Titanic: The Final Secret is an American documentary special produced by National Geographic as part of its "Finding History" strand in which the man who discovered the wreck of the Titanic - Dr. Robert Ballard - reveals how his search became a cover story to ward off Soviet suspicions of an American military investigation.
The documentary premiered in the USA on National Geographic Channel on 2 June, 2008. It is an hour long.
Titanic: The Final Secret aired for the first time in South Africa on DStv's National Geographic Channel on Monday 21 July 2008, at 21h00.
Repeats
Tuesday 22 July: 00h00, 03h00, 09h00, 14h00
Saturday 26 July: 19h00
Synopsis
In 1985, National Geographic Explorer-In-Residence Dr. Robert Ballard solved one of the greatest nautical mysteries of the 20th century when he found the final resting place of the RMS Titanic.
But the real story began in 1982, when Ballard met with Navy brass to convince them to support his lifelong dream - developing technology to find the world's most famous shipwreck.
But the Navy wasn't interested in Titanic. It wanted Ballard to assume a naval officer role on a series of top-secret missions during the Cold War. Then, if there was any time left, he could look for Titanic.
For the first time on television, Ballard reveals the details behind his top secret assignment in Titanic: The Final Secret - a story of stealth, subs and superpowers ripped from the pages of a Cold War spy thriller.
Learn how Ballard's search for Titanic became the cover story to ward off Soviet suspicions. Dive to the ocean floor and explore the covert expeditions that gave Ballard the cutting-edge forensic evidence that would lead him straight to Titanic within a matter of days.
The cover story revolved around the Navy's desire to use Ballard's expertise and more sophisticated equipment to solve the mystery surrounding two submarines that sank in the 1960s.
Thresher, the most high-tech attack submarine in the Navy's arsenal, sank just off the coast of Massachusetts in April 1963, killing all 129 men on board - the deadliest submarine disaster in history.
The second submarine, Scorpion, disappeared while en route home in the eastern Atlantic in 1968 under more mysterious circumstances.
Many believe that the Soviets ambushed Scorpion in retaliation after one of their subs, K-129, disappeared in the Pacific just 10 weeks earlier. Others claim that a torpedo exploded in Scorpion's storage hold.
Ballard needed to thoroughly investigate the underwater crash sites to help determine what caused the subs' demise; whether the Soviets had already pillaged the sites for classified information; and what kind of impact the wreckage sites had on the undersea environment.
For Ballard, this was the only way to realise his dream of finding Titanic.
The film details how Ballard's surveys of the wreckage sites allowed the Navy to eliminate many conspiracy theories surrounding Scorpion's loss.
Ballard's examination of the undersea sub graves showed that Thresher likely fell to its crush depth due to a loss of its nuclear power, while the Scorpion inexplicably suffered catastrophic failure of its pressure hull.
Having completed his work at the Scorpion site ahead of schedule, Ballard has just 12 days to find Titanic.
The sub wreckage has given Ballard invaluable new insights into the effect of ocean currents on sinking debris as he redirects his state-of-the art technology in the hunt for Titanic.
Ballard sends his camera probe, Argo, on mile-wide passes over Titanic's last known coordinates. Then, at 12:48 a.m. on September 1, 1985, Argo transmits a flash of twisted metal.
It's the first sign of Titanic's debris trail, just like those at the sub wreckage sites that would remain shrouded in secrecy - until now.