I discovered hydrothermal vents, but I’m only known for finding the Titanic

The discovery of these underwater hot springs in 1977 solved the mystery of how life first began on Earth, but it was locating the world’s most famous shipwreck that made me a celebrity

T he mid-ocean ridge is where the Earth creates its outer skin. It’s called the boundary of creation. We knew there was life on the bottom of the ocean but not entire ecosystems supporting large animals until our expedition went down there in 1977.

First, we sent down an unmanned vehicle called Angus, which was essentially a camera system and strobe lights within a two-tonne steel cage. It was going down in the eternal darkness, slaloming back and forth like a skier down a mountain.

We were exploring the longest mountain range on Earth – the mid-ocean ridge. We were looking for heat, and we theorised that there would be vents in the ridge, but we never expected to see large concentrations of life. After 12 hours of taking thousands of photos, Angus came back up.

When we studied the photos we found that at about 2,500 metres deep, where we had detected a sudden increase in temperature, the water got cloudy. Then we suddenly saw clams – giant clams the size of dinner plates – and tube worms that were two or three metres tall.

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