JABQ04 said:
I think the condition of the wreck is what will not allow this project to succeed. The depth and size have been attempted before resulting in moderate success. Look up Project Azorian for reference. A brief run down is a Soviet sub sank, the US found it and attempted to recover part of the sub from a depth of approximately 3 miles. How much was recovered and what was found is still up for speculation, but at least a portion was raised to be studied. Interesting read if anyone e cares to look it up.
But again, there is almost no way possible that the bow of the Titanic would survive being raised 2 mile to the surface. Hell it probably won't even last another 20 years as is.
Now the Bismarck is in extremely good condition for what she went through. if there was no protected site status and was not classified as a war grave that would be an interesting scenario.
Uh...not really close to being the same scale.
K-129 (the sub): 330 ft x 28 ft x 28 ft, 2700 tons
Titanic: 441 ft x 92.5 ft x 100 ft (assuming the break in the middle, which I know is erroneous, but I can't find the actual number, I'm also setting the height to 100 to account for the loss of the stacks). Assuming a constant weight distribution, 23,165 tons.
To make this work with the truss system similar to the Hunley operation, you would need a structure that was roughly 450 ft long, 120 feet wide, and 150 feet tall. It then needs to be capable of withstanding (with little or no deflection due to load) over 25 tons (a lousy 1.08 factor of safety). In theory, yes, you
could design a structure that could accomplish this, but the cost would be more than the Titanic itself, I'd bet.
And even with K-129 being smaller, and of a higher structural integrity due to design, materials, and age...it still broke up on its way to the surface. Titanic has next to nothing left in structural integrity. It'd probably collapse when it broke free of the seafloor (which it's buried several feet into, so you've got suction there).