Current:Home > ContactCharles H. Sloan-Newly released footage of a 1986 Titanic dive reveals the ship's haunting interior -MacroWatch
Charles H. Sloan-Newly released footage of a 1986 Titanic dive reveals the ship's haunting interior
Burley Garcia View
Date:2025-04-07 01:15:39
It wasn't until July of 1986,Charles H. Sloan nearly 75 years after the RMS Titanic's ill-fated voyage, that humans finally set eyes on the ship's sunken remains.
Now those remains are, in a way, resurfacing, thanks to the release of more than 80 minutes of uncut footage from the first filmed voyage to the wreck. The research team behind the Titanic's discovery, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, released the video on Wednesday.
Available on YouTube, the footage contains shots of the ship never revealed to the public, including its rust-caked bow, intact railings, a chief officer's cabin and a promenade window.
At one point, the camera zeroes in on a chandelier, still hanging, swaying against the current in a haunting state of elegant decay.
The Titanic, a 46,300-ton steamship once touted as "unsinkable," disappeared beneath the waves after it struck an iceberg on its 1912 voyage from Southampton, England, to New York. Only 705 of the ship's 2,227 passengers and crew survived, according to The Smithsonian.
Efforts to locate the vessel began almost immediately after it wrecked, but were hampered by insufficient technology.
It took 73 years for a team of American and French researchers to find the vessel in 1985, some 12,500 feet below the ocean's surface. Using cutting-edge sonar imaging technology, the team followed a trail of debris to the site, roughly 350 miles southeast of Newfoundland, Canada.
With no remaining survivors of the wreckage, the ship's carcass is all scientists have left to understand the great maritime disaster.
But that carcass, too, is at risk of vanishing. It's slowly being consumed by a thriving undersea ecosystem — and by what scientists suspect is sheer human greed.
The WHOI's newly released footage shows the shipwreck in the most complete state we'll ever see. The ship's forward mast has collapsed, its poop deck has folded in on itself and its gymnasium has crumbled. The crow's nest and the captain's bathtub have completely disappeared.
Concerns of looting inspired one international treaty and scuttled plans to retrieve the Titanic's radio for an exhibit.
The WHOI said it timed the release to mark the 25th anniversary of the film Titanic, which was re-released in theaters on Valentine's Day as a testament to the ship's cultural staying power.
While the Hollywood film might be more likely to elicit emotions (read: tears), the new ocean-floor footage is still transfixing, according to Titanic director James Cameron.
"More than a century after the loss of Titanic, the human stories embodied in the great ship continue to resonate," Cameron said in a press statement. "By releasing this footage, WHOI is helping tell an important part of a story that spans generations and circles the globe."
veryGood! (8417)
Related
- Megan Fox's ex Brian Austin Green tells Machine Gun Kelly to 'grow up'
- PBS’ Judy Woodruff apologizes for an on-air remark about peace talks in Israel
- U of Wisconsin regents agree to ask Gov. Tony Evers for $855 million budget increase
- New Federal Report Details More of 2023’s Extreme Climate Conditions
- A South Texas lawmaker’s 15
- Emily Ratajkowski claps back at onlooker who told her to 'put on a shirt' during walk
- Survivor Host Jeff Probst Shares the Strange Way Show Is Casting Season 50
- BMW recalls over 720,000 vehicles due to water pump malfunction that may cause a fire
- Highlights from Trump’s interview with Time magazine
- Which Love Is Blind UK Couples Got Married and Which Ones Split?
Ranking
- NFL Week 15 picks straight up and against spread: Bills, Lions put No. 1 seed hopes on line
- ChatGPT bans multiple accounts linked to Iranian operation creating false news reports
- Tech Tycoon Mike Lynch Confirmed Dead After Body Recovered From Sunken Yacht
- A Japanese woman who loves bananas is now the world’s oldest person
- Opinion: Gianni Infantino, FIFA sell souls and 2034 World Cup for Saudi Arabia's billions
- AP Week in Pictures: Global
- These Lululemon Finds Have Align Leggings for $59 Plus More Styles Under $60 That Have Reviewers Obsessed
- Man accused of faking death and fleeing US to avoid rape charges will stand trial, Utah judge rules
Recommendation
Megan Fox's ex Brian Austin Green tells Machine Gun Kelly to 'grow up'
College students are going viral on TikTok for luxury dorm room makeovers. You won't believe it.
Man charged in 2017 double homicide found dead at Virginia jail
The tragic true story of how Brandon Lee died on 'The Crow' movie set in 1993
In ‘Nickel Boys,’ striving for a new way to see
Kamala Harris with Beyoncé? Yes, but the star singer was only heard through loudspeakers
Scientists closely watching these 3 disastrous climate change scenarios
Tech Tycoon Mike Lynch Confirmed Dead After Body Recovered From Sunken Yacht