Google Maps coordinates reveal exact spot where Titanic sank in 1912
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Google Maps coordinates reveal the exact location of the Titanic wreckage – a spooky site that marks one of history's deadliest marine disasters.
The British passenger liner sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on April 14, 1912, killing more than 1,500 passengers and crew.
Once branded "unsinkable", the RMS Titanic went down after crashing into an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The ship was the largest afloat in the world at the time, and was built by shipmakers Harland and Wolff in Belfast.
Now Google Maps coordinates let any web user see the exact spot where the tragedy occurred, revealing just how close the Titanic was to its final destination.
Simply head to the Google Maps app and type in the following coordinates: 41.7325° N, 49.9469° W.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Numerous attempts to find the Titanic wreckage were put forward without success.
The problem lay in the fact that the wreckage was around 12,000 feet below the surface, where water pressure is as high as 6,500 pounds per square inch.
The first successful attempt to find the ship happened just over 30 years ago.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}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.
The two separate bow and stern sections lie around a third of a mile apart, in the Titanic Canyon off the coast of Newfoundland.
And the exact sinking site is 13.2 miles away from the inaccurate coordinates that were given by the Titanic's radio operators on the night of her sinking.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Even more tragic is the fact that the Titanic was just 715 miles from the port of Halifax, and 1,250 miles from New York.
The Titanic was due to dock in New York on the morning of April 17, 1912, just three days after the disaster.
Ship lookout Frederick Fleet spotted the iceberg ahead of the Titanic late on April 14, and warned the crew.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}And despite First Officer William Murdoch ordering the ship to be steered around the iceberg, it was already too late.
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.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Tragically, there were only enough lifeboats to carry half of the passengers, and the crew weren't sufficiently trained for an evacuation.
At least 1,500 people are believed to have lost their lives in the disaster, with an estimated 710 survivors who were shipped to New York aboard the RMS Carpathia.
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.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}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 CNN and CBS 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.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}And 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 actually want to find the Titanic, but couldn't get funding for the expensive expedition.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The US Navy eventually offered to cough up the money – and 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.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"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'."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}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.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I learned something from mapping the Scorpion that taught me how to find the Titanic: look for its trail of debris."
He eventually found the Titanic, and had four days left over to film the wreckage – because the ship was due to be rented out by someone else.
"People had taken 60 days and not found it. I did it in eight," he said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}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.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"And we became sober, calm, respectful, and we made a promise to never take anything from that ship, and to treat it with great respect."
This story originally appeared in The Sun.