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
Heart of the Ocean Stuart. It is believed that both Rose and the necklace went down with the sinking of the ship, leading some treasure salvagers to believe the necklace lies somewhere within the wreck of the "Titanic". The story of the Hope Diamond bears many similarities to the story of the Heart of the Ocean with the obvious exception of the Hope Diamond not actually having been on board the Titanic. In the 1953 film "Titanic", a blue diamond plays an important role in a love affair as well. A primary plot point in this earlier film is the theft of the diamond,