Striking images reveal the depths of Titanic’s slow decay
The iconic image of the Titanic’s bow emerging from the darkness of the Atlantic depths made the ship’s wreck instantly recognizable. However, a recent expedition has revealed the ongoing effects of slow decay, as a large section of the ship’s railing now lies on the sea floor.
This loss of the railing, famously featured in the iconic movie scene with Jack and Rose, was uncovered during a series of dives by underwater robots this summer. The images captured during these dives show the changing state of the wreck after more than a century beneath the waves.
The Titanic sank in April 1912 after colliding with an iceberg, resulting in the loss of 1,500 lives.
“The bow of Titanic is just iconic – it’s what comes to mind when you think of the shipwreck, thanks to its portrayal in pop culture. But it doesn’t look the same anymore,” said Tomasina Ray, director of collections at RMS Titanic Inc., the company behind the expedition.
“This is yet another reminder of the deterioration that’s happening every day. People often ask, ‘How long will the Titanic remain?’ We don’t know, but we’re observing the changes in real-time.”
The team believes the 4.5-meter (14.7-foot) section of railing detached and fell within the past two years. Images and a digital scan from a 2022 expedition by deep-sea mapping company Magellan and documentary producers Atlantic Productions showed the railing was still attached, though it was beginning to buckle.
“At some point, the metal gave way, and the railing fell,” said Ray.
This is not the only part of the ship, which lies 3,800 meters down, that is being lost to the sea. The metal structure is being consumed by microbes, creating rust stalactites known as rusticles.
Previous expeditions have found that parts of the Titanic are collapsing. Dives led by explorer Victor Vescovo in 2019 showed that the starboard side of the officer’s quarters was collapsing, destroying staterooms and obliterating features like the captain’s bath from view.
This summer’s RMS Titanic Inc. expedition took place over July and August.
Two remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) captured more than two million images and 24 hours of high-definition footage of both the wreck, which split apart as it sank with the bow and stern lying about 800m apart and the debris field surrounding it.
The company is now carefully reviewing the footage to catalog the finds and will eventually create a highly detailed digital 3D scan of the entire wreck site.
More images from the dives will be revealed over the coming months.
The team has also announced another discovery of an artifact they were hoping to find even though it was against all the odds.
In 1986 a bronze statue called the Diana of Versailles was spotted and photographed by Robert Ballard, who had found the wreck of the Titanic a year earlier.
But its location was not known and the 60cm-tall figure was not documented again. Now, though, it has been discovered lying face up in the sediment in the debris field.
“It was like finding a needle in a haystack, and to rediscover this year was momentous,” said James Penca, a Titanic researcher and presenter of the Witness Titanic podcast.
The statue was once on display for the Titanic’s first-class passengers.
“The first-class lounge was the most beautiful, and unbelievably detailed, room on the ship. And the centerpiece of that room was the Diana of Versailles,” he said.
“But unfortunately, when Titanic split in two during the sinking, the lounge got ripped open. And in the chaos and the destruction, Diana got ripped off her mantle and she landed in the darkness of the debris field.”
RMS Titanic Inc. has the salvage rights to the Titanic and is the only company legally allowed to remove items from the wreck site.
Over the years, the company has retrieved thousands of items from the debris field, a selection of which are put on display around the world.
They plan to return next year to recover more – and the Diana statue is one of the items they would like to bring back to the surface.
But some believe the wreck is a grave site that should be left untouched.
“This rediscovery of the Diana statue is the perfect argument against leaving Titanic alone,” Mr Penca said in response.
“This was a piece of art that was meant to be viewed and appreciated. And now that beautiful piece of art is on the ocean floor… in pitch-black darkness where she has been for 112 years.
“To bring Diana back so people can see her with their own eyes – the value in that, to spark a love of history, diving, conservation, shipwrecks, and sculpture, I could never leave that on the ocean floor.”
