Editing Robert Ballard (section)

====''Lusitania''====
In 1993, Ballard investigated the wreck of [[RMS Lusitania|RMS ''Lusitania'']] off the Irish coast. It had been struck by a torpedo, whose explosion was followed by a second, much larger one. The wreck had been [[depth charge]]d by the [[Royal Navy]] several years after the sinking and had also been damaged by other explorers, making a forensic analysis difficult. He found no evidence of boiler explosion and he speculated the ignition of coal dust inside the ship caused a "massive, uncontrollable [second] explosion".<ref name="pbs_lusitania">{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/lostliners/lusitania.html |title=Text excerpted from Lost Liners, courtesy of Madison Press Books |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=PBS |access-date=September 2, 2018 |quote=previous visitors had already tampered with the evidence...we found nothing to suggest the ship was sabotaged. |archive-date=August 30, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180830023648/http://www.pbs.org/lostliners/lusitania.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Others have questioned this hypothesis, some suggesting that the ship had been sabotaged by the British. Ballard found no evidence to support this claim.<ref name="pbs_lusitania"/> Some experts have indicated that it was, in fact, boiler explosions that caused the ship to sink so quickly, in a mere 18 minutes.<ref>{{cite book |last=Schmidt |first=Donald E |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EXbQoSUOP4AC&q=Lusitania+cause+of+sinking+ballard&pg=PA73 |title=The Folly of War: American Foreign Policy, 1898-2005 |date=May 31, 2005 |publisher=Algora |isbn=978-0-87586-382-5 |page=74 |access-date=October 28, 2020 |archive-date=February 6, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230206135152/https://books.google.com/books?id=EXbQoSUOP4AC&q=Lusitania+cause+of+sinking+ballard&pg=PA73 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Ballard published a book about the discovery, ''Exploring the Lusitania: Probing the Mysteries of the Sinking that Changed History'', also titled ''Robert Ballard's Lusitania'' in some markets, with co-author Spencer Dunmore.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ballard |first=Robert D. |date=1995 |title=Exploring the Lusitania: probing the mysteries of the sinking that changed history |url=https://archive.org/details/exploringlusitan0000ball |url-access=registration |publication-place=New York |publisher=Warner Books |isbn=0-446-51851-4 |lccn=95002771}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Ballard |first=Robert D. |date=2007 |title=Robert Ballard's Lusitania: probing the mysteries of the sinking that changed history |url=https://archive.org/details/robertballardslu0000ball |url-access=registration |publication-place=Edison, N.J. |publisher=Chartwell Books |isbn=978-0-7858-2207-3}}</ref>