THE haunting wreck of the Titanic is revealed as never before in stunningly detailed 3D scans on the ocean floor.
Scientists hope the high-resolution digital images – the clearest view ever of the world’s most famous shipwreck – could shed new light on the disaster.
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The doomed liner sank after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York on April 14, 1912, claiming the lives of more than 1,500 passengers and crew.
The story of the RMS Titanic has captivated the world for over a century and now researchers are hoping the wreck could yield new secrets on exactly what happened that fateful night.
Previously the only pictures available were grainy videos from deep-sea submersibles peering through the gloom two-and-a-half miles down.
It’s pitch black and too murky to see more than 30ft by the sub’s lamps – meaning it’s impossible to see the whole ship at once.
Now, however, digital scans combining some 700,000 close-up pictures have revealed the wreck in its breathtaking entirety as if the water has been drained away.
The 3D images show unopened champagne bottles and shoes on the sea floor, stalactites of rust hanging from the bow railings and a void where the grand staircase once stood.
They were created by deep sea investigators from Magellan Ltd and Atlantic Productions.
The team used remote-controlled submersibles to scan every inch of the ship and surrounding debris field over 200 hours last summer.
Long-time Titanic researcher Parks Stephenson told BBC News he was “blown away” by the full-scale scans.
He said: “It allows you to see the wreck as you can never see it from a submersible, and you can see the wreck in its entirety, you can see it in context and perspective.
“And what it’s showing you now is the true state of the wreck.”
THE UNSINKABLE SHIP – FASCINATING FACTS ABOUT THE TITANIC
RMS Titanic was the world’s largest passenger ship when it entered service – measuring 822ft – and was the largest man-made moving object on Earth.
It burned around 600 tons of coal a day and almost 100 tons of ash were ejected into the sea every 24 hours.
There were 20,000 bottles of beer on board, 1,500 bottles of wine and 8,000 cigars – all for the use of first-class passengers.
Two deaths and 246 injuries were recorded during the ship’s 26-month construction in Belfast.
The last supper served to first-class passengers consisted of 11 courses.
First-class passengers were given a book containing 352 songs, with musicians on board required to know them all to meet requests.
James Cameron’s 1997 film Titanic about the disaster has made more than £1.5bn, won 11 Oscars and is one of the highest grossing films of all time.
The decaying wreck of the 822ft liner was first discovered in 1985 but due to its depth and strong currents even the best underwater cameras have only offered a small snapshot into its colossal remains.
The bow and the stern broke apart during the sinking lie over 2,600ft apart and are surrounded by an unending field of exposed debris.
After over 111 years since the maritime disaster and those hoping to study the wreck have been racing against the clock before she returns to nature.
Much is still unknown about the Titanic’s sinking and historian Parks Stephenson believes the detailed reconstruction could yield some answers.
“There are still questions, basic questions, that need to be answered about the ship,” he told BBC News.
“We really don’t understand the character of the collision with the iceberg.
“We don’t even know if she hit it along the starboard side, as is shown in all the movies – she might have grounded on the iceberg.”
He says the digital model is “one of the first major steps to driving the Titanic story towards evidence-based research – and not speculation.”
It’s a far cry from the murky footage unveiled in February that shows the moment humans first set their eyes on the wreckage during an expedition from 1985-86.
In 2019, a group of explorers visited the ruins and called the level of erosion and deterioration “shocking” as whole sections had collapsed, staterooms disappeared and the captain’s bathtub lost forever.
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