Titanic: Photos show luxury liner before and after fatal sinking
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New digital scans released today show the famous RMS Titanic in greater detail than at any time since she sank more than a century ago.
Experts have taken thousands of digital images to create the stunning 3D reconstruction of the wreck, which lies on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean about 350 nautical miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
They present the wreck almost as if it had been pulled out of the water, although this probably never will because the wreck is so fragile that it would fall apart at the slightest touch.
The Titanic’s delicate remains — which are eaten away by microbial life and hit by deep ocean currents — are deteriorating underwater so quickly that the ship could disappear completely within 40 years.
Here, MailOnline compares the eerie new images of Titanic to what she looked like before she hit that iceberg on the night of April 14, 1912 — a tragedy that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,500 people, including children.
Here, MailOnline compares the latest photos of the Titanic, taken with underwater submersibles, to what she looked like before she hit that iceberg on the night of April 14, 1912
The delicate remains of the Titanic lie at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean about 350 nautical miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada
Titanic’s 29 boilers contained a total of 159 furnaces to heat water and send the steam to the piston engines that propelled her through Atlantic waters
Experts hope studies of the new scans can reveal more about the mysteries surrounding what happened on the fateful night in April 1912, such as the exact mechanics of how it hit the seafloor.
“There are still questions, fundamental questions, that need to be answered about the ship,” Titanic analyst Parks Stephenson told the BBC.
‘[The model is] one of the first major steps in moving the Titanic story toward evidence-based research—not speculation.”
Mr Stephenson said he was ‘amazed’ when he first saw the scans, which were made last summer by deep-sea mapping company Magellan Ltd on an expedition and which will be the subject of a documentary from Atlantic Productions.
“It allows you to see the wreck like you can never see it from a submarine, and you can see the wreck in its entirety, you can see it in context and perspective,” Mr Stephenson said.
“And what it shows you now is the true state of the wreck.”
Titanic broke in half just before it made its final dive in the early hours of April 15, 1912, and now two parts of the ship – the bow and the stern – lie 800 meters apart.
Both halves are surrounded by a field of rubble consisting of bits of metal, furniture, unopened champagne bottles and even passenger shoes.
Magellan Ltd sent submersibles to explore all parts of the wreck, which lies approximately 4,000 feet below the water’s surface.
The submarines spent more than 200 hours taking 700,000 images of every corner of the ship to create the 3D reconstruction.
It is believed that the stern of the Titanic – the back of the ship – hit the ocean floor while still spinning counterclockwise
The luxury ocean liner — owned and operated by British company White Star Line — tragically sank in the early hours of April 15, 1912 after colliding with an iceberg, killing an estimated 1,517 of the 2,224 people on board
Deep-sea charts from the ship make it look like all the water has drained, making it easier to see what’s left in detail compared to cameras and lights.
Images show the stern — the back of the ship — as a twisted mess of metal after it hit the ocean floor, still spinning counterclockwise.
The V-shaped bow is more recognisable, complete with handrails, although much of it has been buried under mud by the force of the impact.
Mr Stephenson said we still ‘really don’t understand everything’ about the Titanic’s collision with the iceberg, so the new images could help reveal more.
RMS Titanic had two three-bladed wing propellers (both 23 feet in diameter and weighing 38 tons) and one four-bladed center propeller
The image reveals the wreckage in more detail than ever before, including rusty stalactites on the ship’s bow, the serial number on a propeller, and a hole above where the grand staircase once stood
“We don’t even know if she hit him on the starboard side, as all the movies show — maybe she ran aground on the iceberg,” he said.
While some shipwrecks have been brought ashore, this will probably never happen with the Titanic.
Experts think it is too delicate to be moved due to degradation from corrosion, biological activity and deep ocean currents. There would also be moral implications.
British Titanic survivor Eva Hart, who lost her father to the disaster, said shortly before her death in 1996: ‘I really hope they never try to retrieve any part of it.
“I really hope they’ll remember that this is a grave — a grave of 1,500 people who should never have died, and I don’t think you should go robbing graves there and I’m very much against it.”
The Titanic had sailed smoothly for most of the planned distance of the voyage. The wreck of the Titanic now lies 350 nautical miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada
After years of salvage proposals and failed expeditions, the wreck of the Titanic was finally located on September 1, 1985, more than 73 years after the sinking, by American oceanographer Robert Ballard.
The discovery, which made headlines worldwide, provided evidence that the ship split in two before reaching the ocean floor.
Ballard returned the following year as part of a three-man crew, delivering eerie and grainy footage shot by a remote-controlled underwater reconnaissance vehicle named Jason Junior.
In 2019, an expedition to the Titanic provided the first-ever 4K images of the ruin and discovered the extent of deterioration due to salt corrosion and metal-eating bacteria.
Scientists said microbial life was eating away at the wreckage, including the captain’s bathtub, which had completely disappeared, and the hull near the officers’ quarters on the starboard side of the ship, which had begun to collapse.