This story is the ultimate tragedy and could have been avoided. Since the sinking, historians have been asking various what ifs: What if the ship had enough lifeboats? What if Captain Smith and the wireless operators had obeyed iceberg warnings? What if the ship had not tried to steer away from the ice (Ramming the berg head on would have only folded one or two compartments)? And what if other ships had gotten there in time to rescue passengers (The Californian was only about ten or twenty miles away)? The sinking of the Titanic also brought an end to what Mark Twain called "The Gilded Age". Before the Titanic's voyage, the focus was on larger, faster and higher. Man believed that it could do anything, including conquering the sea with an unsinkable ship. This disaster, however, was a reality check. People were never again as confident in technology and began focusing more on safety than speed, size and luxury.

This video documentary was made in 1986, a year after Dr. Robert Ballard and his Woods Hole Institute found the ship, and follows their subsequent expedition of the wreck. The footage is not as spectacular as say the IMAX-quality footage found in "Titanica" or on some Discovery and History Channel specials, but this was back when the wreck was first being explored. The major goal was to examine and map out the site. Then, after the footage and results were examined, they would come back to get some pretty pictures. This also shows how far we have advanced in the field of underwater research. And that shot of the ship's bow coming out of the darkness still gets me every time.

Ballard hopes at the end of the video that the world would treat the site with respect. Sadly, the events that have occurred since the discovery of this wreck have been far different. Instead of respecting the wreck and increasing our knowledge of the tragedy and of the people aboard, savalgers have scavenged it. Thousands of items have been raised and placed on exhibit at museums. The people who do this claim that it is to protect these items from decaying, but this is unnecessary. It is very much like going to a graveyard, prying open the coffins and stealing the clothing and other possessions of the dead. We already know about the time period and about life back then. Raising artifacts won't help archeologically and they won't add to the context. If anything, every artifact recovered takes away from the context.

I am also glad that many more people are now aware of the Titanic's story and the tragedy. But when did many learn this? After seeing the 1997 movie, of course. While I admit that James Cameron's film is very accurate to the history and events of that night (At least according to historians) and is very entertaining at the same time, whenever someone watches a special like this documentary now, they relate it to the movie. They say things such as "Oh that's where Jack and Rose were when they met" or "That's where this person got killed" or where "That person met that person". I also dislike those people who claim to know everything about the Titanic because they saw the movie five times. I saw this documentary many times long before I saw the feature length film. And I will tell you that nothing beats the factual history. In here, you get the straight facts, not mixed in with a romance.

My opinions, however, should stick to the documentary. This documentary, though its hopes for the wreck site have been somewhat dated by time, is still incredible and is one of National Geographic's top specials on shipwrecks and oceanography.