In this online feature join Robert Ballard, discoverer of the Titanic, on a journey to the depths of the sea and back in time as he searches for sunken ships from the World War II Battle of Midway. Visitors begin with a “dive down” to the ocean floor, passing markers that give a sense of scale to Ballard’s expedition. At 17,000 feet visitors find themselves at “Mission Command,” where they can examine the history of the ships, view archived photos, study ship schematics, and read personal accounts from people who were there in 1942. In May 1998 the site was updated almost daily with reports from the field as Ballard and his team located the aircraft carrier Yorktown and brought back images of the ship from the ocean floor.
"Sites that do well on the Web typically have one thing in common: They combine information in different forms into one seamless, cohesive whole while mining the advantages the technology. Encountering such sites is a pleasure because going through its pages is an effortless experience. Yet, as a reader, you know that a lot of thinking went into the site’s design. Such is the case of National Geographic's Return to Midway.“