Timeline of United States discoveries four days into the ship's maiden voyage, "Titanic" struck an iceberg and sank two hours and forty minutes later, early on April 15, 1912. The sinking resulted in the deaths of 1,517 of the 2,223 people on board, making it one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history. After nearly 74 years of being lost at sea on the bottom of the ocean floor, a joint Franco-American expedition led by American oceanographer Dr. Robert D. Ballard, discovered the wreckage of the RMS "Titanic" two miles (3 km) beneath the waves of the North Atlantic on September 1, 1985. Ballard
Raise the Titanic (film) before the "Titanic" foundered, the sailor said the man locked himself inside the ship's vault containing the boxes of mineral, his last words being "thank God for Southby!" At this point it is decided that the only way to get a hold of the byzanium is to literally "raise the "Titanic"" from the ocean floor. Pitt comes up with a salvage plan that Sandecker presents to the U.S. President. The President signs off on the plan and Pitt is put in charge of the operation. At this time the Soviet KGB station chief in Washington D.C., Andre Prevlov (Bo Brundin),