Sinking of the RMS Titanic the hull plates. This suggests that the iron rivets along the plate seams snapped off or popped open to create narrow gaps through which water flooded. An engineer from "Titanic"s builders, Harland and Wolff, suggested this scenario at the British Wreck Commissioner's inquiry following the disaster but his view was discounted. "Titanic"s discoverer Robert Ballard has commented that the assumption that the ship had suffered a major breach was "a by-product of the mystique of the "Titanic". No one could believe that the great ship was sunk by a little sliver." Faults in the ship's hull may have been a
Wreck of the RMS Titanic on "Knorr"s screens. One of them was identified as a boiler, identical to those shown in pictures from 1911. The following day, the main part of the wreck was found and "Argo" sent back the first pictures of "Titanic" since her sinking 73 years before. The discovery made headlines around the world. Following his discovery of the wreck site, Ballard returned to "Titanic" in July 1986 aboard the research vessel RV "Atlantis II". Now the deep-diving submersible DSV "Alvin" could take people back to "Titanic" for the first time since her sinking, and the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) "Jason Jr."