The Titanic was not the target

Just read this short but interesting story today about the discovery of the Titanic shipwreck on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

It turns out that the Titanic was not the main target of the expedition -- but they had to make it seem like it was, because the true targets were the U.S. nuclear submarines Thresher and Scorpion, which in a somewhat unlikely coincidence, had sunk near where the Titanic ended up. Inspecting the sunken subs was a secret at the time.

Bob Ballard inspected both wrecks for the Navy to see if their nuclear plants were leaking.  (They weren't.)

After looking them over, he had extra time, and the Navy had told him he could do what he wanted with the extra time, if he had any.

So he went looking for the Titanic -- and found it, using a technique he'd learned while looking at the submarine wrecks.

And now you know the rest of the story.