Robert Ballard: Modern-Day Captain Nemo

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Academy of Achievement

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4.6 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 2 August 2021

⏱️ 57 minutes

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Summary

He’s a modern-day Captain Nemo - the person responsible for much of what we’ve learned about the Earth’s oceans over the past sixty years. He’s best-known as the person who discovered the Titanic and other historic shipwrecks. But his contributions to science and his dedication to exploration are what he’s proudest of. In the 1970’s Bob Ballard was one of the first people to explore the bottom of the sea in a submersible, and he was the first to begin mapping its geography. He later helped discover the existence of hydro-thermal vents, holes in the ocean floor where the water circulates through the planet’s interior. Over the decades he has pioneered new and better ways for oceanographers to explore and document - in manned vehicles and robotic ones. At 79, he continues to innovate and to educate new generations of ocean scientists. On this episode we’ll also hear from one of his proteges, Allison Fundis, who is making her own significant contributions to our understanding of the oceans that sustain us. (c ) American Academy of Achievement 2021

Transcript

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0:00.0	When 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea came out in theaters in 1954, Robert Ballard was 12 years old.
0:12.0	The real story of the ocean depths begins where you left off.
0:18.0	Wonders that defy my powers of description.
0:22.0	The secrets that are mine alone. Captain Nemo, here was a person who built his
0:28.6	own submarine using the advanced technology.
0:33.0	So he was a technologist, but he was an adventure.
0:36.0	He explored beneath the sea.
0:38.0	He had a giant window.
0:40.0	And he saw the sea through that window and that's exactly what I'm doing.
0:46.0	A modern day, Captain Nemo.
0:49.0	It's no exaggeration, Robert or Bob Ballard really is our modern day Captain Nemo.
0:57.0	What we now know about the deepest parts of the ocean is in large part due to the work he has
1:02.3	done over the past 60 years.
1:05.0	He pioneered better technology to get us down there, first in manned deep sea submersibles,
1:12.0	and then with remotely operated vehicles and he's led over 150
1:17.0	expeditions revealing huge swaths of the earth we've never seen before and knew little about.
1:25.0	Ballard is probably best known though as the person who found the Titanic on the ocean floor
1:31.0	73 years after it hit that iceberg.
1:34.5	You might think I would have led with the Titanic,
1:37.5	but it's not what Ballard is most proud of.
1:40.5	You know, you want to be known for what you want to be known for. I mean I don't want on my
1:45.6	gravestone Bob Ballard discover the Titanic. I want Bob Ballard explore.
	...

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