Legendary Explorer & Discoverer of Titanic to Visit the Lowcountry:
A Conversation with Dr. Robert Ballard

By Mark Shaffer
Photos provided by National Geographic

“There’s more history in the deep sea than all the museums of the world combined.”
                                           –Dr. Robert Ballard

60 years ago young Bob Ballard read Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and it changed his life. The enigmatic Capt. Nemo catpured his imagination and he dreamed of roaming the ocean’s uncharted depths in a Nautilus of his own. Over more than five decades Dr. Robert Ballard has led more than 150 expeditions leading to discoveries of which Nemo himself would be proud.

It’s mid-August in the Lowcountry – that weird, bipolar time of year when the calendar’s shouting “back-to-school!” while the weather’s whispering “back to bed.”

What's a gardener to do? I've been wringing my hands to deal with the angst. Not terribly effective, I can assure you, but it is too hot to do anything else.

Two years ago, Beaufort readers were introduced to Lowcountry Burn and its protagonist Nick Falco. As the story began, Nick learned he’d inherited a great deal of money from his grandmother, along with her house on beautiful Fripp Island, where he’d dreamed of living since he was a boy.