A bronze statue of the Titanic, not seen for decades and feared lost forever, is among the discoveries made by the company with salvage rights at the wreck site during its first expedition there in years.
RMS Titanic Inc., a Georgia-based company that legal rights to the 112 year old wreckhas completed its first voyage since 2010 and released images from the expedition on Monday. The photos show a site that is still changing more than a century later.
The journey to the remote corner of the North Atlantic where the Titanic sank took place when the US Coast Guard Investigates the implosion of Titan in June 2023, an experimental submarine owned by another company. The Titan submarine disaster killed all five people on board, including Paul Henri Nargeoletwho was director of underwater research for the RMS Titanic.
The findings from this summer’s voyage “reveal a bittersweet mix of preservation and loss,” RMS Titanic said in a statement. A highlight was the rediscovery of the “Diana of Versailles” statue, last seen in 1986, and the statue now has a clear, updated image, the company said.
On a sadder note, a significant portion of the railing that surrounds the ship’s bow foredeck has fallen, RMS Titanic said. The railing was still in place as recently as 2022, the company said.
“The discovery of Diana’s statue was an exciting moment, but we are saddened by the loss of the iconic Bow railing and other evidence of decay, which has only strengthened our commitment to preserving Titanic’s legacy,” said Tomasina Ray, director of collections for RMS Titanic.
The crew spent 20 days at the site, returning to Providence, Rhode Island, on Aug. 9. They captured more than 2 million images of the site at the highest resolution ever taken, the company said.
The team also fully mapped the wreck and debris field with equipment that should improve understanding of the site, RMS Titanic said. The next step is to process the data so it can be shared with the scientific community, and so that “historically significant and endangered artifacts can be identified for safe recovery in future expeditions,” the company said in a statement.
The company stated before the expedition that it had a particularly important mission following Nargeolet’s death.
The Coast Guard investigation will be the subject of a public hearing later in September.
Nargeolet’s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Titan sub’s operator, OceanGate, which suspended operations after the implosion. OceanGate has not publicly commented on the lawsuit, which was filed in a Washington state court.