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Deep-Sea Explorer: The Story of Robert Ballard Discoverer of the Titanic
The inspirational life-story of the undersea explorer who discovered the wreck of the Titanic offers a moving examination of Ballard's concern for helping the environment and saving the threatened oceans.
168 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 14, 2023
Robert Ballard had made incredible contributions to oceanography before 37 including discovering chemosynthesis and verifying tectonic plates on the seabed. He also led an expedition to the Lusitania and many other shipwrecks. Some of the Titanic information isn’t quite correct but still did a good job of telling the story. Bob Ballard (and his team) was meant to find the Titanic. I loved this.
October 23, 2012
Deep-Sea Explorer: The Story of Robert Ballard Discoverer of the Titanic
by Rick Archbold
Nonfiction
165 pages
This book starts from the beginning of Robert Ballard’s life. It mentions his memory in California as ones where he was a curious boy and would spend hours at a time at the tidal pools collecting specimens to observe and watch. His favorite family moments were when he went to the Scripps aquarium to see the deep sea creatures. Later in high school, he applied there for a job and was accepted, he here started his career as an oceanographer, something he would do for a long time. In college, he took physical science at UC Santa Barbara as his main course and went to the University Of Hawaii Department Of Oceanography for his graduate school. He studied oceanography and helped train dolphins until the Navy had him report in and he left for Boston. As the scientific liaison officer at the Navy base, Robert took to spending a few days a week at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, rivaled in America only by Scripps. Here he familiarized himself with Alvin, the submarine which would help him in many of his further discoveries. One of his first major projects he took part in was Project FAMOUS, an acronym for French-American Mid-Ocean Undersea Study. The idea was to map out an area of the deepest part of the ocean in existence. This was the first of his many successes. The next was the one he is most credited for, the discovery of the Titanic. After four weeks of just trying to locate the wreck site, the sonar located a boiler and from there they documented what we know today. This was not the last of his greatness however, as he then went on to locate and identify thirteen ships at the World War II battle ground of Iron Bottom Sound. He now is still active in the scientific world and is now in the field of trying to solve the world’s problems in the aspect of pollution, poverty and overpopulation.
I like to view myself as someone who knows a lot on topics such as these, but even if I knew most of the facts in this book (which I didn’t); it never fails to surprise me on how normal the lives of famous people really are. In this book it mentions his thoughts that his family had on him, how he was worried at how his brother was always better than him in academics, and the feeling of despair he had in his several first failures. His life when his son died, when his wife divorced him. I always fail to see behind the facts when I research people like this. I knew Ballard before as someone who made an impact in the scientific community (which was very great), as someone who made countless discoveries and made up much of what we know about oceanography. But now I feel I can actually say I know this person. His actual life had eluded me before. Almost nowhere online does it share any of this information. I would be the first to admit not liking to read nonfiction books, but this one I feel like I got some worthwhile information and it is one of the few nonfiction books I would recommend to people.
by Rick Archbold
Nonfiction
165 pages
This book starts from the beginning of Robert Ballard’s life. It mentions his memory in California as ones where he was a curious boy and would spend hours at a time at the tidal pools collecting specimens to observe and watch. His favorite family moments were when he went to the Scripps aquarium to see the deep sea creatures. Later in high school, he applied there for a job and was accepted, he here started his career as an oceanographer, something he would do for a long time. In college, he took physical science at UC Santa Barbara as his main course and went to the University Of Hawaii Department Of Oceanography for his graduate school. He studied oceanography and helped train dolphins until the Navy had him report in and he left for Boston. As the scientific liaison officer at the Navy base, Robert took to spending a few days a week at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, rivaled in America only by Scripps. Here he familiarized himself with Alvin, the submarine which would help him in many of his further discoveries. One of his first major projects he took part in was Project FAMOUS, an acronym for French-American Mid-Ocean Undersea Study. The idea was to map out an area of the deepest part of the ocean in existence. This was the first of his many successes. The next was the one he is most credited for, the discovery of the Titanic. After four weeks of just trying to locate the wreck site, the sonar located a boiler and from there they documented what we know today. This was not the last of his greatness however, as he then went on to locate and identify thirteen ships at the World War II battle ground of Iron Bottom Sound. He now is still active in the scientific world and is now in the field of trying to solve the world’s problems in the aspect of pollution, poverty and overpopulation.
I like to view myself as someone who knows a lot on topics such as these, but even if I knew most of the facts in this book (which I didn’t); it never fails to surprise me on how normal the lives of famous people really are. In this book it mentions his thoughts that his family had on him, how he was worried at how his brother was always better than him in academics, and the feeling of despair he had in his several first failures. His life when his son died, when his wife divorced him. I always fail to see behind the facts when I research people like this. I knew Ballard before as someone who made an impact in the scientific community (which was very great), as someone who made countless discoveries and made up much of what we know about oceanography. But now I feel I can actually say I know this person. His actual life had eluded me before. Almost nowhere online does it share any of this information. I would be the first to admit not liking to read nonfiction books, but this one I feel like I got some worthwhile information and it is one of the few nonfiction books I would recommend to people.
November 11, 2009
I read this book because deep-sea explorer Robert Ballard, was the one who discovered the wreckage of the Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. The book contains a lot of background information on Robert Ballard and really goes into detail on his search for the Titanic. It was a little frightening as I was reading along where the author describes how three men were crammed into a small exploration submarine only six-feet wide going along in pitch-black darkness at the bottom of the ocean. Two and one/half miles doesn't seem like very far when you're on land, but that far down under water would have to be terrifying. But, Robert Ballard did make history when he found the wreckage of the Titanic. I would recommend this book for middle grade or high schoolers who are curious about the Titanic.
April 18, 2011
This book is amazing because it get most of his childhood to adulthood in less than 150 pages. I also really liked that they included his job before he found the Titanic because I wanted to find out more about him.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews