Flash: Titanic Found!

<p> The History Channel's “<em>Titanic</em> at 100: Mystery Solved” (out on DVD) promises much and delivers an interesting survey of the state of underwater archeology and seabed exploration. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and RMS Titanic, Inc., the corporation that somehow became legal steward of the wreck site, launched an ambitious expedition to do what no one had done beforea complete map of the liner's ocean floor “accident site.” </p> <p>Investigating the location and condition of the debris, it was hoped, would offer new insights into what happened on that night in 1912. Aside from the obvious interposition of an iceberg in the <em>Titanic's</em> way on a moonless night, the researchers were wondering about the finding of an earlier expedition, which showed that the liner didn't simply slide to the bottom but broke in half. Was this caused by faulty construction or design? </p> <p>“The search for answers,” as the stentorian narrator proclaims, led to conclusions thatin effectlets the builder off the hook. Is the <em>Titanic</em> file closed? Well, the detailed mapping conducted by the expedition's self-propelled sonar robots has left investigators with mountains of data that will demand many more years to climb. </p>