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
Wreck of the RMS Titanic day of the expedition, an object that looked like a propeller was found. Grimm announced on his return to Boston that "Titanic" had been found, but the scientists declined to endorse his identification. In July 1983, Grimm went back a third time with Ryan aboard the research vessel "Robert D. Conrad" to have another look at the "propeller". This time nothing was found and very bad weather brought an early end to the expedition. It later turned out that Sea MARC had actually passed over "Titanic" but had failed to detect it, while Deep Tow passed within of the wreck.