A Titanic struggle

It's been 85 years since the world was dazzled with the birth of a luxury liner named the Titanic. It's been 85 years since the world saw i...

It8217;s been 85 years since the world was dazzled with the birth of a luxury liner named the Titanic. It8217;s been 85 years since the world saw its tragic exit into the waters of the North Atlantic on her first voyage to America, taking with it more than 1,500 passengers.

Now, on the 85th anniversary of the world8217;s most intriguing sea disaster, a group of experts have revealed that some of the most basic theories that form the legend of the sinking of 8220;the ship that couldn8217;t sink8221; are not quite true.

Well, in case all this talk about a ship has left you puzzling about its place in a page till now devoted to the steamy happenings on the boob tube, here8217;s the connection. Firstly, these facts have come to light thanks to a month-long expedition undertaken by the Discovery Channel, its French co-production partner Ellipse Programme and RMS Titanic Inc, salvo-in-possession of the wreck. And secondly, if you want to know more about what these experts have uncovered, all you have to do is tune into Discovery which will air a two-hour programme titled Titanic: Anatomy of a Disaster on Sunday, June 29, at 8 pm, with a repeat telecast on Monday.

The programme promises to reveal some astonishing stuff. For instance, as it spotlights the ship again, would you believe just what is happening to the Titanic itself right now? Well, 650 tons of rusticles, what scientists describe as living, microbial communities, are gorging on whatever remains of the steel and iron frames of the gigantic vessel. In fact, at the rate at which these organisms are going, the Titanic could soon end up as nothing more than recycled stuff lying on the bed of the North Atlantic.

Well that8217;s understandable considering that the wreckage has been lying under the sea for more than 80 years.

But when the experts also say that the iceberg that hit the ship did not cause a single 300-foot hole on the side, then that8217;s something quite out of the blue as the Titanic8217;s hit with the berg has always been considered a one-fatal-blow affair.

8220;What we were able to go down and actually see through the mud that8217;s covered up the evidence for 85 years is that it was simply six kind of small pieces of damage, no more than 12-square feet that flooded the ship as it let in about 25,000 tons of water a minute,8221; says Greg Andorfer, executive producer of Titanic: Anatomy of a Disaster.

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But this expedition and the subsequent TV programme is not only about the Titanic. It is also about the creation of a whole new set of technologies like advanced sonar imaging and custom-designed deep ocean lighting systems for underwater photography, which, according to Ashok Ogra, director of programming, Discovery Channel8211;India, 8220;will improve the chances of solving the mystery of why ships go down8221;.

Titanic: Anatomy of a Disaster will also combine these cut-and-dry scientific truths with archival footage and recreations of real-life incidents which occurred on that night of April 15, 1912, to bring alive the heroism and suffering that are so much a part of the Titanic8217;s date with the sea.