Sinking of the RMS Titanic believed that ice posed little risk; close calls were not uncommon, and even head-on collisions had not been disastrous. In 1907, , a German liner, had rammed an iceberg and suffered a crushed bow, but was still able to complete her voyage. That same year, "Titanic"s future captain, Edward Smith, declared in an interview that he could not "imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that." As "Titanic" approached her fatal collision, most passengers had gone to bed and command of the bridge had passed from Second Officer Charles Lightoller to First
Wreck of the RMS Titanic to the wreck of the German battleship "Bismarck", sunk at a depth of on the other side of the Atlantic. The mud around the ship was found to contain hundreds of different species of animals. The sudden explosion of life around "Titanic" may be a result of an increased amount of nutrients falling from the surface, possibly a result of human overfishing eliminating fish that would otherwise have consumed the nutrients. Many scientists, including Robert Ballard, are concerned that visits by tourists in submersibles and the recovery of artifacts are causing the wreck to decay faster. Underwater bacteria have been