17. Ballard’s exploration provided physical evidence to support the scuttling of Bismarck
Since the German battleship was sunk by the Royal Navy in 1941, survivors claimed that the departing German crew had used scuttling charges to sink their ship. The Royal Navy discounted the claim, officially stating that torpedoes from HMS Dorsetshire had dealt the fatal blow. Ballard’s exploration of the wreck found the battleship’s armored citadel to be intact, with no evidence of penetration from torpedoes or shells, though the unarmored sections bore evidence of the severe damage inflicted by the British ships. There was also no evidence of compartments imploding from sea pressure as the ship sank.
Ballard’s findings from the physical condition of the wreck were consistent with the German claim of scuttling, an action in which explosive charges blow out the bottom of the hull, and watertight doors are opened to allow the entire hull to flood. Despite the ship being reduced to a flaming wreck by the British bombardment, its armor had successfully withstood the barrage. Had the Germans not scuttled the ship, it likely would have drifted as a burning wreck for a time impossible to estimate. Eventually, the location of the wreck became known, and the Federal Republic of Germany declared it to be their property and a war grave.
