SEE DISASTER
How to find where Titanic hit iceberg on Google Maps – exact coordinates revealed
Watch the video above to find Titanic's final resting spot on Google Maps
FINDING the Titanic was once one of Earth's most tragic mysteries, but it's now very simple thanks to Google Maps.
The British passenger liner sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on April 14, 1912 – killing more than 1,500 passengers and crew.
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What happened to the Titanic?
Once branded "unsinkable," the RMS Titanic went down after crashing into an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City.
The ship was the largest afloat in the world at the time and was built by ship makers Harland and Wolff in Belfast.
The Titanic went down only about 715 miles from the port of Halifax in Canada, and 1,250 miles from New York City, with fewer than three days left on its trip.
Ship lookout Frederick Fleet spotted the iceberg ahead of the Titanic late on April 14, 1912, and warned the crew.
But it was already too late despite First Officer William Murdoch ordering the ship to be steered around the iceberg.
The starboard side of the Titanic collided with the iceberg, denting the hull and causing the seams to buckle and separate.
The ship quickly began sinking bow-first, causing panic on board.
The crew suffered the most casualties with approximately 700 killed.
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A total of around 1,517 lives were lost.
The last survivor of the tragedy passed away in 2009.
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How do I find the Titanic on Google Maps?
The wreck of the Titanic is at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
It was discovered on September 1, 1985, and is 13,000 feet underwater.
Now Google Maps coordinates lets any web user see the exact spot where the tragedy occurred, revealing just how close the Titanic was to its final destination.
To find the Titanic's grave site, do the following:
- Head to Google Maps or Google Earth
- Type in the following coordinates:
- Explore the area where the iceberg was when the Titanic struck
The exact sinking site is 13.2 miles away from the inaccurate coordinates given by the Titanic's radio operators on the night of her sinking.
After the Titanic cracked in half, the bow and stern sections split from each other, now lying around a third of a mile apart.
When was the Titanic wreckage found?
NUMEROUS attempts to find the Titanic wreckage were put forward without success.
The first successful attempt to find the ship happened just over 37 years ago.
In September 1985, a Franco-American expedition led by Robert Ballard discovered that the ship had split apart, likely near or at the surface, before sinking.
It later emerged that the successful 1985 hunt for the passenger liner was used as a cover for a mission to find lost nuclear submarines.
That's according to retired US Navy officer Robert Ballard, who successfully led an underwater expedition to locate the sunken ship in 1985.
Speaking to and about the now-declassified events, Ballard revealed that his expedition was part of a covert US military operation.
Ballard was tasked with finding the USS Thresh and USS Scorpion, two nuclear subs that sank in the 1960s.
The hunt for the Titanic was the perfect front: "They did not want the world to know that, so I had to have a cover story," he explained.
It wasn't a complete conspiracy, however.
Ballard did want to find the Titanic but couldn't get funding for the expensive expedition.
The US Navy eventually offered to cough up the money, but it came with one big condition.
Ballard would have to track down the submarines before the Russians, then a key rival in the ongoing Cold War, could find them.
"We knew where the subs were," Ballard revealed.
"What they wanted me to do was go back and not have the Russians follow me because we were also interested in the nuclear weapons that were on the Scorpion and also what the nuclear reactors [were] doing to the environment."
He said that the mission was "very top secret", and was hidden from the public.
"I said: 'Well, let's tell the world I am going after the Titanic.'"
Unfortunately for Ballard, the covert part of the mission took longer than expected.
After finding the Scorpion, he had just 12 days left to find the Titanic.
But his search for the nuclear subs had given him some helpful experience.
"I learned something from mapping the Scorpion that taught me how to find the Titanic: look for its trail of debris," he said.
He eventually found the Titanic and had four days left over to film the wreckage.
"People had taken 60 days and not found it. I did it in eight," he said.
Ballard recalls being immediately excited by the find, but the mood quickly turned somber.
"We realized we were dancing on someone's grave, and we were embarrassed," he said.
"The mood, it was like someone took a wall switch and went click."
"And we became sober, calm, respectful, and we promised to never take anything from that ship and to treat it with great respect."
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