The most famous shipwreck of all-time, the Titanic sunk off of the eastern coast of North America in 1912 after striking an ice burg in the north Atlantic ocean. 1500 souls were lost at sea the day the Titanic sank below the ocean waters.

Dr. Bob Ballard, the man who actually ended up finding the wreck, approached the U.S. Navy in 1982, looking for funding to begin searching for the iconic vessel using a robotic submarine that he had developed on his own.

As you can imagine, the U.S. Navy wasn't interested in spending money just to find an old shipwreck that had nothing other than historical value, but there was something below the waters of the Atlantic that they very much wanted to have a look at.

The USS Thresher and USS Scorpion (both Cold War era nuclear subs) sank in the Atlantic during the 1960s. There was suspicions that the USSR had sunk the subs and the U.S. Navy was exceedingly curious to see how the nuclear reactors had fared after two decades under the salt water.

So the navy made a deal with Dr. Ballard, he would have to locate and inspect the two nuclear subs before he would be allowed to start searching for the Titanic.

"I couldn't tell anybody. There was a lot of pressure on me. It was a secret mission. I felt it was a fair exchange for getting a chance to look for the Titanic," said Dr. Ballard.  

Dr. Ballard ended up locating the USS Thresher in 1984 before finding the Titanic in 1985.

Check out what the Titanic wreck looks like today.