Lying at the bottom of the North Atlantic, the remains of the Titanic are showing signs of deterioration. Researchers discovered in a new expedition that a portion of railing had fallen from the iconic bow of the ship, where characters Jack and Rose “fly” in the 1997 “Titanic” film.
The Titanic expedition was the first to venture down to the site since the Titan submersible tragedy that claimed the lives of five people last summer. RMS Titanic Inc., which holds the legal rights to salvage from the wreckage, launched a team of videographers, photographers, scientists, and historians in July to document the current state of the wreckage.
The ship sank after hitting an iceberg in the early morning hours of April 15, 1912, on its very first voyage. More than 1,500 people on board died. Since then, public fascination with its remains has endured, leading to several trips to the bottom of the sea to photograph and explore the ship, the last of which was in 2010.
Over two million photos taken during the 20-day 2024 expedition revealed new evidence of deterioration on the Titanic, researchers said.
The team found on July 29 that a 15-foot section of the railing around the ship’s bow was missing on the port side. It had previously been intact in 2010. Photographs from earlier expeditions showed the evolution of “rusticles and sea life” on the bow’s railing. The missing piece is now lying on the sea floor.
“Although Titanic’s collapse is inevitable, this evidence strengthens our mission to preserve and document what we can before it is too late,” RMS Titanic Inc. said on its website.
‘Lost’ Statue Rediscovered
The team hoped to find a statue that once “embodied Titanic’s palatial design” as the centerpiece of the ship’s first-class lounge while it was afloat. When the ship went down, the lounge was torn apart, and the “Diana of Versailles” statue was lost in the debris field.
The 2-foot bronze statue depicts the Roman goddess of wild animals, Diana. The statue was spotted in photos taken during a 1986 expedition, “but a tradition of secrecy around the Titanic wreck ensured her location would remain unknown,” RMS Titanic Inc. said. After days of searching, the team finally located the statue on the last day of the expedition and was able to photograph it with detail “not seen in 112 years.”
“The discovery of the statue of Diana was an exciting moment,” RMS Titanic Inc. Director of Collections Tomasina Ray said in a news release.
Before their trip, the RMS Titanic Inc. researchers said they were sending remote-operated vehicles (ROVs) to collect data and take photographs with underwater cameras, but no manned vehicles were sent down.
Famous Titanic Explorer, Lost in Submersible Disaster, Honored
The company launching this year’s expedition, RMS Titanic Inc., held a memorial service for Paul-Henri Nargeolet and all the lives lost on both the Titan submersible and the Titanic. Nargeolet was a famous Titanic expert and deep-water explorer who went down to the Titanic wreckage 37 times.
Nargeolet, 73, was on board the sub Titan when it imploded during a trip to the Titanic on June 18, 2023. He would have been part of this summer’s expedition as RMS Titanic Inc.’s director of underwater research.
Titan’s disappearance captivated international attention during a frantic four-day search of the waters after a support ship lost contact with the sub. The submersible was scheduled for a two-hour trip 2.5 miles down to the wreckage site, but it never resurfaced. On board were Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate; Nargeolet, the French explorer; British pilot and adventurer Hamish Harding, 58; Shahzada Dawood, 48, a Pakistani-British businessman and his 19-year-old son, Suleman Dawood.
On June 22, the U.S. Coast Guard announced it had located a debris field and that the Titan had imploded, killing all its occupants.
Nargeolet’s family last month filed a wrongful death lawsuit for $50 million against OceanGate, which operated the Titan submersible.
