PAXTON: I believe things can happen of such an intensity
that they do resonate through time,
create, like, an echo.
The story of the "Titanic" is very personal
to each person who hears it, almost like a biblical story.
This giant ship,
all these people in the middle of the ocean,
this iceberg, the warnings.
What would it have been like
to be there on that fateful night?
I knew Jim was going to go back to the "Titanic. "
He had talked about it.
He wanted to take another expedition
since he had made the film.
He had invited me in passing.
But I guess I didn't really seriously consider
I would actually go.
- Hello! - Hello!
- You speak English? - [Speaking Russian]
Great. I'm looking for my room. My cabin.
[Speaking Russian]
Oh.
Oh, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
But then, when he actually said,
"No, I really want you to come along and experience it
for yourself and just take it all in"...
I had to go.
[Glen Phillips' "Departure" plays]
# Leave my past #
# Leave my home #
# I'll find my way #
# To the great unknown #
The "Keldysh" is the largest scientific research vessel
in the world.
And all the activity onboard is focused on the "Mirs"
and what they have to accomplish at the bottom of the ocean.
They take their work extremely seriously.
Everything is checked and rechecked,
just like a space mission.
# But like the shore finds the ocean #
# Like the night finds the day #
# I'll find an answer to these questions #
# Far away #
Oh!
ABERNATHY: My name is Lewis Abernathy.
I'm an underwater explorer.
I got them all.
I have been trying to thumb a ride down to "Titanic"
for probably 10 years now.
What do you got?
We got bots, slimy bots, and "A" deck, "B" deck, "C" deck.
Huge rusticles, like this big around.
JOHNSTON: My name is Lori Johnston.
My position was as a microbiologist,
looking at the rusticles.
The idea that she spiraled down, spitting objects.
PELLEGRINO: My name is Charles Pellegrino.
I was one of the historians and biologists on the expedition.
We tend to think of it in 21st-century eyes.
LYNCH: I'm Don Lynch, and I studied the "Titanic"
based upon the testimony and accounts of passengers and crew.
The people who were there and witnessed it.
MARSCHALL: My name is Ken Marschall.
I've been studying the "Titanic" for over three decades now.
I checked it out. The Straus suite.
Through those years and study,
I've sort of become a visual historian
about the ship and her structure and appearance.
PAXTON: It was an amazing expedition
in terms of all of the state-of-the-art technology
and engineering we were using, in terms of the camera system.
The R.O.V.S were amazing.
On the cutting edge of technology.
Just try to keep the light in right where I've gone in.
I'm gonna explore these cabins.
There is no script. We don't know what we're gonna see.
We don't know what we're gonna encounter.
The crucial thing about deep-sea photography
is lighting.
Just come up over and light all this business down here.
- You see what I mean? - Yeah.
So we had a sister ship on the expedition called the "EAS."
The "EAS" had this giant lighting chandelier
called Medusa.
The theory was to lower the chandelier down over the wreck
and do this overlighting, almost like moonlight.
There was no manual for any of this.
Nobody had ever combined this many elements
into a single-dive operation before at these depths.
We were pushing the limits of technology,
which was a little eerie
given the fate of the ship we had come to explore.
This is where it all happened.
It could be any other part of the ocean,
but there's something special about knowing
this is the spot and the wreck's down there.
Why this shipwreck? Why not the "Lusitania"?
Why not the "Moro Castle"? Why not the "Atlantic"?
LYNCH: They're all good.
They're all good, but why is this one?
Look at the stuff that comes with this.
You've got the biggest ship on its maiden voyage,
the president of the company onboard that owns it,
the builder onboard.
And it hits an iceberg, and it sinks so slowly
that you've got all these hours for drama to be acted out.
You don't get that with other shipwrecks.
It's really a Greek tragedy for real.
She was so cheated. She was so beautiful.
So much energy went into building this creation.
You know, the epitome of human engineering
and architecture, maritime architecture at that point.
And to have it taken away, stolen,
just four days out of England.
And that's part, I guess, of the odd attraction to it.
The fact that you could never have such a thing happen
before or since.
The ship remains at the bottom of the sea
as an eternal memorial.
And we can visit that memorial.
We can bear witness to the event.
And if we're gonna do interior exploration,
we have to do it now, because five years from now,
there might not be anything.
Five years ago, the technology didn't exist.
We had to will it into existence.
PAXTON: "Monday, August 20, 2001.
Tomorrow morning we will descend 21/2 miles
into the cold, dark netherworld
and see 'Titanic' for ourselves
as she lies broken on the seafloor.
How do you prepare for such an experience?"
CAMERON: Okay. Dive one.
It's gonna be J. B. And Bill in "Mir-2,"
and me and Vince in "Mir-1."
Pilots are gonna be Genya Chernaiev, "Mir-2,"
Anatoly Sagalevitch, "Mir-1."
PAXTON: Okay. Here's your checklist.
Have your last will and testament in order,
make sure your insurance is paid up,
write a final note to your family.
These are the kind of things you think about.
Next stop, "Titanic. "
Happy hunting.
Let's rock and roll.
The moment of truth.
See you in the sunshine.
PAXTON: To get in a three-man submersible
and descend 12,500 feet
down into the bottom of the North Atlantic,
it just was maybe a little more adventure than I wanted.
Oxygen?
Yeah.
That's good.
Yeah. Be sure to turn that on.
Yeah, I can see how you get kind of queasy sitting up here.
Look at the colors change.
[Speaking Russian]
Boy, that's fast.
This tells you the oxygen up here, right?
Yes.
So it's at 21. That's good.
Now, if that gets below 19, then it's...
What's the number you watch for?
It's 19. It's good also.
It's good. Yes.
But if it gets below what?
Does the battery sound okay? It sounds sluggish like that?
- That's normal? - Yes, it's normal.
Now, if you have a real emergency
and everything fails,
I heard something about,
you can disengage, drop the main battery?
Just...
Yes, we have many possibilities.
I hope we never drop battery, because it's very expensive.
How much?
It's $250, 000, I think.
I mean, would you take a check?
2, 000 meters?
Yes. 2, 000.
That's pretty deep.
[Rattling]
Something wrong?
It's okay?
Yes.
That's handy.
And it's fixed.
I adjust for them for later.
Oh, okay. Okay. Good. Yeah.
"Mir-1," "Mir-1," this is "Mir-2."
What is your depth? Over.
"Mir-2," "Mir-2," this is "Mir-1."
Depth is 3,353 meters.
See you on the bottom. Jim out.
I see bottom. It's bottom.
Oh, yeah.
You see it?
Yeah. Just barely.
Bottom of the ocean. Look at that.
It looks like the dark side of the moon.
PAXTON: It wasn't just the idea
of putting your faith in these little submarines
and going to the bottom of the sea.
There's thousands of tons of pressure against you.
But where we were going, where we were going.
We'll see more debris as we go. There's a piece right there.
Yeah, look. There's some china. See the china?
Yeah, we got her.
You want to see "Titanic" on the sonar?
You're gonna love this.
- It's, like, there she is, baby. - Oh, man.
Okay. 50 meters straight ahead.
Bill, it's the bow.
Oh, look at that.
Oh, God. There it is.
What a sight.
What a sight!
So Medusa is lighting it up.
Look at that.
Oh, man.
Oh, now you get a sense of the size of this thing.
My God!
This was the "Titanic. "
This is the fabled liner that lies in its grave
at the bottom of the North Atlantic.
You approach it with incredible reverence.
Bill, it is bow anchor.
Oh, God.
Its port side in good conditions.
That is incredible. Look at that.
Look at that!
It's dug in all the way up to the anchor.
Oh, it's amazing just to be floating above it.
Gosh, you could just reach out and touch it.
We're near the anchor crane. It's right there.
See it?
Look. Right here.
Okay. Oh, yes.
Okay. Okay. You're clear.
I knew we were gonna get close, but not this close.
PAXTON: The experience of being in one of the submersibles
is almost like an astral projection.
The way you float around it,
it really is an ethereal, kind of ghostly experience.
We're here. It's Hatch Number One.
Oh, yeah. Look.
You can see right down the cargo hatch.
Boy, it just falls into just a black well.
Oh, there's the crow's-nest door right there.
They climbed up inside the mast
to get out to the crow's nest.
That's where Fleet stood.
Right there when he saw the iceberg.
[Bell dinging]
MAN: Iceberg right ahead!
PAXTON: You see the... it looks like the port electric crane.
What is that?
Yeah, it's a gate.
- Yes, it's gate. Yes. - Closed gate.
Officers locked that
to keep the steerage passengers down below decks.
Of course, I'd have been just climbing over that thing.
Oh, God. So that's right where the bridge was.
And there's the telemotor.
The helm. The helm of the ship.
PAXTON: Try to imagine
what it must have been like to be on the bridge that night.
First Officer William Murdoch is on duty.
Quartermaster Hichens at the wheel.
That split-second decision Murdoch had to make.
[Bell dinging]
MAN: Iceberg right ahead!
PAXTON: He can go left or he can go right.
[Men shouting indistinctly]
Quickly!
Murdoch is suddenly staring an iceberg
right down the barrel.
Murdoch knows how many passengers are onboard,
how few lifeboats there are,
what grave danger the ship is in.
Golly.
That is history right there. We are touching the legend.
[Lisa Torban's "Darkness, Darkness" plays]
# Darkness, darkness #
# Be my pillow #
# Take my hand #
# And let me sleep #
Wow. Just like a cliff just falling in the abyss.
# I n the coolness #
# Of your shadow #
# I n the silence #
# Of your deep #
"Mir-2," "Mir-2," be advised that we are...
We're gonna be going up.
Did they start up?
Well, let's clear "Titanic" before we turn the lights off.
"Titanic" was good to us today.
[Speaking Russian]
Goodbye, "Titanic. "
[Indistinct voices on radio]
Oh! Oh!
[Groans]
Hello, again.
Hello, Sergei.
Whoo.
Welcome to "Keldysh. "
Quite a ride.
If the bow is so dug in, you just don't get that depth.
And seeing that wall going all the way down
and falling into nothing,
even just with the "Mir-2's" lights,
really was like, "Holy cow. This thing is so big. "
PAXTON: What exciting work.
We were exploring the "Titanic" with new technologies
and these incredible new cameras.
Have you ever been in any sub?
Only at Disneyland.
This is different.
[Speaking Russian]
Good luck.
See you later.
These dives, every one is so precious.
I want to make sure
we pack as much information, visually and historically,
as I can possibly get into these eyeballs.
Ha! Ha! Ha!
PAXTON: You know, you have historians, scientists.
It was a great camaraderie.
I screamed like a girl the whole time.
Crying like a kid?
Cried like a baby.
The R.O.V.S were fascinating.
Initially they were called Bot 1 and Bot 2.
But ultimately they were named Jake and Elwood.
MIKE: My name is Mike Cameron.
I'm the R.O.V. Creator.
The vehicle is not unlike a little creature.
It's got a brain. It's got a computer onboard.
It's got eyes in a couple cameras up front.
CAMERON: Give it a little forward.
You are in, Daddy-O. You're in.
MIKE: It's got this character about it that's alive.
PAXTON: The real revolutionary part is the fiber-optic spool.
It's like a spider spinning out its own silk.
Come in here, explore these rooms,
come back out.
If these bots worked like we were hoping they would,
we could go through the entire ship.
The bots are finally going to "Titanic. "
Three years in the making.
PAXTON: "Mir-1," Jake's just coming out of his hooch. Over.
CAMERON: Here he comes. He's out.
PAXTON: I think we were so intent on watching the screens.
Very quickly, I forgot where I was.
The R. O.V. Had just unconsciously become our eyes.
This is what it's all about. Cruising around at 12, 000 feet.
CAMERON: Jeff, stand by.
We're about to launch Bot 1, a. K. A. Elwood.
Sight enabler.
Com link. Camera power.
All right. I think we're ready to fly.
Elwood's coming out.
Pretty cool.
Looking good, Elwood.
Tell them we'll meet in the center of the grand staircase.
LEDDA: We're gonna meet in the center of the grand staircase.
PAXTON: Copy that.
MARSCHALL: The grand staircase on "Titanic"
was, in my opinion, the most beautiful feature of the ship.
And the dome,
the wrought-iron dome overhead, was just beautiful.
It's really a blessing
that this staircase did break apart and float out,
because it allows easy access to the interior of the ship.
What's Elwood's 20?
CAMERON: Right above you.
Getting ready to start our descent. Over.
Okay. We see him.
That's them.
Okay. We see you.
Okay.
Proceed slowly.
PAXTON: Proceeding slowly.
This is so much like flying a helicopter.
PAXTON: We knew the beauty of the grand staircase was gone.
But no one knew what we'd find deep inside the ship.
MARSCHALL: Continue down one.
You're crossing the floor of "B" deck right now.
You're looking into "C" deck right now.
- Do not go into "C" deck. - Awaiting instructions.
"C" deck. "D" deck. There's "D" deck.
All right. He's in position to enter "D" deck.
Stand by there, Jeff.
Your first move would be to enter "D" deck.
Roger that.
You getting ready to go down there?
Do I want to be pointed aft or what?
Yeah. Okay.
Okay. Tell him to move ahead slow.
Move ahead slow.
Moving ahead slow.
Tell him to move real, real, real, real easy.
Move real, real, real, real easy.
Real easy.
Moving real easy.
Believe we are heading toward starboard.
We're looking at a light fixture.
Looks like it had four or five bulbs on it.
We should come to the right.
Come to the right, Jeff.
And we'll head for the boiler uptake.
Copy that.
So far, the vehicle is handling like a champ.
It's performing beautifully. How much tether do we have out?
Just shy of 200 feet out.
Okay.
[Sagalevitch speaking Russian]
CAMERON: Move forward to that doorframe.
We are inside the "Titanic. "
- Tell him to slow down. - I still can't get over it.
CAMERON: Slow down.
PAXTON: Copy that.
I still can't believe that we're actually here.
I keep waiting for somebody to yell, "Cut,"
and I'm gonna go back to my trailer.
I don't think I can get out of this and get back to my trailer.
My trailer!
I need to call my agent.
CAMERON: It's getting a little skinny right in here.
Looks like Carlsbad Caverns in there.
Is he pinned?
Is there no way forward from there?
Go left.
Making the turn.
That's too close to the bottom. Tell them to come up.
You're too close to the bottom.
PAXTON: Copy that.
Oh!
Boy, this is nerve-racking.
There's something there. See what that is?
Windows, windows.
Dining-room windows.
- We're going for the window. - We're going for the windows.
Look at that.
- Unbelievable. - That's amazing.
Take it real slow here.
Those are the lead-glass windows.
Try to get your light up on those.
- Amazing, huh? - Yes.
Turn off his spotlight.
Turn off your spotlight.
Make a nice image of the windows.
Make a nice picture of the windows in front of you.
PAXTON: Look at that. Look at that.
Oh, boy!
Beautiful. Still intact.
Very much intact.
Looks like the glass,
all the leaded glass, it's all there.
It's not broken.
MARSCHALL: The first-class dining room was beautiful.
Among the passengers who ate here were John Jacob Astor
and his wife, Madeline, who were on their honeymoon.
She would be widowed before the end of the voyage.
We are not in Kansas anymore.
I think you got a friend.
Oh. There's Sam.
Sam stopped by to say hello.
He's giving us the tour.
"Follow me," he says.
CAMERON: It's like a fantasy in here, isn't it?
MARSCHALL: The craftsmanship. The delicate beauty.
That human hands created these windows,
that human eyes looked at these windows.
And then you realize
that you're 12, 500 feet beneath the sea.
Oh, look at that woodwork.
That's all wood, Genya. That's all carved wood.
But these things created by man,
in this dark abyss, where they just shouldn't be.
They're not supposed to be here.
CAMERON: Unbelievable.
Who would've thought that would still be there?
It's the dream come true for me.
LYNCH: What's significant about the reception room
is that this is where Elizabeth Lines
overheard a conversation
between Captain Smith and Bruce Ismay,
the owner of the "Titanic. "
And she heard Ismay telling Smith
to have the "Titanic" arrive in New York a day early.
I think we're going to beat "Olympic's" time
and arrive in New York Tuesday night.
PAXTON: We're holding at the first-class entrance,
starboard side.
Isn't that beautiful? Gosh.
It looks like it's just been made more beautiful by time.
LYNCH: "Titanic's" main first-class entrance
was on "D" deck.
And she had two large gangway doors
on both the port and the starboard side.
Through the eyes of the R. O.V.,
we could see the wrought-iron gates just inside the doors,
which were unknown to historians until this expedition.
We had no idea what was inside, and now we know.
CAMERON: This is the way they boarded the ship.
They came in through that door, and then this inner door.
MARSCHALL: And in this entrance vestibule,
there was a large sideboard against the aft wall
where lots of first-class china was stored.
ABERNATH Y: The dish cabinet had more or less rotted away.
But you could see the teacups and the little dishes
stacked perfectly there.
I wish I had those dishes, you know?
Give it up on eBay.
CAMERON: There's the elevators.
There's...
There's the shaft.
Look at that.
I thought they called them "lifts," but you know what?
The ship was owned by an American company.
Hmm.
Like you could just call them now.
MARSCHALL: Whenever you're looking at the elevator grilles,
try to remember to turn and look forward and see.
There may still be paneling right amidships,
and there will be brass letters that say
"A" deck, "B" deck, "C" deck, or "D" deck.
When you come out of the elevators.
Most likely that paneling is down. But you never know.
That would be a classic shot
to have that lettering still clinging.
Ken loves this stuff.
I feel like I'm making a film for one person. Ken Marschall.
And there it is. Bingo, baby.
- Tell him "bingo. " - LEDDA: Bingo.
MARSCHALL: The "A" had recently fallen from its own weight.
That brass letter was heavier than the "D," "E," "C," "K."
Okay. I see where we are. We just peeked into "D" 35.
PAXTON: We were methodical exploring the interior.
We had to be because the wreck can be very disorienting.
It was spooky.
"D" 33 was the cabin
of Henry Sleeper Harper and his wife.
Sitting on the remains of the wardrobe cabinet
is Henry Harper's bowler hat.
Just the idea that we know whose it was.
CAMERON: Hey, look. There's some kind of glass.
Maybe a mirror. Let's see if that's a mirror.
It is. We're gonna go see ourselves.
PAXTON: "A" 11 was occupied by Edith Russell.
Before getting into a lifeboat,
she went back to her cabin to lock her 19 trunks
because she didn't trust the stewards onboard.
LYNCH: Jim was looking for Molly Brown's stateroom.
We had a good idea where that stateroom would be.
And he was searching for a forward-facing window.
The R. O.V. Is narrow enough to scoot through that.
And I saw there was jagged glass at the bottom of the windowsill.
That could sever the tether, commit suicide.
Ken says we can do this.
LEDDA: It's a gamble.
Don't do it. Don't do it.
You're gonna be laying your tether right across the glass.
CAMERON: There he goes. He's in there.
That's what I'm talking about.
LYNCH: Okay, now that you're in, it's not that bad of an idea.
That's not a brass bed. That's a wooden bed.
It's kind of creepy.
I don't know.
Molly Brown said she was in a brass bed.
I don't see a brass bed.
PAXTON: Molly Brown was a character.
She and her husband had made their fortune mining out west.
And she was desperate to be accepted by high society.
The "Titanic" tragedy made her a legend.
Uh, Genya?
Yes?
Um, I need to pee.
I don't think I can hold it much longer.
- No problem. - Okay.
PAXTON: For me, personally,
I've always been kind of a nervous, you know, pisser.
[Laughing] I need a little privacy.
But when you got to go and you're 21/2 miles down,
you got to go.
It's okay?
Um, I'll turn around.
- Can you turn around? - Okay.
Thank you. Thank you.
Let's see here.
Point your lights straight into "A" deck.
My God. Look at that.
Look at that, Tolya.
A brass bed sitting right in there.
Maybe Molly Brown did stay in a brass bed.
But which one?
ABERNATH Y: They've built bigger ships since "Titanic,"
but I don't know that they'll ever build one as luxurious.
And even now,
after 90 years of laying on the bottom of the ocean,
its beauty came to light.
Okay. We're in.
Okay. Tell them we're in the promenade.
LEDDA: Jake's in the promenade.
MARSCHALL: We did get into one of the millionaire suites
on "B" deck.
Private promenade.
They call them "private promenade. "
These were the fanciest, most expensive lodgings on the ship.
And in April 1912,
you would have paid over $3, 000 to book your passage.
This must be some of the facing.
Yeah, it's some of the Tudor facing.
We are in the room.
LEDDA: Jake's in the room.
This is Bruce Ismay's suite.
This is the guy that left the ship
with 1, 500 people still onboard.
Ooh, that's a beauty.
We are in the sitting room, looking at the fireplace.
Isn't that amazing? That ribbon design is still there.
These little touches of elegance.
You can almost feel the hands of the guy that made that.
LYNCH: J. Bruce Ismay
was managing director of the White Star Line,
and he vetoed the idea of having 48 lifeboats.
He felt fewer would be fine,
that as long as they met the law, they were okay.
CHERNAIEV: It is Smith's bathtub.
ABERNATH Y: Oh, Captain Smith.
Wow.
The captain of the "Titanic"
used to take his baths right there.
His little pink butt sitting right there in the tub.
PAXTON: Captain Smith was called "the millionaire's captain"
because he was so popular with the first-class passengers.
30 years at sea. Perfect record.
This voyage was to be his crowning achievement.
He was going to take the biggest, most beautiful ship
across the ocean on her maiden voyage and then retire.
PELLEGRINO: I n archeology,
we carry these ghosts of the imagination with us.
And I was kind of imagining
Thomas Andrews out there on the deck.
MARSCHALL: Thomas Andrews was managing director
and president of Harland and Wolff Shipbuilders.
He designed and built the "Titanic" from the ground up.
He knew the ship better than anyone.
He put davits on the ship that were designed
to take a lifeboat from here and lift it outward
and then go inward and pick up a second lifeboat
in a second position and go out.
I n his own hand,
in his notebook, he has the number of lifeboats
that are supposed to go on the ship that he designed it for.
He was overruled
and forced to comply only to the minimum
of the Board of Trade requirement.
MARSCHALL: Andrews cared about the ship and crew
and was onboard to make last-minute improvements
and make sure everything ran smoothly.
PELLEGRINO: If only there were a way to let him see
these submersibles sending these incredible robots
into his creation.
MIKE: Move a little right to avoid the arm.
There you go. Okay.
We're good. We're coming out.
It's coming out, folks.
- Okay. Ease it forward. - Okay.
MARSCHALL: We explored all three forward cargo hatches
and made it into several crew and third-class spaces
that had never even been photographed before.
CAMERON: Is that the "D" deck?
MAN: I think so.
Yeah. I think you're right.
All right. That's it. There's the other hatch.
So just ease on in there. Ease it on in there.
Okay. Here's our stairwell.
It should go right up to it.
LYNCH: So we got into third class.
We were in the general room in the bow under the well deck.
There wasn't a lot of detail in this room,
because it was never a well-decorated room.
The bar at one end that still had the little tap there.
There were table bases still there in place.
The tables and bench bases rising up from the floor.
It was neat to see those.
That's a very big table.
The place where they all ate.
They would've sat here and played cards.
MARSCHALL: This was where there was a party held
by many of the third-class passengers on Sunday night.
And it really was moving to be able see this room
where so many of them spent their last few happy hours.
MIKE: There was a brand-new Renault, beautiful car,
that was strapped down in the cargo hold.
And we have some fairly good historical projections
of what it would look like now.
CAMERON: Going from "F" deck to "G" deck.
A solid hatch cover, as advertised.
But it's open.
And it would be barely recognizable as a car.
Only a few items would show up recognizable as a vehicle.
We were on "G" deck. We went through the hatch cover.
We are now on the orlop deck.
Correct. You are.
Tilt up, and you'll see the car.
[Snorts]
Tilt up, and we see some gak.
I see some light back there.
Yeah.
Maybe that is the car.
It is.
- I think that's the car. - It is.
It's the car.
No.
No!
It can't be that easy.
- It is. - [Chuckles]
I don't think that's the car.
I think we're seeing cars.
- Shiny piece of... - Oh, my God.
I'm thinking...
That looks like wheel.
Jim, that's a fender.
I don't care what planet you're on, that's a tire and fender.
This is headlight.
We're seeing cars, boy. [Laughs]
All right, the best thing to do
now that we're here is to just look everywhere.
There's a car.
That's a car.
No, those are... That's a trunk right there.
Wicker trunk.
That's a tire.
There were some pretty interesting-looking structures,
obviously man-made stuff,
but nothing clearly identifiable as a car.
Yeah, we should be able to get all the way forward.
- Are you in? - Yes.
Oh, baby.
That's awesome. Oh, dude, this is so cool!
Count doors on the right. That's how we'll orient ourselves.
There should be two doors side by side.
The first door should take you into the firemen's mess.
You want to go in there?
Yeah.
That's definitely the firemen's mess.
Oh, look at that. Table after table.
You can see the bow tapering in.
Exactly.
Shape of the ship.
You can imagine exactly what this place looked like.
LYNCH: The firemen were segregated
from the rest of the crew,
probably because they had the dirtiest job.
So their quarters are in the tip of the bow.
They had two staircases,
which took them to the very bottom of the ship
and to the boiler rooms.
PAXTON: Imagine spiraling your way down
to the furnaces of this hungry leviathan
to join hundreds of men shoveling coal
into the gaping maws of the boilers.
That's kind of spooky.
And when you finish your shift hours later,
you climb back up into your little world below decks
at the very bow of the ship, where you eat, you sleep,
then you do it all over again.
Even here, we could feel the hand of Thomas Andrews.
At the top of one of the spiral staircases,
we found a drinking fountain.
I'm sure that even this small kindness
must have been greatly appreciated.
Here we've got a plan that illustrates pretty well
what happened that night.
The "Titanic" was divided into 16 watertight compartments
separated by 15 watertight bulkheads.
That's these white lines here.
And the ship was designed to be as unsinkable as they could.
The worst they could imagine is a collision
at the juncture of two compartments,
which would flood two adjacent compartments.
The ship would only sink so far and still be safe.
She was also designed to float
with any three of the first five compartments flooded.
Or the first four in a row could still flood
if they were in some traumatic...
That was the worst-case scenario.
Run into a rock or something like that, just full-on.
She'd buckle back, and the ship could still float.
With all of this combination of safety factors,
she was considered virtually unsinkable.
What they didn't envision is what happened that night.
"Titanic" struck the iceberg,
a glancing blow along the starboard side,
scraped along and ruptured plates or split the seams,
moving along into this cargo compartment,
into this cargo compartment, and this baggage and cargo,
into Boiler Room Number 6
and two feet into the coal bunker
of Boiler Room Number 5.
And as the ship sank,
just at the point where it was about ready to stabilize,
it reached the top of this watertight subdivision,
and started flowing up the stairways, across the deck
and down into the next compartment.
It was just a mathematical certainty.
There was no way, no matter how you slice it,
that the ship is going to make it.
So where exactly did it split?
Well, it broke in two right back here.
Just right about at the third funnel and after that.
There's a natural weak spot here in the hull
right above the reciprocating engine room.
There is a large air shaft here for light and air
to ventilate the reciprocating engine room.
PAXTON: My God.
What that must have sounded like, looked like.
What that must have been like.
What a deathblow to this great ship.
Imagine the vortex to create that kind of twisting.
That's what gets me.
Seeing the end of the stern piece, and seeing how...
Can't you just see one of those fish swimming along?
And then...
[Imitates crashing]
And you know what the fish would've done?
"Whoa," you know?
Exactly.
Our best shot is probably of the reciprocating engines
on the starboard side, right?
That's the guts of it.
Starboard side.
CHERNAIEV: Sometimes I see him come here and come up.
Yes. That's good.
- Good. - Like that.
And I lose, sometimes, good shots when Victor stays here.
Right.
But the thing is that Victor can't face us.
He can't, otherwise his lights will hit the camera.
He has to be above with the lights down,
or like this.
Yes. Maybe here.
So sort of this. This sort of thing.
See, if the water is clear, that'll make a good shot.
The engine room, where those guys were fighting
to keep that thing alive.
They were "Titanic. " They knew it was dying.
They didn't die with a brandy glass in hand.
They died with a monkey wrench, trying to stop the bleeding.
PAXTON: That is the starboard engine.
Look at that.
Oh, man!
Look at the size of that thing.
Okay, keep panning, because I'm gonna be coming around this way.
Oh, man.
It does give you the scale, seeing that little bot
next to that giant sphinx of an engine.
PAXTON: When you see the stern section where it tore in half,
and there are the two reciprocating engines
standing four stories high,
they really do look like these twin sphinxes
that are guarding the forbidden tomb.
JOHNSTON: When the historians look at "Titanic,"
they think of the lives that were lost.
When I look at the ship as a scientist,
I look at the life that still is on "Titanic. "
"Titanic" is very much alive.
Rusticles are bacteria... microscopic organisms, bugs...
that are actually eating the steel
and the insides of the ship.
I look at a rail and think, "Oh, look at the bacteria.
They're breaking 'Titanic' down and taking her back to nature. "
But then you immediately go back and think,
"Who touched this railing last?"
PELLEGRINO: Helen Candee is one of my favorite passengers.
She had written one of the century's first best sellers.
Basically, the theme being
how a woman can get along in life successfully
without a man.
And that's how she was traveling first-class on the "Titanic. "
And on the very last sunrise
that the "Titanic" would ever see,
she snuck out to the very point of the bow
just to greet the sunrise alone.
And she wrote about it
and how she felt the power and the beauty of this ship
and that it was stronger than nature itself,
maybe even stronger than God itself.
And then, suddenly, she felt very darkened,
as if she had thought something sacrilegious.
Mmm. It's good. What's in borscht?
That's good borscht.
- Borscht in Russian. - What is in borscht?
Borscht.
[Speaking Russian]
Cabbage, potatoes, bouillon.
Everybody eat borscht.
[Singing in Russian]
ABERNATH Y: Anatoly has a song that he wrote
about the blue sky that you see
when you return to the surface and the hatch opens.
And I think that's very apropos, because it's something
that you didn't think you would miss, but you do.
It's very difficult to wander through the "Keldysh"
and not think of the "Titanic" and draw some parallel.
You know, what would've happened if the engineers
hadn't stayed at their station
when the "Titanic" had gone dark, say, an hour earlier?
It would have been absolute pandemonium.
I became very close with the men in the engineering section.
It's quieter in here. Hello, my friends!
There wasn't a lot said.
But there was still very much a bonding that went on.
Tell me.
If we were going full speed, okay,
and all of a sudden, the bridge said, "Iceberg!"
Or "Drunken fishing-boat captain in our way!"
And they ring alarm, what do you do?
[Speaking Russian]
[Alarm rings]
Ah.
Full speed.
[Speaking Russian]
The engines all stop?
[Singing in Russian]
Whoo!
Yay!
[Song ends]
Ah.
Anatoly! Dal Dal
JOHNSTON: On our last dive to "Titanic,"
we found some interesting organisms.
- Inside, yeah? - Yes, inside the ship.
It almost has wings.
See the wings that are flying?
MARSCHALL: The oddest creature that was seen down there
was something we call the batwing.
And to my knowledge, nobody has identified it yet.
Several creatures down there
that I don't think are known to science.
JOHNSTON: "Titanic,"
because there is so much interest in it,
has really allowed us to do a great deal of research.
You could actually see
gelatinous-type clouds of bacteria as they floated by
and fingerlike structures
that were hanging from the ceilings.
MARSCHALL: Intertwined with this woodwork,
we'll see these lavender worms.
Shimmery, strange things, almost transparent sometimes.
And they particularly like the mahogany paneling.
CAMERON: Let's go up to him.
MARSCHALL: Even the fish don't look like the same rattails
that are found outside.
To me, they appear to live exclusively inside the ship.
He's heading for the elevator shaft.
LYNCH: Hey, he knows where he's going.
MARSCHALL: Wow. I can't believe it.
I didn't think I'd see the boilers on this dive.
I had no idea
we were approaching the bow from this angle.
We're awful close to this stuff.
CAMERON: "Mir-2," you got a steam pipe above you.
Be careful.
- It's safe to be this close? - What are you worried about?
If something happens to us, your artwork will be worth millions.
Oh, great. That'll do me a lot of good.
I see a real shiny thing straight ahead.
Oh, these are whistles, Genya. Whistles from the funnel.
Oh, my goodness. Right under me.
CAMERON: Ooh, look at this. What is that, Genya?
Yes.
Like a hatch cover. It's a hatch cover, I think.
Yes.
I don't think we've ever seen a hatch cover.
I saw it earlier.
Yeah. So that's Hatch One.
It got blown off when the ship hit the bottom.
It's just blown right out here in front of the ship.
MARSCHALL: Oh, my God.
- What? What? - Here's a glass carafe.
- Oh, look at that. - Unbelievable.
Can you believe it survived?
That's a first-class stateroom...
- Water decanter. - Yeah.
I was pretty calm going down.
As a matter of fact, we saw, in my porthole,
there was this woman's shoe.
It was perfectly preserved.
And it was laced up.
You know, I was just like, "Oh, my God. "
That's somebody's grave marker.
That's the only grave marker they have.
You see now that we are coming to the davit.
Yeah. Davit Number One.
LYNCH: This was Lifeboat One,
where Sir Cosmo and Lady Duff Gordon had escaped
with only 10 other people
in a lifeboat that could have held two dozen more.
The law of the sea is women and children first
when you go to evacuate a ship.
MAN: For the time being,
I shall require only women and children.
LYNCH: On the port side of the ship, Second Officer Lightoller
took it to mean women and children only,
and he only let women and children into the boats,
and then as few crewmen as possible to navigate it.
Please! Daddy!
Don't you worry.
CAMERON: Working on the other side, here's Murdoch,
getting the boats in the water as quick as he can,
shoving men, women, children, first-class, third-class.
He didn't care.
- May I get in the boat? - I wish you would.
Yes, ma'am. I n you go.
Lower away!
Almost 2/3 of everyone who survived
have Murdoch to thank for it.
LYNCH: Moving into the "A" deck promenade with the R. O.V.,
it really looked familiar.
A long, sweeping, open deck. Half of it was open.
The forward end was enclosed by large glass windows.
CAMERON: This is right where they walked, you know?
John Jacob Astor put Madeline Astor into the lifeboat
right through one of those windows right there.
LYNCH: Because she was pregnant,
he asked Second Officer Lightoller...
May I accompany my wife?
No, sir. Women and children only.
Come on.
Here, darling. Take these.
And so he told her he'd be seeing her in New York.
No, sir. Step aside.
I've been thinking about my family a lot being out here,
and we're going on these dives.
There's an element of risk involved.
It's a calculated risk.
But I think the idea of suddenly being on the deck
and saying, "I love you," you know,
and trying to bear up.
"Now, just go in the lifeboats.
Daddy will be along in a little while. "
That's just torturous.
Trying to make your family think that it's okay.
You're just keeping up a brave face.
Exactly.
Also, it's the question of personal character
that you keep going back to.
For me, ever since I was a teenager,
the whole idea is the question of,
how would I have beared up?
Would I have had the character to stand back
and shown that kind of nobility, shown that kind of courage?
And as we romanticize the image of "Titanic,"
and it's such a romantic time and everything,
you want to put yourself
with the men standing there with dignity.
But you really can't assume
what your character would be in that moment
unless you've been through that kind of thing.
Absolutely.
SAGALEVITCH: You see the doors, the entrance to first class?
Yeah. That's the entrance.
This is where the band played. This open area right here.
The orchestra would have gathered,
and they started playing ragtime.
["Alexander's Ragtime Band" playing]
LYNCH: You think of the band in terms of how heroic they were.
They played, knowing that everyone else
was getting into a lifeboat except them.
But how calming that band music was
to the people who were onboard.
Okay.
This right over here should be the Marconi Room.
MARSCHALL: Everyone knows the important role
that the Marconi Wireless played that night.
Senior Marconi Wireless Operator Jack Phillips
and Junior Operator Harold Bride worked in tandem
until the very end.
You should try S. O. S. It's the new signal.
Yes, it might be our last chance to use it.
During the final moments of the sinking,
the ship's power was becoming unstable.
Harold Bride was in the Silent Room,
trying to compensate for this loss of power.
To our great astonishment are the handles,
the settings still visible on these two field regulators.
They are in the final settings that this man manipulated.
Hey, that's better!
They have the human touch to them.
MAN: Pull!
Pull together!
PAXTON: Many of the boats had been launched half-full.
Return to the ship!
- Boat 6! Return. - We need to go back!
No!
It's our lives now. Now, row!
The suction will pull us down if we don't keep going.
ABERNATH Y: "Titanic" was a stage where God says,
"You have 21/2 hours to act out the rest of your life.
What are you gonna be?
Will you be a hero? Will you be a coward?"
Time for one more hand.
- Poker. Five card draw. - [Glass breaking]
[Creaking]
Would you fight to survive?
Would you take your place meekly with the people
that were relegated to the third-class spaces
and wait patiently until someone unlocks a gate
and lets you free?
- Help us! - What would you do?
- Please! - How would you act?
I think it's fortunate that most of us
will never be put to that test.
MAN: Any more women or children?
Anyone else, men? Anyone else?
Quickly! Quickly, men, quickly!
Prepare to lower! Ready on the left?
MARSCHALL: Bruce Ismay.
He's the guy who was responsible.
And yet he did survive, when others died.
Right and left together!
PAXTON: I don't know which man would've felt worse that night.
Bruce Ismay, for vetoing more lifeboats,
or Thomas Andrews,
for not having fought that decision harder.
PELLEGRINO: There was absolute pandemonium,
just chaos as those last boats went down.
Get back, I say!
[Gunshots, screaming]
Get back! Link arms! Form a chain!
Women and children only, please!
It was precarious.
There was one lifeboat where they weren't letting adults in.
This forced women to decide
whether they were gonna be separated from their children.
They were trying to take children only.
There were so many people and a few lifeboats.
Several women said, " I am not going without my children.
They're not leaving without me. "
They overcrowded that lifeboat,
but the water was so calm, it made it.
It had over 70 people, but the water was calm enough.
It must have been up to the gunwales.
It was that far above the water.
You could've put your hand over and trailed it in the water.
PAXTON: At the very end,
Murdoch was trying to get collapsible "A" off the roof
while the ship was sinking out from under it.
Get back! Get back!
Step away! Get back!
Crank this down there, men!
They cranked the davits in
to drag the collapsible over the side.
But by then, it was too late.
[Water rushing]
The number-one davit remains in that cranked-in position,
an unspoken monument
to Murdoch's dedication and heroism.
LYNCH: After the lifeboats had gone,
we have evidence of some third-class passengers
just going back to their cabins.
They had no hope of surviving, and they took it gracefully.
[Creaking, rattling]
[Screaming in distance]
To me, it must have been tough for the people who survived,
knowing they could have possibly gone back
and rescued some of the people in the water
once the ship had gone under.
To go in there would have been suicide
and nothing less.
We've got 1, 500 people in the water
all screaming for help, fighting for their lives.
You could easily have 50, 100 people
trying to climb onboard at once.
They're sitting in a lifeboat, safe.
To not row back or to have that not in your mind,
I can't believe that of somebody.
How safe are you in a lifeboat
in the middle of the North Atlantic?
"Titanic" is that thing
you always try to measure yourself against.
"What would I have done if I would have been on the deck?"
Heroism and character
will always be the domain of the individual, not the group.
That's what will never change.
LYNCH: On one of the later dives,
Jim decided to go back into the first-class spaces on "D" deck
and have "Mir-2" shine lights
through those leaded-glass windows from the outside.
- Getting ready? - Yes.
Here comes the light.
MARSCHALL: Nice.
Perfect.
MARSCHALL: Not since April 14, 1912,
had human eyes seen light
pouring through these beautiful windows.
LYNCH: A lot of the washstands have fallen over,
yet here was one that was still upright.
And so someone took a drink of water,
set that glass down, and walked out of that room,
and 90 years later, that glass and that carafe are still there.
CAMERON: I n the middle of this, you see this perfect object.
It really ties you to the people.
It does.
PELLEGRINO: You still see things
where people had last left them.
Lamps still plugged in.
The medicine bottles still in place.
It's the things people touched
that bring the pictures alive in your mind.
So we're looking at it right here, like this.
I need more power.
Come on, baby. React, react, react.
- We have a problem. - What?
We got a low-battery warning here.
Whoa, there's something really terribly wrong here.
Uh-oh. Are we gonna lose this thing?
Oh, Jesus.
- Did we crash? - We're dead. We're dead.
We're dead and buoyant.
Drop it. Drop it. Buoyancy right now.
- Easy, easy, easy. - Battery is starting to die.
Oh, we're not gonna live.
Guys, get a visual on us, because we just lost power.
PAXTON: You're headed for the ceiling.
You're sitting on the ceiling, Jim.
We're dead in the water. We have a dead battery.
We're watching you. We're gonna sit and watch you.
PAXTON: The whole thing was melting down.
The batteries, they were melting down and venting.
It was very bizarre.
It was like, "Houston, we have a problem. "
They flew beautifully right up until the point
that we had an absolute, total major-malfunction system crash.
CAMERON: I've had a debate with myself
as to whether I would even ever try a rescue,
because better to lose one than two.
It's almost a straight shot,
except there's a couple of columns in the way.
I think there's a way to bring it back.
Yeah, it's not too far from the stairwell.
No.
But the first thing we got to do is get some weight on it.
The weight with a piece of Velcro on top.
I want to fly up underneath it
and stick the weight to the bottom,
sink it to the floor,
then come up, dock with it and carry it out.
That's the only way to do it.
Let me know if I'm going too fast.
PAXTON: We had to rescue Elwood,
not just because these bots are expensive,
but because, in some strange way,
he'd become part of the crew.
Oh, where, oh, where is my little bot now?
Look up. Look up.
Hello, Elwood.
MAN: We tried to attach weights to the R. O.V.
To make it come down off the ceiling.
If I can just go forward.
What the hell was that?
Something fell. I don't know.
See, we're thrusting up against it,
so it may not come down right away.
All right, so let me get set for the separation maneuver.
It's on there.
We have it.
I'm gonna have to get out of this no matter what.
Otherwise, we're not coming home.
I'm going out.
Oh!
Link error.
We lost...
It's gonna come past us in a second.
We might as well get it on tape.
Here she comes.
Say goodbye.
LYNCH: Probably two hours without radio contact from Jim.
All we hear over the radio is...
Say goodbye to Jake.
"Say goodbye to Jake"?
What's happened?
Hit our own tether.
Cable broke.
ABERNATH Y: I can't imagine what it was like in Jim's sub.
He goes through a range of emotions.
He loses one robot. Then he loses a second robot.
Well, we got our ceiling scenario,
and we got our kite scenario.
The two ways we thought we could actually lose these things.
LYNCH: And after a quick exchange,
we noticed the tether coming up past our sub.
Genya grabs the joysticks that control the sub manipulators.
And he grabs the tether and starts winding the tether up
around the arms of the manipulators.
This is scary. See what he's doing?
If he breaks it before he gets a wrap on it...
Oh, my God. I can't watch this.
You're scaring me now, Genya.
To wind up this tether, it took 30, 35 minutes
of the same motion over and over and over,
winding this up.
35 minutes that we've been at this.
- Hey! - Let's see it.
I thought it was on the ground.
You got him. All stop. All stop.
Our next task is to take a Velcro patch
and slap it on top of the robot
with the manipulator arms and pull the robot in that way.
- You got him. - Still got it.
As Genya is pulling up on it,
the Velcro rips off the robot, and for this brief second,
the entire robot was free and starts floating back up.
There's no tether holding it.
It's free. Grab it. Grab it any way you can.
Genya, the most amazing operator of any machinery
I've ever seen in my life, grabbed these manipulators.
He pulls it back in and hugs it tight to the "Mir. "
I'm going gray over here.
I think he's got it in that garage.
He's got the tool out. I saw the tool. Yes!
Whoo!
- Garage closed. - [Laughs]
He lives another day!
Oh, my God!
I do believe Genya deserves a raise.
I do believe you owe everybody here a beer.
CAMERON: Dude, I'll buy you a brewery.
That was incredible. That was absolutely incredible.
The R. O.V. Department was almost out of a job.
Was that amazing?
That was the most amazing thing I've ever seen.
I think I aged a year.
And we sat there, and we just watched him
just fly up out of the grand staircase
and keep on going.
Genya wound it all in like a kid winding up a kite string.
Great job, man. Good job.
So we got the rescue half done.
We installed the weight, and then we had a problem.
We saw it with the weight hanging on it.
I don't know if it came down or not.
I think metal hooks would work if you get a fishing lure
that you can stab into the screen
and pull it out by the screen.
CAMERON: I told you we'd nab him.
LEDDA: Just remember, when you hook up,
peel away to your right.
Come on, baby.
- We're in. - We're in.
- I n? - We're in.
Now I'm gonna sit for a minute.
Take a little break.
Very good. Excellent. Excellent.
We're halfway.
There's nothing in front of him.
Push him a little bit, and I think we busted loose.
- Hooks pulled out. - Put him in the cage.
Hooks pulled out.
And I think we knocked him off his weight.
Yeah, the weight would've come off anyway, though.
All right.
The question is, do we have another try?
Something's right over me.
Oh, there we go. Got rid of that.
Now we're rising.
All right. Time to go for the kill.
Okay. Not the center.
We could bend our hooks on the...
Oh, that looked good.
Push him a little bit, then all back full, yaw right.
The hooks still there?
Negative.
It looks good.
Let's go for a drive and see if he comes with us.
Oh, I'm yawing in a weird way, so that must mean I have him,
so I'm just gonna keep playing him.
I'm gonna play the hand.
I think the door is down there. Tell him we're here.
"Mir-1," we see the door. We're on station.
There's the light.
Tell them we see them.
"Mir-2," "Mir-2," we see your lights.
Maintain position.
- All right. - There's the way out.
Hanging up.
I'm hung up. We're stopped.
And we're stuck.
See it? It's like hitting a wall.
We are hung up solid. Absolutely solid.
Nothing.
I think we lost it.
I don't know what to do.
I'm sure nothing's changed, but we'll try it again.
Okay. I'm gonna back up, take a little leash.
And then charge it.
Now we get to the same spot, and...
Hey.
- We're going. - LEDDA: You're going.
Go toward the light, Jake. Go toward the light.
Oh, come on, baby. Come on.
LEDDA: "Mir-2," "Mir-2," tilt your light down.
Tilt your light down.
LYNCH: Copy that. Tilting it down.
I keep feeling shocks.
I think I still have him.
Oh, that's why. They're coming this way.
Tell them to take a visual on us and see if we have Elwood.
- Look at that. - Do you see Elwood?
Oh, my God. He got it!
LYNCH: It looks great. It's beautiful.
Do you see Elwood? Do you see Elwood?
Yes, we do.
We got him.
# Just the two of us #
# We can make it if we try #
# Just the two of us #
We pulled it off, Daddy-O.
Yeah.
Whoo.
Great job.
Everybody did a great job.
MARSCHALL: Elwood is safe and sound.
And the time is 6: 16, September 11, 2001.
See you later.
What's this thing that's going on?
The worst terrorist attack in history, Jim.
CAMERON: We all were wrapped up in what we were doing
and thought it was important.
Hit by two separate hijacked commercial jets...
And then this horrible event happened
and slammed us into this perspective.
God.
LYNCH: The morning after the attack on September 11th,
I kept thinking how trivial this expedition suddenly became.
It just wasn't a big deal anymore.
MARSCHALL: The emotional parallels came first.
We now understood what it felt like
to be a witness to tragedy.
The sense of shock and numbness
and the disbelief that the unthinkable has happened.
It does happen.
Occasionally, life sits on your head.
But, hey, I've been knocked down before.
We all have. We get up.
We go on.
I think that's what makes us great.
PAXTON: Everyone decided to continue the expedition.
I think that after we'd gotten over the initial shock,
"Titanic" did seem to become important again.
Not so much for itself, but as a symbol
of what can happen when warnings go unheeded
and how I think we all hope to face death
when it comes.
PELLEGRINO: Archie Frost was in the engine room that night.
Just barely into his twenties
and had worked with Thomas Andrews
when the ship was being built.
After a certain point, Andrews had come down and told them,
"The ship does not have much time to live,
and if you stay here, you will die. "
Archie Frost said,
"We'll stay here as long as we need to be here. "
Those are the everyday heroes.
The people who ran those machines,
kept the generators running,
and kept power for the telegraph going,
who kept the crowds calm.
You find the ordinary hero that was standing next to you.
PAXTON: When you see the stern
where 1, 500 people had died,
I don't really know how to describe it.
MARSCHALL: You can't help but be emotional.
There's no doubt people were taken to the bottom
in the stern.
But they're no longer there.
Every trace of their human existence
has been dissolved into the ocean.
CAMERON: Okay, "Mir-2."
Get in position to lay the plaque.
LYNCH: Jim, getting into position to lay plaque.
PAXTON: "The 1,500 souls lost here still speak,
reminding us always that the unthinkable can happen
but for our vigilance, humility, and compassion. "
Goodbye.
We had been at sea a long time.
I was thinking about being home again.
On the final day, as we left,
at the stern of the ship was a white rainbow.
It was almost like a halo effect over the wreck of the "Titanic. "
And it had an ethereal feel to it.
I think you leave "Titanic," but it never leaves you.
It's always there.
And many times, when I close my eyes,
I'm suddenly back there, floating over the wreck,
and I feel like I am a ghost of the abyss.