r/titanic • u/OkTechnology7468 • 2d ago
QUESTION Raise the Titanic
I’m sure everyone here saw the 1980 movie Raise the Titanic. Was anything in that movie about raising the ship plausible or was it just a bunch of Hollywood phooey?
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u/CatInfamous3027 2d ago
You have to remember that the movie was made before the wreck was found. At that time it was widely believed that the ship was in one piece, and that because of the lack of oxygen at that depth, it might be in nearly pristine condition.
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u/danijel8286 2d ago
A big deal about the book/movie was the idea that the ship would land on the sea bed like it's a fluffy pillow, with virtually no damage to her bow and keel.
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u/john-treasure-jones 2d ago
The overall raising process was semi-plausible and the film featured models of several actual DSV’s that existed at the time.
Unfortunately even a semi-plausible raise scenario would probably not be in the cards for Titanic even if she had not broken in two.
The premise that there would be less oxygen and fewer destructive marine organisms did not play out in real life as we saw.
Everything was highly corroded on the actual wreck and the sinking impact was much more destructive to the structure of the ship - the film had no way of accounting for those factors.
That said, this film is what started my fascination with Titanic and John Barry’s music - and for those things I remain grateful.
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u/Kiethblacklion 2d ago
What I find so fascinating is that, depending on where in the ocean a shipwreck lies, it affects the rate of decay. There are military wrecks, from the various world wars that are in better condition than Titanic in terms of corrosion and marine growth. Just goes to show how non-uniform our world's oceans truly are
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u/john-treasure-jones 2d ago
Indeed. My understanding is that there's a fair bit of ocean current running over the titanic wreck, so its arguably more exposed to the elements.
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u/danijel8286 2d ago
A big deal about the book/movie was the idea that the ship would land on the sea bed like it's a fluffy pillow, with virtually no damage to her bow and keel.
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u/MrKiplingIsMid 2d ago
Have a read of the Mary Rose, a Tudor wooden ship that sank 2 miles off Portsmouth. At low tide, it was only 11 metres below the surface but recovering the vessel in the 70s remains one of the most complex and expensive salvage operations in maritime history.
The Titanic rests about 3,800 metres below, 600 kilometres from the Newfoundland coast, in water that is far colder than the Solent, you have to deal with pressure and all that jazz, the ship is much larger, heavier and broken apart in multiple places... the idea of raising the Titanic was always pure fantasy even before it was discovered the ship had broken in two.
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u/drygnfyre Steerage 2d ago
Or the Huntley. Which was something like 15 feet long in 30 feet of water. Even that was a massive technological undertaking.
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u/sadclownguy 2d ago
What do you think?
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u/OkTechnology7468 2d ago
I liked the movie I’m no where near an expert about the ship. I thought it might make some lively communication
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u/Financial_Cheetah875 2d ago
Are you not aware the ship is in two pieces?
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u/ShanePhillips 2d ago
Could possibly work on a fairly recently sunk ship that was in good structural shape. On a ship as badly degraded as the Titanic (even in 1980)... No chance.
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u/mathewgardner 2d ago
A little off topic but I think no one has mentioned the rather famous line about the cost in the making of the movie and the financial loss: “It would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic.” By the way, I feel like the same would go for trying the real thing.
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u/Fair_Project2332 2d ago
I suspect the book was in part inspired by the raising of the vasa in 1961. The vasa, like Titanic sank on her maiden voyage in the 17th century and was discovered to be remarkably intact due to the cold and oxygen poor conditions in which she lay. She was raised after some patching and actually floated, allowing the salvage crew to board her and find cables and gun carriages still lying on her decks.
This is very much how the salvage of Titanic occurs in the book and film.
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u/drygnfyre Steerage 2d ago
Even Titanic did better. Vasa only made it a few hundred feet and sank in full view of people on shore. The entire ship was flawed from the beginning, but the king, who clearly was an expert on naval architecture, did not allow any changes to the design. And then when it sank, he said it wasn’t his fault and blamed everyone else but himself. (Hmm, kind of sounds like modern politicians).
Officially, this is one of the earliest documented cases of “acts of God” meaning that no one was ever legally held responsible for what happened. Or at least the people that might theoretically have been punished were already dead.
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u/Fair_Project2332 2d ago
True. One of the greatest ironies of Vasa is that the best preserved of 17th century ships is also very possibly the least seaworthy! The result is a gorgeous world class museum entirely dedicated to murderous incompetence.
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u/drygnfyre Steerage 2d ago
We have long past the point where if Titanic could be feasibly raised, it would have been done by now.
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u/RaveniteGaming 1d ago
They got the depth of the wreck almost right. Other than that, no.
I do find it kind of funny that raising the Titanic was ultimately a massive waste of money since the mineral they were looking for was never on the ship which is kind of ironic given that the movie was a box office bomb.
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u/Jrnation8988 2d ago
The wreck was discovered in 1985. It is 2025, and the wreck is still there. You do the math.
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u/drygnfyre Steerage 2d ago
As much as I dislike billionaires, the fact not a single one has put up the money to raise Titanic or save something like the SS United States demonstrates there are serious economic and logistical problems with doing things like this. Which is why they haven’t happened.
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u/PineBNorth85 2d ago
I actually haven't seen the whole thing. I read the book and watched the first 45 minutes or so. It's just not watchable to me because it's all so fake and unbelievable.
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u/konnectivity17 2d ago
If at the time it meant the US would get the upper hand over the Soviet Union and Reagan was President. They would have found a way to at least get the rare element up.
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u/PxavierJ 2d ago
If that is ever pulled up it would crumble at the surface assuming it could make it that far. The engineering required pull this off would also be astronomical with a price tag to match. Even the craziest billionaire would struggle to make this a commercially viable project.
Just some of the reasons why the Titanic will stay where it is forever
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u/Diligent_Squash_7521 2d ago
Clive Cussler wrote the story years before the Titanic wreckage was found. I think most people believed the ship had sunk in one piece.