Digital scans of the iconic cruise liner Titanic may reveal why it sank in April 1912, killing over 1,500 crew and passengers.
The Titanic’s secrets are finally being revealed.
Scientists are hopeful that fresh full-size scans of the historic cruise liner may reveal the truth about how the ship perished after colliding with an iceberg in April 1912, killing over 1,500 crew and passengers.
Previously, only pieces of the debris, which sits around 12,500 feet in the Atlantic Ocean, were photographed, but now the entire ship can be seen in new 3D digital scans generated using deep-sea mapping.
‘I’ve been researching Titanic for 20 years, but this is a true game-changer,’ said Titanic analyst Parks Stephenson in a statement. “For the first time, we are seeing an accurate and true depiction of the entire wreck and debris site.” I’m seeing details that none of us have ever seen before, allowing me to build on all we’ve learned so far and see the wreck in a new light.”
The latest full-size scans, performed by deep-sea mapping company Magellan Ltd in the summer of 2022, show how the ship appears without the ocean water surrounding it. The photographs will serve as the highlight for Atlantic Productions’ forthcoming documentary about the project.
The team sent out a submersible to inspect the ruin, spending more than 200 hours gathering over 700,000 photographs of the Titanic, which is split in two, from every angle. They then stitched the photos together to generate an identical 3D representation.
“The depth of it, almost 4,000 meters, represents a challenge, and you have currents at the site, too — and we’re not allowed to touch anything so as not to damage the wreck,” Gerhard Seiffert, who led the expedition’s preparation, told the BBC.
“And the other challenge is that you have to map every square centimeter – even the uninteresting parts, like on the debris field, where you have to map mud, but you need this to fill in between all these interesting objects,” he continued.
According to the announcement, the 3D graphics depict a massive debris field engulfing the ship’s bow and stern. According to the BBC, the strewn objects include unopened champagne bottles, statuary and metalwork from the ship, and even dozens of shoes. The two halves of the legendary liner are separated on the bottom by approximately 2,600 feet.
The scan also displays the ship’s finer details, such as the serial number on one of the propellers, as well as larger aspects, such as the destroyed stern, which appeared to be a crushed pile of metal.
“It allows you to see the wreck in its entirety, in context and perspective, which you would never be able to see from a submersible.” And it’s now revealing the genuine status of the wreck,” Stephenson told the BBC.
“We really don’t understand the character of the collision with the iceberg,” he added. “We don’t even know if she hit it along the starboard side, as shown in all the movies — she could have hit an iceberg.”
