The exciting and chilling underwater race to salvage the Titanic is captured in this thrilling film, adapted from Clive Cussler’s international best seller, “Raise The Titanic” first published in 1976

"My original inspiration was based on fantasy and desire to see the world's most famous ship brought up from the seabed and towed into New York Harbour, completing her maiden voyage begun three quarters of a century before. Fortunately, it was a fantasy shared by millions of her devoted fans."

On August 1, 1980, Raise the Titanic was released nationwide as a major motion picture starring Jason Robards, Richard Jordan, David Selby, Anne Archer & Alec Guinness.

The film depicts the amazing efforts of an American special agent to recover vital material for United States’ defence.

It was believed that the mighty “unsinkable” ship contained vital material which could be used to make the U.S.. impregnable to atomic attack.

The ship is down too deep for divers, so the only solution is to raise the Titanic.

The film was the most expensive film at that time at a cost of around $30 million.

Unfortunately, the film was a major flop at the box office, recouping only about $7 million.

Having obtained the rights from the author Clive Cussler, Stanley Kramer then resold them to Lord Grade for a reported sum of $400,000 with the proviso that he direct the picture. He was to leave the production before filming was even started. American Jerry Jameson who had had earlier experience raising large objects from the sea with Airport 77 took on the mammoth task.

Even Lord Grade, the president of ITC, the company that filmed the picture, claimed "It would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic".

1980

The first ‘Jack Grimm’ Expedition

Jack Grimm was a Texas oilman, wildcatter, treasure hunter, risk-taker and entrepreneur.

Jack Grimm was also one of those pioneers in deed and spirit who played an important role and made a contribution in the arena of adventure.

He was involved in such deals as drilling wildcat oil or gas wells to discover new fields, searching for Noah's Ark, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, promoting the locating and salvage of the Titanic and searching for sunken shipwrecks.

Grimm mounted his very first expedition to find the Titanic in July 1980, using the research vessel H.J.W. Fay which left the Florida port of Port Everglades with a crew of 38. Two oceanographers on board, Dr. William Ryan and Dr. Fred Spiess, assisted Grimm in his quest to find the Titanic. The expedition had been planned by film producer Mike Harris, Senior, and was funded by Jack Grimm.

The expedition searched a defined area based on the Titanic's distress CQD signals, and the plot of the Californian's position. The expedition could not confirm the identified 14 potential targets, as the cameras could not be launched due to bad weather on site.

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