Did you know there is a certain amount of animosity between the world famous underwater explorer, Bob Ballard and Clive Cussler ?

Ballard is credited with the discovery of the Titanic and the Bismarck as well as many other famous wrecks. Every now and then you'll find reference to comments they say about each other ... here's an example ;


Interviewer : Have you met Clive Cussler? Where does he get his ideas?

Bob Ballard : Yes. He reads my articles. I'm not Dirk Pitt, he's too much of a chauvinist.


and another ;


Interviewer : How goes the Sea Hunters TV series? Will it air here?

CUSSLER: I don't know. It's under National Geographic, and airs internationally. What's so funny with Geographic, I narrate the program overseas, but here they run a few of them under "Mysteries of the Sea" or something, and I'm cut out of it. {laughs}

Interviewer : So you don't know what's going on?

CUSSLER: Well, somebody told me, and I don't know how true it is, but they didn't want to upset Bob Ballard, who found the Titanic.


and another ;


CUSSLER : When I go on a shipwreck and we make a big discovery, you rarely hear about it because unlike Bob Ballard (who discovered the Titanic and the German battleship Bismarck), I don't stand up in front of six TV cameras.

Meeeeooooowwww!

i grew up watching jacques cousteau and bobby ballard in the 1970s. and then started reading CC in 1982. so no cat fights! please :P

The thing with Ballard is that he became a figurehead for his organization. He's a scientist, but his accomplisments have put him into the limelight and thus he became a celebrity by default. He's admitted in the past to using his celebrity to procure funds for various expeditions.
Clive has done a lot of great things in shipwreck discovery, funded a lot of the expeditions himself, and one can agree that he gets nowhere near the recognition that Ballard gets. It's unfortunate, because things like finding the Carpathia and the Hunley, such importaint wrecks in their own right, have been largely ignored by the media.

th: Well said Foss! th:

Just zooming in on the subject of the Titanic.

Cussler published Raise the Titanic! in 1976 (his story takes place starting in July 1987). He almost seems prophetic in writing about a discovery that took place within ten years of publishing his adventure story. I almost wish Cussler made the discovery himself. t:

Robert D. Ballard and his team did locate the Titanic in 1985 and descended on the wreck a year later in July of 1986. b:

But, alas, two sea hunters ... with their own list of expeditions and discoveries. Here's to the credit each man deserves. th:

:) Thanks.

I did a report on Cousteau once. He was a very interesting person.

In Sea Hunters, Clive contacts National Geographic to see if they want to do a story on one of his discoveries and they turn him down.

For me I really don't care who did it better, or whatever, just that they did it and we get to be alive to live it.

two different men with the same objective. end results are so different. What a world we live in. here's to you Dr. Cussler. beer:

I kinda like CC's low profile about this... I've enjoyed reading both men's works, but CC's more.

It seems CC is more down to earth, and I like that... alot!

Hmmmm I wonder what it takes to get the Sea Hunters series on DVD with Clive doing the narration?

I'm curious about who started the vebal bashing. Oh well, fabulous work to both of you and play nice. th:

I was just watching Mysteries of the Deep. It was about shipwrecks and their treasure. It had a Bob Ballard story about him searching for shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea, and the other story was about a guy...(don't remember his first name) Fisher and his amazing discovery of a Spanish ship full of silver, gold, and the rest that come's with the package... I guess he discovered it just off the coast of Florida 26 years ago. The CRAZY thing is this...he named his son Dirk! Coincidence....I think NOT. HA! The crappy part, however, is that right before Fisher made the discovery, his son, yes Dirk, died when the boat he and his wife were on capsized in the middle of the night............... :blink:

Thats kinda depressing... I'm all for finding all the ships wrecks in all waters, no matter who finds them (one of these days I want it to be me finding them...I may settle for just diving them thoguh!)

I hate to admit it but I didn't even know the name of the guy who discoverd the titanic till I read this thread, But I do know of Dr. Cussler.

I guess that says it all.