Word: craft
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Watching on television, they vicariously joined the undersea craft Alvin and Jason Jr. ("J.J.") as they toured the wreckage of the luxury liner, wandering across the decks past corroded bollards, peering into the officers' quarters and through rust-curtained portholes. Views of the railings where doomed passengers and crew members stood evoked images of the moonless night 74 years ago when the great ship slipped beneath the waves...
Recounting the highlights of what has already become the most celebrated feat of underwater exploration, Ballard revealed some startling new information. His deep-diving craft failed to find the 300-ft. gash that, according to legend, was torn in the Titanic's hull when the ship plowed into the iceberg. Instead, he suggested, the collision had buckled the ship's plates, allowing water to pour in. He also brought back evidence that the ship broke apart not when she hit bottom, as he had thought when viewing the first Titanic images last September, but as she sank: the stern, which...
...Navy had launched the first, and still most famous, of the new submersibles, Alvin. Operated by Woods Hole, the 23-ft.-long craft could carry three people to a depth of 6,000 ft., pick up objects with an arm and claw, and roam the sea floor at a speed of one knot (Alvin has since been lengthened to 25 ft. and given a second arm-claw, as well as a new pressure hull that enables it to operate as far down as 13,120 ft.). The stellar performance of the tiny sub during the second Titanic mission was only...
...groups. The first section flew north in a battered Israelimade Arava. At El Zorro, a Bolivian official proudly pointed to sacks that appeared to contain white flour and knowingly murmured, "Cocaine." Actually, it was flour. Later the reporters piled into their plane -- then piled out when the fully loaded craft was unable to take off from the makeshift 300-foot runway. After being shuttled to a more suitable airstrip, they lifted off and returned to Trinidad. At that point, antsy members of the second group were told their trip was delayed. But when the reporters reassembled the following morning...
...corral, forcing the fishermen to resort to more and higher-powered chase boats. Mexican fishermen call these recently sophisticated dolphins the "untouchables," because they disappear at the first sight of a fishing boat. The discerning mammals are apparently able to tell the difference between fishing vessels and other craft, because they still approach small sailboats or motor cruisers. Still, marine biologists complain that it is increasingly difficult to study dolphins and take population counts. The oceanographic vessels evidently look too much like tuna boats...