Animals aboard the RMS Titanic "Titanic"s first port of call after Southampton. The animals travelled on their own tickets and even the canary that left at Cherbourg had to be paid for, to the tune of 25 US cents. Like any other ship of the time, "Titanic" had a substantial population of rats. One was seen running across the Third Class Dining Room on the evening of the sinking, to the shock and amazement of the diners. Some of the women who saw it burst into tears, while men tried unsuccessfully to capture the rat. Few of "Titanic"s animals survived the ship's sinking. Three of
Wreck of the RMS Titanic US and the UK. Only a few days after Ballard's discovery of the wreck, Jack Grimm – the author of the unsuccessful early 1980s attempts to find "Titanic" – claimed ownership of it on the grounds that he had allegedly been the first to find it. He announced that he intended to begin salvaging the wreck. He said that he "[couldn't] see them just lie there and be absorbed by the ocean floor. What possible harm can [salvage] do to this mass of twisted steel?" Titanic Ventures Inc., a Connecticut-based consortium, co-sponsored a survey and salvage operation in 1987 with