When Robert Ballard discovered the wreck of the "Titanic" in 1985, he found only a gaping well in the place that the staircase had once occupied. The deck house that once formed the Boat Deck level of the stairway is collapsed and the huge void left by where the dome had once been sited offers a convenient entry for remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs). A pile of wreckage and twisted metal framework lies at the bottom of D-Deck, obscuring access to the lower decks.