,
you never know
what's underneath it.
We are all born curious,
every child is a scientist
with curiosity until their
experiences snuffs out
their pilot light.
And I'm hoping to
continue pouring fuel
on everyone's pilot light.
So it doesn't go out.
Just dream big.
MOORE (over TV): Will the real
Robert Ballard surface.
Dr. Ballard.
(Applause).
Captioned By
Cotter Media Group.
♪ ♪
ROBERT: I wasn't a
Titanic groupie, I mean,
I'd read about it
like everyone else,
I'd seen the movie,
A Night to Remember.
But I wasn't fixated.
And so I didn't even think
it would be a big deal.
ANNOUNCER (over TV):
This is World News Tonight
with Peter Jennings.
PETER (over TV):
Good evening there is no
more famous shipwreck
in the world,
and the discovery
of the Titanic in the Atlantic
off the coast of Canada
has been the dream
of countless deep-sea explorers.
BART (off-screen):
Scientists found the wreckage
of the ship said
to be unsinkable in the darkness
beneath 13,000 feet of water.
BILL (off-screen):
What we've seen this week
in the freezing depths
of the Atlantic
reminds us that
those legends of the great ship
Titanic were real.
ROBERT: I didn't expect
the world to go crazy.
JOHN (off-screen): From
the moment she passed through
Nantucket Sound
the Knorr was cheered home.
ROBERT (off-screen): I
can remember when we
came back and did the
press conference at Woods Hole
and then immediately went down
and did the big one at
National Geographic
and I had to do all these
interviews on all the, you know,
it was a feeding frenzy
as you can imagine.
JOHNNY: You must have
gasped when you saw that.
JUDY: Can this
ship ever be raised?
ROBERT: Fortunately not.
MARIA: Those safes could
be filled with jewels, money,
all kinds of things.
ROBERT: I finally got
home and the phone rings
and it's my mom.
She said something that
stuck with me my whole life.
HARRIETT: I really
said that he's done all
these scientific things,
but in the eyes of
the world I think he'll
be remembered for the
discovery of the Titanic.
ROBERT (off-screen):
She said, "Now they're
only gonna remember you
for that rusty ol' boat."
and I have to say,
moms are always right.
CHARLES (off-screen):
Explorer Robert Ballard
the man who found the Titanic.
TOM (off-screen): For the man
who found the Titanic,
undersea explorer,
Robert Ballard.
ELIZABETH (off-screen):
Robert Ballard who earlier
found the Titanic.
ROBERT: Titanic is sort of a
complex part of my life.
I am a part of
the Titanic forever now.
And I know my obituary's
already been written
regardless of what happens
from this day forward,
the guy who found
the Titanic died today,
end of story, stop.
Ok. You know, but I hope you'll
read a little deeper.
HARRIET (off-screen): I think
that many people do not realize
the scientific things
that Bob has done
because there hasn't been that
much you know coverage of it.
I'm hoping that they will
remember him for this
scientist that he really is.
GARRY: Now let's meet
our underwater explorer.
(applause)
CHAD (off-screen): What
is there to know about
Bob Ballard that people
already don't know?
ROBERT: Well, there's a lot
I have never told people.
MAN: My name
is Robert Ballard,
MAN 2: My name
is Robert Ballard,
ROBERT: My name
is Robert Ballard.
And I'm in the
process of fessing up.
♪ ♪
ROBERT (off-screen):
My archives, oh my God!
My life is documented
almost to the minute.
My grandmother had a saying
that everything had a place
and everything should be
in its place, she was German.
I was born where
all oceanographers...
I was born in Wichita, Kansas.
But I don't remember much
about it because I was born
six months after Pearl Harbor
and my father upped
and moved the family
to his relatives in California.
And so I grew up in
California and there bingo!
I saw this big blue
thing out there.
CHET: I took him and his
brother to the ocean one day
and they were just scared of
the waves coming in, you know.
And then that wave would
hit them and they'd jump
and go on until they got their
rear ends wet and then after
that they seemed to lose
the fear of the ocean.
ROBERT (off-screen): We lived
right near the ocean,
within a block of it and
I would go in a tidal pool
and it would change,
it was kaleidoscopic,
every 12 hours there's
a new cast of characters.
And I would go in there
and there might be
an octopus that's,
"How did I get here?"
Or it might be a crab
that cycles in and if
I try to pick it up
it's going to defend
its life to the death!
(growls).
And so tidal pools were
just this wonderful way of
discovering but then,
I just went deeper.
I started snorkeling and
then I started scuba diving
and I just kept going.
This is the albums my
mother made through my life
it just goes on and on and on.
There's my brother,
there I am, little hellion.
You know, everything,
all my report cards.
My brother who, was
smartest human being
I ever met in my life
Grade-A-plus-plus-plus,
that was who I
measured myself against.
Well, forget it.
I always had trouble reading.
It just took time to decode
words in my mind.
It was very frustrating.
So I knew that the only
way I could overcome
was to read twice as long.
I coped, I would just stay
up later, study harder.
They were out playing
and I was still studying.
But the pivotal moment was
20,000 Leagues
Under the Sea.
My hero was Captain Nemo but
it wasn't from sitting down
and reading Jules Vern's book.
No it's from, when
Disney came out
when I was 12 with the movie.
And there's a scene in that
movie where Kirk Douglass is
a harpoonist that's gonna kill
this monster that turns out
to be the Nautilus.
And he gets down into
Captain Nemo's quarters,
and he pushes a button
and the window opens
like the iris of a lens.
(makes sound)
And he's staring out
and he sees Captain Nemo
and his crew and they're
walking on the ocean floor.
And that was like,
the ocean has a bottom?
Because I'd always saw
this featureless horizon,
I'd always looked at
the ocean like this,
but I never thought about
that it has a bottom.
And there they were, they
were walking on the bottom.
And, you know, all
parents ask their kids,
what do you wanna
be when you grow up?
And I said, Captain Nemo.
MAN: Search the boats.
MAN 2: Aye sir, come with me.
ROBERT: Thank God
my parents didn't laugh,
they said, really?
Well tell me more
about Captain Nemo.
Maybe you wanna
go in the Navy,
maybe you wanna become
an oceanographer.
MAN (off-screen): Underwater.
ROBERT: My parents were very,
very good about helping me
transition a dream,
because that's your driving
engine, is your passion,
because when you
get knocked down,
and you will,
what gets you up?
Passion.
This is me as a dolphin
trainer and whale trainer
when I was in grad school.
I was on delay
to call from the Army.
We're all on our
own epic journey.
Mine is more easy to see cause
I'm physically moving around
so you see me on a journey.
But the journey begins with
the dream, with the passion.
Where for me I had
to go into science,
I had to do all these things.
Not because I wanted
to be a scientist,
but I wanted
to accomplish
my passion.
So you prepare yourself.
So this just goes all the
way through to the present.
I was an Army officer when
that knock on the door came.
You have six days from the
moment you open this envelope
to report for active duty.
You've got to be kidding,
I'm in grad school.
"Not according to this,
Ensign Ballard,
you're now not in the Army."
Really? "You're in the Navy."
Where am I going?
"To a place called the
Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution."
So I got in my little VW
that I drove across
the United States.
And at Woods Hole
there's a bridge,
a little draw bridge
and I'm walking across,
and I look over and
there's Alvin, and I went.
MAN (over TV): This is Alvin,
the first vehicle
of this kind ever built,
which will extend man's
first-hand knowledge
of the depths of the ocean.
ROBERT (off-screen): And
I went to Woods Hole;
it changed my life forever.
ROBERT (off-screen): You have
to understand where we are,
we're in the middle
of the Cold War.
Sputnik beat us into space,
you know it was catching up
and all of that.
So there was this, what's next?
What's the next frontier
and they said it was
gonna be the ocean.
So they began building
deep-diving submersibles.
MAN (over TV): Alvin provides
a dramatic new research tool
for the increasingly important
and vital field of oceanography.
ROBERT: My first dive
actually wasn't in Alvin.
My first dive was in
a cool submersible called
the Ben Franklin.
It could take five people
and you stayed underwater
for five days at a time.
And it had, each bunk had a
porthole, I mean, this is like,
you gotta be kidding,
this is the Nautilus.
When you enter my world,
it's totally dark.
Eternal darkness.
Most of the planet
has never felt
the warmth of the sun
and never will.
And you enter a volume
that is the ultimate space,
deep space, and I am very
comfortable down there.
A lot of people aren't,
but I'm very comfortable
in a space with no boundaries.
That window, I
looked out of it and,
now I was in my own
version of a Nautilus.
MAN: See how
peaceful it is here.
The sea is everything.
An immense reservoir of
nature where I roam at will.
ROBERT (off-screen):
That was a cool moment.
What I was able to do with
Alvin was to turn it into
a geologic jeep.
I'm a field geologist.
Most of geology's wet.
And when you study earth,
there isn't a wet
earth and a dry earth,
there's an earth and if
you're gonna study 72% of it,
you gotta study
the whole ball game.
WALTER (off-screen):
Project FAMOUS.
A joint French-American
investigation
of the Mid-Atlantic Rift Valley.
ROBERT (off-screen): I seem
to have been in the right place
at the right time
for a ton of things.
WALTER (over TV):
Robert Ballard, one
of the diving scientists
on the project explains
the plan for test-diving Alvin.
ROBERT: And then
incrementally dive deeper
until we finally attain
a new depth
for the titanium sphere,
which is 12,000 feet.
I entered this field of
geosciences during
the revolution of
plate tectonics,
which was really exciting.
You didn't wanna sleep,
you ran to class,
you were so excited
because they were just
throwing the books away.
WALTER (over TV):
Scientists hope to identify
the tectonic processes.
But there is much more data
that must be collected
and only the selective hand
and eye of man in a free-diving
craft can do this.
ROBERT (off-screen):
Plate tectonics, the idea
that the continents
moving around and
bump into each other,
had been presented
as a theory,
but no one had actually
gone down to the ocean floor
to see fresh lava coming
out as the plates separated.
We wanted to
prove it was true.
MAN (over radio):
Ready to dive.
Permission to dive.
ROBERT (over TV): So what we
want to do is to investigate
the spreading center to see
what processes are truly
fundamental to the Earth
in its formation or genesis
of oceanic crust.
OPERATOR (over radio):
Permission granted to dive.
Have a good one.
ROBERT: And it was
a grand success.
Fresh lava, coming up
out of the ocean floor
as the two plates moved apart.
ROBERT: The thing that
impressed me the most
was how terribly torn up
and fractured the
whole floor was.
ROBERT: I don't think any
of us expected it to be that,
so clearly defined.
And there it was.
Theory became law.
And that's when we threw
the geology book out.
LESLIE (over TV): But in 1977,
scientists were amazed
to discover in the Pacific
warm water springs or vents
with temperatures
up to 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
ROBERT (off-screen): Then
it was biology's turn.
LESLIE (over TV): And around
the vents a myriad of creatures
no one had ever seen before.
ROBERT (over TV): When I
came into that vent area
it was like going to Disneyland.
That's it! Wow!
Worms that were 13 feet tall
that when you cut them open
they bled human-like blood.
My God, look at that.
Isn't that fantastic?
Look at how many there are.
RICHARD: Clams, oh my gosh,
clams a foot across but when you
opened them up and dissect,
they had no internal organs,
they had no mouth,
no gut, no digestive,
they looked like a clam
but yet they had
no internal organs of a clam.
LESLIE (over TV): This
is not simply a discovery
of new creatures,
but rather a whole
new ecological system,
a system based on
chemosynthesis,
not photosynthesis.
CHRIS (over TV): Did you
realize how significant
that discovery was at the time?
ROBERT (over TV): Clearly
we knew we'd found
something very significant,
because we had never,
ever encountered anything
remotely similar to
what we had found.
But we didn't quite
realize the impact.
ROBERT: That
discovery completely
rewrote the biology book.
So we threw out another book.
LESLIE (over TV): Scientists
using Alvin have continued
to explore the
Mid-Oceanic Ridge.
ROBERT (off-screen):
But that was then followed
two years later
when we discovered
these giant chimneys.
We call them black smokers,
which was a big mistake,
they, wasn't smoke,
but it looked like it.
LESLIE (over TV): Copper,
zinc, iron, sulfur.
This is the first time
geologists have ever seen
how mineral deposits
are actually formed.
ROBERT: But what we
discovered was roughly
the entire volume of
the world's oceans
every six to eight million years
goes inside
the crust of the earth,
changes its chemistry
and comes back up.
So we were able to explain
why the ocean's chemistry
is what it is and we threw
out our chemistry book.
So in ten years, threw
out the geology book,
biology book and
chemistry book.
I mean it was just a
massive revolution going on
and uh pretty exciting times.
JANE (over TV): The gentleman
with us this morning is,
Dr. Robert Ballard.
He is a geologist with
the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution
and earlier this year,
he and other members
of his team found things
that had never before
been seen by human eyes.
What else is
underneath the seas
that is yet to be explored?
ROBERT (over TV): Well,
that's the point is that,
we're really
having, even today,
Lewis and Clark
type expeditions,
we seem to think
we know everything
and this is a vivid example
of how we don't.
JANE (over TV): Your colleague
on this trip.
ROBERT (over TV):
Fred Grassley.
JANE (over TV): Grassley
and Ballard instead of
Lewis and Clark.
ROBERT (over TV): Right.
JANE (over TV): Congratulations.
ROBERT (off-screen): I was
a Boy Scout, Cub Scout,
Explorer's Scout,
Army Officer,
Naval Officer,
so I was taught
to tell the truth.
And I must say the hardest
period of time for that ethos
was when I couldn't tell
the truth about the Titanic.
But finally and
thank goodness,
the Navy declassified
what I was really up to.
ROBERT: The Titanic
was really a cover
for a highly classified
military operation
to investigate two
nuclear submarines
that we lost during the Cold War
with all hands,
the USS Thresher
and the USS Scorpion.
They ironically turned
out to be on either side of
where the Titanic was lost.
And quite honestly, had
that not been the case,
you wouldn't be looking at
the guy that found the Titanic.
The Navy wanted complete
100% photo documentation
of both wreck sites and
to answer some questions.
What are the nuclear
reactors doing?
What's the status of
the nuclear weapons,
is there any evidence
Soviets have been there?
I said to both the Secretary
of the Navy, John Layman,
and Admiral Thunman who was
my boss as a Naval officer,
what if we use the
Titanic as the cover?
RONALD (off-screen):
I thought it was a
cockamamie story,
I mean, find the Titanic?
ROBERT (off-screen): And I
said, "Well it would be a great
cover wouldn't it."
Finally he said, thumbs up.
RONALD (off-screen): I told him:
do whatever you want,
just don't spend
any more money.
ROBERT (off-screen):
Boy did I work fast.
We pretty well knew what
happened to the Thresher.
We mapped her a year earlier.
But they knew very
little about the Scorpion.
It took me about week
to get there and map it.
We mapped it extensively
and there was no evidence
of human remains,
I mean, that would've been
tough, but no.
The reactors were intact
so that was good news.
RONALD (off-screen): There
were no other indications of
something amiss
other than the submarine had
gone down and it had imploded.
ROBERT (off-screen): As
soon as the Navy was satisfied
we headed northwest
for the Titanic.
I had 12 days to hunt.
But I had learned something
from the Thresher
and the Scorpion that I
couldn't tell anyone
because both submarines imploded
before they came to the bottom
so on their way down,
the pressure hulls went
and that implosive event
is a gigantic explosion.
And it just blew
the submarines apart.
But when I was mapping it,
we realized that the
heavy stuff went down
like a bowling ball,
reactors, boom,
but then the lighter stuff
was a big long line
and I went, "didn't the
Titanic do the same thing?"
So let's not look for
the big pieces of Titanic,
cause they're only that big;
let's look for the debris
which meant I could space my
search lines much wider apart.
MARTIN (over TV): But Titanic
did not lie where she was
thought to be.
Days of futile
search dragged on.
CHRIS (over TV): How close
were you to failure?
ROBERT (over TV): Well, I had.
I was reaching the point of
where I thought we'd failed
and I thought we
had, and I was going,
I went back to my room.
We had the watch going,
it was a mid-watch.
Everything happens on the
midnight watch, 12 to four.
I don't know why.
Everything important occurs
right around midnight.
MAN (over TV): Wreckage.
Bingo. Yeah!
WOMAN (over TV): Did we find it?
MAN 2 (over TV): Somebody
ought to go get Bob.
ROBERT (over TV): And I went in
and there it was.
I mean the boiler
was on the screen.
MAN 3 (over TV): Oh,
I love it. I love it!
ROBERT (over TV): I'll be
(bleep). The sucker exists!
Okay, does Cathy
got the champagne?
ROBERT (off-screen): We were
jumping up and down, we were
patting one another on the back,
and then someone looked at
the clock in the command center
and says,
"she sinks in 20 minutes."
it was two in the morning.
She sank at 2:20.
And that innocent
comment just grounded us.
And we realized, you
have finally put to rest
where these souls were lost
and everyone filed out
and it was a moment of silence
cause we were there.
And that was pretty,
pretty powerful.
PETER (over TV): This afternoon
I talked by ship-to-shore radio
with the chief scientist
on the Titanic expedition,
Dr. Robert Ballard.
What kind of condition
does the Titanic look in? Over.
ROBERT (over phone): It appears
to be in superb condition.
DAVID (over TV): How would
you describe the effects
on you personally
through this whole experience
over the years?
ROBERT (over phone): It's
a feeling of eeriness, uh,
it's a nice feeling though.
JOHNNY (over TV):
Would you welcome
please, Dr. Robert Ballard
ROBERT (off-screen): My
life changed after that.
I went from being a scientist
who no one ever recognized
to not being able to
go unnoticed again.
WILLARD (over TV): Bob Ballard
did something that people
have been trying
to do for 73 years,
and that's discover the
Titanic 's resting place.
You did it.
What a dramatic,
magnificent moment.
RICHARD (over tV): Summer, 1988.
A converted trawler named
Starella leaves Spain,
bound for the North Atlantic.
ROBERT: After we found the
Titanic, National Geographic
naturally said, let's
do another one of those.
So we went for the
Nazi Battleship Bismarck.
Certainly one of the
reasons for finding
the Bismarck was to take a
little edge off the Titanic.
When I did the Titanic, no
one believed I would find it.
Now, no one believes I
won't find the Bismarck.
And I don't, I think I
preferred when they
didn't think I would find it.
It should have
been up in here.
And I didn't find it.
I failed, I didn't find it.
And I said, I looked
straight at the lens,
just as I'm doing now,
and I said,
"Round one to the Bismarck."
I know where it isn't.
Give me another shot.
RICHARD (over TV): A year after
coming up empty-handed,
Ballard prepares
to renew his search aboard
the Star Hercules.
ROBERT: So, if you're in
charge of when the game ends,
you don't quit until you win.
RICHARD (over TV): For the
men who operate Argo,
like Ballard's son, Todd,
the long watch
is just beginning.
ROBERT (over TV): Come up
Todd, to 20 meters.
TODD (over TV): 20 meters.
ROBERT (over TV): Right there!
MAN (over TV): Gun decks, right
across the bridge.
ROBERT (over TV): That's it!
You got it.
ROBERT (off-screen): You just
have to have that stubborn
determination
to go the long run, don't quit.
Look at that baby!
We got it, huh!
It's in that crater.
That was an amazing
moment for me.
Because my son, Todd,
was able to go with me.
Not only the first one,
when we failed...
Just keep going.
Go on do systems check.
He was standing next to me,
when we didn't fail.
TODD (over TV): So, it was 100
meters further than what we,
wow I guess we would
have driven through.
ROBERT: And he went
with me to Geographic,
got a picture of it
right over there,
when we announced
our discovery,
and days later he was dead.
Died in a car accident
with his buddy,
taking a turn a little too
fast, hit a puddle of water,
and into a tree.
And my world came
to an end. Yeah.
INTERVIEWER (over TV):
What I'd like to ask you is,
how you feel now
about Todd's death?
ROBERT (over TV):
Well, you know.
It's awful to raise someone
a few weeks shy of
their 21st birthday.
It's very symbolic to
get close and not make it.
It's pretty tough.
ROBERT (off-screen): I was
changed, forever altered.
I didn't get to say goodbye.
Yeah, it, excuse me,
it uh...
I knew this was coming.
Yeah, it was a tough time.
A very, very tough time
to get up off the mat
and I must say I laid
there for a while.
DOUG: I was 18, and then
my brother passed away.
It was a gaping hole which
totally tore the family apart.
But for my dad,
what he had to go
through losing a kid.
Like, he was trying to heal
from losing his son,
he's trying to be a parent,
he's trying to figure
out his marriage,
you know, unfortunately my
parents did get divorced.
He would be soul-searching
and figuring out
what he's gonna do.
And he would try to
honor Todd in certain ways.
ROBERT (over TV):
You learn through sorrow.
And if anything,
it motivates me to work
twice as hard to do things
that he would have done.
ROBERT (off-screen): The fire
was out, and fortunately
I was able to reboot
the pilot light.
I was able to get back to sea.
And there's something
wonderful about the sea.
It's in charge and
it's very humbling
and you need to respect it
and understand it
and, roll with it and I
think I sought solace
in being at sea, yeah,
it was, I needed it.
And then, what really
helped me climb out was
something very
important to Todd,
and that was
the Jason Project.
HAL (over TV): Ballard's
been planning an underwater
adventure he hopes
will help revitalize
our traditional
approach to science.
And he wants
200,000 schoolchildren
to come with him on live TV
with the help
of a robot named Jason.
ROBERT (over TV): The Jason
Project meant a lot to Todd.
It's the Todds of the world
that the Jason Project
was designed to reach,
and it reached him.
TODD (over TV): I think the
Jason Project is great
because it gives a chance
for kids to see what
science is all about.
And I hope telepresence helps
and assist that process.
ROBERT (over TV): Here we
come folks, hahaha. Jaws.
Well, hello! Take a picture.
TODD (over TV): To watch
them see live footage
of the Mediterranean.
It's just riveting,
you can really,
you're breath-taken by it.
ROBERT (over TV): A lot
of action going on here,
we'll be coming back...
TODD (over TV): I'd
like to help him out someday,
if I could.
Like with the new
idea of telepresence,
I could see myself helping
him out, technologically.
ROBERT (over TV):
We could do it better.
The Jason Project really,
to me, means Todd.
MAN (over TV): Bob, standby.
We're coming out in 30 seconds.
DIRECTOR (over TV): Coming
up on the open, guys.
Let's knock 'em dead.
ROBERT (off-scree):
The Jason Project went
on for me for 15 years
of amazing adventures.
MAN (over TV): Five, four.
DIRECTOR (over TV): Three
to stand by, Bob, and go Bob,
standby to pull
back on camera one.
ROBERT (over TV):
Hello. I'm Bob Ballard.
Every year, we stopped
what we normally did
and we mounted an expedition
for children
from some exciting place in
the world and came to them.
You're looking at images
of our planet
that no one has
ever seen before.
Can you ask them
what A-5 means?
BARBARA: I met Bob when I was
working at National Geographic
on the Jason Project.
It was all about education,
science, children,
and the magic of Bob.
DIRECTOR (over TV): We
should take bets on if he
makes back or not.
BARBARA (off-screen):
I was captivated by it.
You know he brought
a lot of excitement
and energy and creativity.
So it just allows the kids to,
their minds expand a little bit
and they begin to understand
the possibilities
for themselves.
DIRECTOR (over TV): I go back to
Atlanta for a short sound bite
to come back for the Jason...
ROBERT (over TV): Uh oh!
Never mind. Science.
DIRECTOR (over TV): Here's what
Jason is looking at Bob.
ROBERT (over TV):
What we're going to do,
right now is we're gonna
go in an collect a sample
of some of these
living organisms.
GIRL (over TV): Hope
to see what Doctor Ballard
is expecting the see
'cause he didn't know what's
down there and neither do we
and when we both find it's
like we both discovered it.
ROBERT (over TV): We
wanted you to realize that
science and technology
can be a lot of fun
and prepare you for the future.
Goodbye!
Ah, I thought it was horrible.
(laughter)
(overlapping chatter).
ROBERT (off-screen):
The best way to instill
the thrill of exploration
is to take you along
and I really love
the fact that through
telepresence,
I'm trying to take people to
that world of total darkness.
It's so cool to go
looking for A and find B
and it's more interesting,
like a tubeworm that's
13 feet tall or a black smoker
that's belching
out like a factory,
or some piece of
human history.
The deep sea is the
largest museum on earth.
There's more history
in the deep sea than
all the museums of
the world combined.
So, I decided to go on a journey
that lasted about 25 years
where I wanted
to go back into time.
Alright, we're coming in
on the back of the bridge.
We found 14 warships
in Guadalcanal.
We explored the Lusitania.
There she is.
No doubt about it.
We went and
found the Yorktown.
We found President
Kennedy's PT-109.
Alright, we got it.
I focused in the Mediterranean
and the Black Sea
and the Aegean and we found
unbelievable numbers
of ancient shipwrecks.
MAN: That's it.
That's it. There we are.
WOMAN (off-screen): I
remember the first images
of this small forest,
it seemed like,
of wooden objects
rising up out of the sediment.
ROBERT (off-screen): Suddenly
coming out of the gloom,
we saw that mast of
that ancient shipwreck.
This mythical kind of ship
that we'd read about was
possible but no one
had ever found one.
Just mesmerized.
WOMAN (over radio): Beautiful.
MAN (over radio):
Ah, that looks beautiful.
ROBERT (off-screen):
When we're brushing off
the dust on these amphora,
it's like they were
made the day before.
I've been going to
sea now for 62 years,
something like that,
and during most of that
time I said, never own a ship.
It's a hole in the ocean in
which you pour outrageous
amounts of money.
You launching?
And then for some
reason I said,
what if I got my own ship?
Could I make this work?
and all of a sudden
I had the Nautilus.
I finally got
to be "Captain Nemo".
I named it the E-V Nautilus
exploration vessel.
EV Nautilus that was 2008,
and here we are 12 years later
and our program with
the Nautilus now is
like Jason on hormones.
Through Nautilus Live,
we broadcast 24-7 to people
around the world.
SCIENTIST (over computer):
Well, this definitely generates
some excitement.
We've got over 15 countries,
hundreds of viewers
tuning in right now,
watching this live with us.
It's pretty amazing.
ROBERT (off-screen): And we've
reached millions of kids I mean,
it's a massive number of people
participating in our expedition
to inspire them
and to lure them into taking
those courses they
normally wouldn't take.
OSCAR (over computer): Hello
everybody, my name is Oscar.
ROBERT (off-screen): I have
kids from the Jason Project
who work with me now
that have PhDs.
MAN (over radio): Well, I think
we'll keep moving up towards the
stern of Nautilus and then move
up to the base of the wall.
ROBERT (off-screen):
And we love to go where
no one has gone before
because we know we're
going to make discoveries,
we can't help but
make discoveries.
We were in the Gulf of Mexico,
I think we were
about 2,000 feet down,
exploring seeps and a
baby sperm whale showed up,
said hello.
SCIENTISTS (off-screen):
Oh, wow. Holy cow. Wow!
ROBERT (off-screen):
I didn't know "Wow" was
a scientific term,
but these scientists
with PhDs were,
"Wow, wow, wow, wow!"
SCIENTIST (off-screen): Zoom
out on her just a little bit.
SCIENTIST 2 (off-screen): Wow.
ROBERT: Go and watch the
octopus garden in the shade
when we came in on
these hundreds of
female octopus upside down,
nursing their eggs
in a deepwater seep
no one knew about.
SCIENTIST (off-screen):
That's really, really cool.
SCIENTIST 2 (off-screen):
Wow. This is great.
ROBERT (off-screen): Go
and look at our gulper eel.
SCIENTIST (off-screen):
That's a fish? What?
SCIENTIST 3 (off-screen): Wow.
SCIENTIST 2 (off-screen):
Looks like a ray.
ROBERT (off-screen): We didn't
know what we were looking at,
it looked like a basketball.
SCIENTIST (off-screen): Wow.
SCIENTIST 2 (off-screen): Wow.
SCIENTIST 3 (off-screen):
We really ticked him off.
SCIENTISTS (off-screen): Uh-oh.
ROBERT: And then we realized
it was an eel that had taken
its stomach outside
of its mouth.
SCIENTIST (off-screen):
It just got so big!
ROBERT (off-screen):
And then when it sees us
it puts itself back
together our very eyes.
(overlapping chatter).
ROBERT (off-screen): Swallows
its insides, rehinges its jaw,
I love it when it shook its
head, to rehinge its jaw.
SCIENTIST (off-screen):
That was awesome.
SCIENTIST 2 (off-screen):
That was awesome.
ROBERT (off-screen): And
swims away like a fish.
How can you not get excited
when you see people who aren't
supposed to get
excited lose it.
SCIENTIST (off-screen): What?
ROBERT (off-screen): And
they lose it every time.
SCIENTIST 2 (off-screen):
What have we found?
(laughter)
ROBERT (off-screen):
And you realize how
many of those moments
are waiting for us?
Countless.
And what's
wonderful about that...
Anyone can play in this game,
anyone can play in this game.
SCIENTIST (off-screen):
Oh, oh, oh, oh look.
We've got a little
octopus up in the column.
SCIENTIST 2 (off-screen): Ooh.
Oh my God is that the Dumbo?
ROBERT (off-screen): And
in fact with our telepresence
you can explore
from a wheelchair.
It doesn't matter
what your body can do.
SCIENTIST (off-screen):
Oh? Look at that.
ROBERT (off-screen): It's
what your mind can do.
SCIENTIST (off-screen):
Showing off. Hey you're
going to be famous.
ROBERT (off-screen): And
this is very exciting
because a lot of people
can now be a part of
the family of explorers,
no matter what.
SCIENTIST (off-screen): Aw man.
SCIENTIST 2 (off-screen):
Alright, we've only
another 30 seconds
or so, unfortunately.
ROBERT (off-screen): It's
clearly an adventurous life
that I live
but what's really
nice about it,
it's for a purpose.
It's not just bungee jumping
off a bridge or something,
it's an adventure
with a purpose.
SCIENTIST (off-screen):
Extraordinary.
ROBERT: Now, I see all
of these young people
full of the same adventure.
Can't get better than that.
SCIENTIST (off-screen): I've
gotta move along unfortunately.
Alright, Goodbye.
SCIENTIST 2 (off-screen):
Goodbye.
ROBERT: Alright guys,
I got your great-grandmother's
scrapbooks,
so this is your
great-grandfather, my father
who was a cowboy.
And this was my first beach
trip, Mom and the gang,
so this is the first time
I ever saw the ocean.
BARBARA (off-screen): There's
always a question mark
about what's your legacy,
and I think for Bob if
he can inspire great minds,
not just to follow
in his footsteps
but to explore their own dreams,
that would be a
lifelong ambition.
ROBERT (off-screen):
Ok, I gotta fess up.
My report card.
You guys ready for this?
"Bobby shows a very good
interest in school work.
He still must remember
not talk out of turn."
CARTER (off-screen):
Kinda like me.
ROBERT (off-screen):
Fairly recently in my life
I discovered I was dyslexic.
The word didn't exist
when I was born in 1942.
And it was only
fairly recently that I,
through my daughter, Emily,
discovered that I was dyslexic
and it's been a sobering
experience to look back.
I'm seeing myself
for the first time
I've ever seen myself.
EMILY (off-screen): We
both kind of took dyslexia
very differently,
I took it more as a,
"Oh, great, something's
wrong with me."
And my dad more took it as like,
"I finally understand
what's wrong with me!"
ROBERT (off-screen): The rules
that I had to follow were not
written by a dyslexic
and it wasn't fun,
and it was hard to
go by their rules.
You're always told you know,
"You're stupid."
You're not stupid, you,
you're actually pretty smart,
you just do things
differently.
And to see that now through
that lens is pretty cool.
I'm trying to let everyone
know that your wasting talent!
There are so many of us that
are playing by a different set
of rules and we're not taking
advantage of what they can do.
I want every kind of person,
I want the rainbow
of people we have
on this planet
to be on my team
because I know we
will have the best team if
we have everyone bring
each of their unique
characteristics to the game.
Wow, look at that!
BEN: I think my dad
is a living example of
"You never laugh at
your kid's dreams."
You should always encourage
them to pursue things even
when they seem out of reach
because he knows that that was
one of the most valuable
gifts his parents ever gave him,
and to pass that on
is a powerful thing.
And I love that about him
because he just wants
to inspire the same
passion that he's felt all
his life in others.
ROBERT: This is
what I was wearing when
I found the Titanic.
I don't know if I
can still fit in it.
You can smell Titanic,
so to speak, you can
smell the expedition.
I'm still tired of being the
person that found the Titanic.
I'd like to just sort of knock
it down into the noise level,
career-wise so that when
someone says,
"Well, who, what
did this guy do?"
They'll go, "Well he
did a lot of things."
HARRIETT (off-screen):
Honestly, I knew that
whatever Bob tried to do,
he would do.
He's done all these
scientific things.
And I am hoping that
they will remember him
for the scientist
that he really is.
ROBERT (off-screen): Hold
the shot. Zoom back, zoom back.
Lovely, lovely.
Here we go.
I think what we've done
is to show how much
more there is to do.
And that really the
potential for discoveries
are just numerous.
And I think that would be
tragic if my children thought
that all the discoveries
had been made
and they were just a
mop-up operation.
And, I will always argue
that there are countless
discoveries to be made
in every frontier
that you can pursue
and certainly
in the marine frontier.
I mean that's an
easy one, actually.
That's a guaranteed
new frontier.
Something here. What's this,
what's this, what's this?
Seek and ye shall find.
I know if you look, you'll find.
So start turning over rocks
like I did as a little kid,
you never know
what's underneath it.
We are all born curious,
every child is a scientist
with curiosity until their
experiences snuffs out
their pilot light.
And I'm hoping to
continue pouring fuel
on everyone's pilot light.
So it doesn't go out.
Just dream big.
MOORE (over TV): Will the real
Robert Ballard surface.
Dr. Ballard.
(Applause).
Captioned By
Cotter Media Group.