It is not often that you get to meet, let alone work with your mentors and heroes. In recent years, I met Discoverer of the Titanic, Dr. Bob Ballard, a couple of times, but only recently had the opportunity to work closely with him on the National Geographic project Walking with the Ancients. On a vessel in the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, we deployed and documented several revolutionary 3D imaging devices in underwater caves with a goal to survey and map their extents and prove the technology worthy of deployment in deeper, unexplored caves nearby.
For the few that don’t know his pedigree, Bob Ballard is 77 at the time of this writing, but has the energy of a 30 year old. He was graduating from the University of California, Santa Barbara, earning undergraduate degrees in chemistry and geology in the year I was born. With more than 160 expeditions under his belt, he comes from a background in the US Navy and in academia as a professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island. He is known for his work in underwater archaeology with noteworthy discoveries of the wrecks of the RMS Titanic in 1985, the battleship Bismarck in 1989, and the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown in 1998. He discovered the wreck of John F. Kennedy’s PT-109 in 2002 and may soon be revealing the location of Amelia Earhart’s missing plane. Today, he leads ocean exploration on E/V Nautilus, and reaches out through Nautilus Live broadcasts worldwide.
As Bob ran around our vessel swatting flies, he was never distracted from our ultimate mission and the next steps we could take. With every small technology issue, he had a solution. With every success, he had an idea about how to challenge ourselves further. In short, he seemed visionary and yet totally down to earth. I’m thrilled I had the opportunity to work with him and excitement about our next deployment. But, I was blown away when he agreed to read my book and did so in 24 hours. Without asking, he quickly penned an endorsement that I will not forget. It was incredibly thoughtful for him to take such a large chunk of time out of his endlessly busy schedule.
“Cave divers are another breed, which I never truly understood; that was until I met Jill Heinerth on a cave diving trip off Santa Cruz Island and had a chance to read her new book “Into the Planet”, which helped to explain it all! A Must Read!” — Dr. Robert D. Ballard – Discoverer of the RMS TITANIC
