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Product Details

From Publishers Weekly
Nearly twenty years after his famous 1985 discovery of the shipwrecked Titantic, the remote viewing technology developed by oceanographer Ballard and his team had progressed such that Ballard could capture the dream he was "just starting to realize" in '85, deep-sea remote viewing with the "cleanest, clearest images... all in high definition." Despite (or because of) decay and ghostly lighting, the submarine images are strangely vivid and colorful, with the power and credence to support one of Ballard's major endeavors, declaring the wreck site an international marine museum (one chapter documents damage caused by private expeditions since '86, another imagines a visit to the museum of 2062). Chapters on the ship's construction and sinking include historical photos of the Titanic and its sister ship, the Olympic, juxtaposed with those same features from their Atlantic grave. Accompanied by commentary from colleagues Dwight Coleman and Jeremy Weirich, this book is a satisfying read with mesmerizing images for armchair voyagers, and a significant excursion into submarine technology and archeology for the more science-minded.
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Review
Booklist, August 1, 2008 “A haunting tribute to the tragedy of the sinking of the Titanic.”

Publishers Weekly, August 25, 2008 (web review)
“…a satisfying read with mesmerizing images for armchair voyagers, and a significant excursion into submarine technology and archeology for the more science-minded.”

Bookgasm.com, August 28, 2008
“Titanic buffs will do backflips over Titanic: The Last Great Images."

Sacramento Book Review, September 2008
“…the pictures are so crisp, one could forget that they were taken from under 12,000 feet of water. All in all, an excellent book of the history, and aftermath of the Titanic tragedy.”

About the Author
Dr. Robert Ballard was the first to discover the wreck of the Titanic, on September 1, 1985, seventy-three years after the great vessel sank. He is one of the world’s leading marine geologists and has been instrumental in the development of new underwater exploration technology. Dr. Ballard is a passionate advocate for the preservation of the Titanic as it lies, arguing that salvaging and looting are desecrating the historical wreck. He resides in Connecticut between expeditions.

Customer Reviews

BEST TITANIC BOOK EVER!!!
This book is the ultimate Titanic book!!! The pictures are so clear and vibrant it is hard to believe that they are the same wreck site pictures that we all know and love from 1985!! Dr. Ballard is truly a genius! I personnally hope that this really isn't his last Titanic book! But if it is, at least he went out with the greatest book that we could ask for!

Titanic images
If you are a Titanic junkie like myself, you'll find this latest book from Robert Ballard, finder of Titanic, to be essential. New and haunting images from the debris feild and decaying wreck never fail to stir the emotions. A definite must have.

Haunting Photos of the Ship of Ghosts
Robert Ballard, the author of "Titanic: The Last Great Images", will ever be associated with the great, lost ship. It was Ballard who was the driving force behind the 1985 expedition that found the sunken vessel, and since then his voice has been steady in its opposition to the destructive exploitation of the wreck.

"Titanic: The Last Great Images" serves in part as an account of his 2004 return to the site to make further explorations with Remotely Operated Vehicles equipped with high resolution television cameras. Many of the photographs in the book -- "the last great images" -- stem from that mission. They are intensely powerful images, documenting in extraordinary detail the present condition of the wreck. Ballard is sharply, although not stridently, critical of damage done over the previous two decades by other expeditions, perhaps more the result of accidents rather than deliberate intent, but destructive nonetheless. The damage is worst in those areas most frequently visited by such expeditions, but Ballard is quick to point out that even natural processes, left to themselves, will eventually reduce the wreck to a pile of unrecognizable debris (hence, I suppose, the notion of these images being "the last"), perhaps in a century's time. But Ballard does not merely report woe; he notes that the extent of damage is not as great as some have claimed and that the reduced pace of visiting expeditions has meant less damage being inflicted. Ballard's great hope, firmly expressed in this book, is that legal action will be undertaken to protect the wreck from human activity, and that steps might eventually be made towards preserving it from extensive natural decay, so that someday it might serve as an underwater marine museum, visited only through the medium of robot vehicles. It is a great dream.