Blast Theory in Titanic's Sinking Is Disputed

Published: Sunday, November 1, 1987
The New York Times

The suggestion that an explosion played a critical role in the sinking of the Titanic 75 years ago is incompatible with accounts by survivors, according to Dr. Robert Ballard, leader of the expedition that found the wreckage of the giant ocean liner in 1985.

The suggestion was made on a television program, broadcast Wednesday, on which items from the Titanic were displayed. Officials of the expedition that retrieved the items suggested that the explosion could have originated from a long-smouldering fire in the ship's coal supply.

But Dr. Ballard said this theory was incompatible with the accounts of witnesses, which he asserted left no doubt that a collision with an iceberg was to blame. Survivors described ice scattered on the deck of the Titanic and protruding through a small hole in her hull. The gaping hole shown on the television show, described as 30 feet wide, must have been formed later, he said in a telephone interview. Machinery Broke Loose

Survivors also described a fearsome roaring as the ship tilted vertically. Presumably, massive machinery in her hold broke loose, some of which, Dr. Ballard said, could have punched the hole at that time or when the bow hit the ocean bottom.

The Titanic, on her maiden voyage from England to New York, sank off Newfoundland in the North Atlantic on April 14, 1912, killing more than 1,500 passengers and crew members.

The two-hour television show on Wednesday, ''Return to the Titanic . . . Live,'' was shown on television stations throughout the United States, including Channel 11 in New York City. It was based on a French diving expedition that retrieved a variety of items from the wreck last summer, with sponsorship by the television company Westgate International. When Dr. Ballard, on an expedition for the Woods Hole Oceanograpohic Institution in Massachusetts, inspected the wreck last year he reported that many of the riveted hull plates had been sprung open, apparently by the collision with the iceberg. This flooded many water-tight compartments, causing the liner to sink. But he said the rate of flooding was much slower than what would have been produced by a hole 30 feet wide.
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