<P> Ballard realized that looking for the wreck itself using sonar was unlikely to be successful and adopted a different tactic , drawing on the experience of the surveys of Thresher and Scorpion ; he would look for the debris field instead , using Argo 's cameras rather than sonar . Whereas sonar could not distinguish man - made debris on the sea bed from natural objects , cameras could . The debris field would also be a far bigger target , stretching a mile ( 1.6 km ) or longer , whereas Titanic itself was only 90 feet ( 27 m ) wide . The search required round - the - clock towing of Argo back and forth above the sea bed , with shifts of watchers aboard the research vessel Knorr looking at the camera pictures for any sign of debris . After a week of fruitless searching , at 12.48 am on Sunday 1 September 1985 pieces of debris began to appear on Knorr 's screens . One of them was identified as a boiler , identical to those shown in pictures from 1911 . The following day , the main part of the wreck was found and Argo sent back the first pictures of Titanic since her sinking 73 years before . The discovery made headlines around the world . </P>
<P> Ballard realized that looking for the wreck itself using sonar was unlikely to be successful and adopted a different tactic , drawing on the experience of the surveys of Thresher and Scorpion ; he would look for the debris field instead , using Argo 's cameras rather than sonar . Whereas sonar could not distinguish man - made debris on the sea bed from natural objects , cameras could . The debris field would also be a far bigger target , stretching a mile ( 1.6 km ) or longer , whereas Titanic itself was only 90 feet ( 27 m ) wide . The search required round - the - clock towing of Argo back and forth above the sea bed , with shifts of watchers aboard the research vessel Knorr looking at the camera pictures for any sign of debris . After a week of fruitless searching , at 12.48 am on Sunday 1 September 1985 pieces of debris began to appear on Knorr 's screens . One of them was identified as a boiler , identical to those shown in pictures from 1911 . The following day , the main part of the wreck was found and Argo sent back the first pictures of Titanic since her sinking 73 years before . The discovery made headlines around the world . </P>
when was the resting place of the titanic discovered
when was the resting place of the titanic discovered
1 September 1985
1 September 1985