The search for the Bismarck

Argo and Jason (Ballard's Bismarck search) · 1989 CE · Earth

The search for the Bismarck — Argo and Jason (Ballard's Bismarck search) · 1989 CE · Earth — Recorded expedition route · schematic map

Find the wreck of the battleship Bismarck, sunk in 1941 far out in the Atlantic west of France, after a failed first search in 1988, and film it without disturbing it.

Historical context

The Bismarck sank on 27 May 1941, three days after she had destroyed HMS Hood, and more than 2,000 of her crew died with her; the positions recorded in 1941 disagreed. Robert Ballard of Woods Hole, who had led the American side of the 1985 search that found the Titanic with the towed camera sled Argo, searched first in 1988 from a converted trawler and found only an old sailing schooner. In 1989 he came back aboard the British supply ship Star Hercules, searched the volcanic slopes he had avoided, and on 8 June crossed the upright hull. He touched nothing, promised to keep the position secret except from West Germany, and said the ship's state suggested she had been scuttled, a question later expeditions argued over.

The voyage, step by step

  1. Star Hercules leaves Cádiz

    25 May 1989

    On 25 May 1989, by Ballard's own account, the British offshore supply ship Star Hercules sails from Cádiz in the late afternoon and takes Woods Hole's towed camera sled Argo back to the waters where the Bismarck sank; the first logs of the Bismarck project in Woods Hole's archives open the same day.

  2. Hours of mud

    1989 CE

    From 29 May, by Woods Hole's logs, Star Hercules lowers Argo and tows it back and forth across a new search box about six miles by five, some 10 by 8 kilometres, watched day and night by shifts that change every four hours.

  3. A scar down a seamount

    1989 CE

    On the ninth day of the hunt, by the National Geographic film's account, Argo crosses wreckage that is plainly man-made: small debris, a boot, a lantern, then what looks like part of one of the Bismarck's main gun turrets.

  4. Upright in the mud

    8 June 1989

    On 8 June 1989 Argo crosses the hull from starboard to port, right over the bridge: the Bismarck sits upright, sunk in sediment to about her waterline, her wooden deck and smaller guns still in place.

  5. Reading the plating

    1989 CE

    In the following days Argo is towed slowly around the half-buried hull, filming shell marks, the empty turret holes and a faded swastika on the deck.

  6. Nothing taken, nothing touched

    1989 CE

    The team touches nothing, takes nothing and sees no human remains; Ballard promises to keep the exact position secret from everyone but West Germany.

Outcome

The Bismarck found on 8 June 1989 at about 4,790 metres, upright and largely in one piece but for her fallen main turrets and part of her stern; Ballard read her state as a sign that she had been scuttled, a reading later expeditions disputed in part.

Argo and Jason (Ballard's Bismarck search)

Woods Hole's towed camera sled Argo, which found the Titanic in 1985 and the battleship Bismarck in 1989, and Jason, the free-swimming robot built to work alongside it.

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Sources

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