3. 6. 2012 Spooky pictures of shoes and coat from Titanic

Nine years ago, the public was able to see for the first time photos of the shoes and coat from the wreck of the Titanic. It was a century after the ship sank in the North Atlantic. The images were meant to illustrate the tragedy that took place.

The photos were released during a memorial service for the victims. "These are not shoes that just fell out of someone's bag. They were found very close together. That means they were worn by one of the victims whose body decomposed over time," said James Delgado of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The images were taken during an expedition led by famed Titanic finder Robert Ballard. He also published them in his book about the expedition. In it, he recalls the first time he saw the wreck. He imagined the Titanic colliding with an iceberg and sinking to the bottom. "A lot of people were in the water, a lot of them didn't have life jackets. They soon became cold in the freezing water. Twenty minutes in the freezing ocean was enough for them to gradually die. And their bodies sank to the bottom," Ballard sighed.

Titanic director James Cameron visited the wreck 33 times. He said he saw no human remains during his extensive explorations. "We saw shoes. We saw pairs of shoes where it was obvious that one of the victims had shoes on. But we never saw any human remains," Cameron stated.

Ballard discovered the wreck 36 years ago. His mother should have told him that he would never escape the rusty thing again. In his long career, he has tracked down about a hundred sunken ships in the deep. "I'm sure my obituary will say The man who discovered the Titanic died today," smiled Ballard, a U.S. Navy officer and professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island.

He dreamed of discovering the Titanic as a young boy. And he wasn't about to give it up as an adult. When he approached the Navy for help, he got a cold response. Eventually they agreed to cooperate, but he had to give in and agree to the Navy's terms.

The Ballards' main objective was to survey the wrecks of the nuclear submarines USS Tresher and USS Scorpion, which had disappeared with their entire crews. The operation was top secret. Ballard was only allowed to search the wreck of the RMS Titanic if he found the wrecks of both submarines in time, brought back the information the Navy required, and did not exceed the budget allocated.

Sources: www.dailymail.co.uk, www.bbc.com, www.idnes.cz, www.rozhlas.cz, www.reviewjournal.com