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 one of "Titanic"s surviving crew members, who became the first relative of a "Titanic" passenger or crew member to visit the wreck. Cameron himself also returned to "Titanic" in 2001 to carry out filming for Walt Disney Pictures' "Ghosts of the Abyss", filmed in 3D. In 2003 and 2004, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration carried out two expeditions to "Titanic". The first, carried out between 22 June and 2 July 2003, performed four dives in two days. Its key aims were to assess the current condition of the wreck site and carry out scientific observations to support ongoing