Expedition to Titanic heads to land

ST. JOHN'S, Nfld. - Expedition Titanic, which is surveying the wreck of the ocean liner that sank in 1912, is showing off some crisp images of the world's most famous shipwreck, but officials said Sunday they are headed back to shore.

They said high seas and winds from Hurricane Danielle prevented researchers from carrying out their work.

Expedition officials said they intend to return to finish their work after a delay of a few days.

The scientists have been using a pair of robots to take thousands of photographs and hours of video of the wreck, which lies about 2.5 miles below the surface. The high-resolution images include shots of the ship's bow, clearly showing the railing and anchors.

The expedition left Newfoundland this month for the spot in the North Atlantic where the ship struck an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage.

A total of 1,522 passengers and crew members died when the ship went down. The last survivor died in England in 2009.

The expedition is a partnership between RMS Titanic Inc., which has exclusive salvage rights to the wreck, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. RMS Titanic made the last expedition to the site in 2004.

It will not collect artifacts but is scheduled to probe a 2-by-3-mile debris field.

Since oceanographer Robert Ballard and an international team discovered the Titanic in 1985, most of the expeditions have either been to photograph the wreck or gather thousands of artifacts such as shoes, fine china, shoes, and ship fittings.

History buffs are taking a wait-and-see approach to the expedition, saying it's too early to tell whether it will reveal anything new.

One of the photos released over the weekend shows the Titanic's rusty bow from the starboard side and another shows a bird's-eye view of the bow, in what expedition officials say are the clearest images to date.

The vice president of the Titanic Historical Society said some of the society's Titanic buffs have begun online discussions about the expedition.

But Karen Kamuda said the society's 4,000 members worldwide tend to be "very sophisticated" and have high expectations when it comes to new information about the underwater wreck.

"It's sort of like, 'Been there, done that,'•" Ms. Kamuda said. "They want to see something new, and of course it's too early to see something new."

She said the expedition's stated goal of mapping the debris field around the ship could provide something for her members to get excited about.

"To be able to see where items are out in the debris field and to be able to see what is where … things like that I think would be of interest," she said.

Expedition leaders say up to half of the debris field around the ocean liner has never been examined.

The team hopes to make a "virtual map" of the area which will eventually be made available to the public.

Dave Gallo, co-leader of the expedition, has called the robot technology being used to capture images "the great-great-grandchildren" of the equipment first used to explore the Titanic when it was discovered in 1985.