Unit 5: Week 2

Inside the cramped submarine, all I could hear was the steady pinging of the sonar and the regular breathing of the pilot and engineer.

As we floated out over the debris field, I found it hard to believe that only a thin film of sediment covered plates and bottles that had lain on the bottom for seventy-four years.

The glass dome over the first-class grand staircase was long gone, providing a perfect opening for exploring the interior of the ship.

A porcelain doll's head stared at us from its final resting place in the soft ooze.

But that would have to wait for a later visit, when we would bring along our robotic "swimming eyeball," Jason Junior.

As we floated out over the debris field, I found it hard to believe that only a thin film of sediment covered plates and bottles that had lain on the bottom for seventy-four years.

Like a ghost from the ancient past, the bow of the Royal Mail Steamer Titanic, the greatest shipwreck of all time, materialized out of my viewport.

Suddenly the smooth steel subdecking contorted into a tangle of twisted metal where the stern had ripped free.

After only two hours on the bottom, it was time for Alvin to begin the long ascent back to the surface ship, two and a hald miles (four kilometers) above.