An expedition team on Friday went to the wreck of the Titanic on a mission to explore the site and take high-resolution photos. RMS Titanic Inc. has the exclusive right to recover artifacts from the wreckage, a privilege granted by a US federal court order in 1994.
The company last went to the site in 2010 and has now found around 5,500 objects from the wreck, according to BBC News.
This mission, led by imagers, scientists, oceanographers and historians, will use new technologies to survey the site. The crew will use a remotely operated vehicle to take pictures to assess the condition of the ship, which sank 112 years ago, as well as artifacts left on the ocean floor. They will also use the images to create a 3D model of the ship.
BBC News, a CBS News partner, had exclusive access to the expedition, which launched from Providence, Rhode Island. The team’s ship, the Dino Chouest, will sit atop the wreck in the Atlantic for 20 days.
last year, five people died in the submersible while on a private trip to the wreckage opened by the company OceanGate, which takes high paid customers to see the wreck about 12,500 feet in the sea.
The Titan submarine launched from the research vessel and lost contact with the crew above about one hour and 45 minutes into the voyage. Submersible, operated by Stockton Rush, CEO of OceanGate, exploded, killing him and his four guests, who paid $250,000 for the ticket for the trip. OceanGate suspended operations following the tragedy.
One of the people on board the submersible, Paul-Henri “PH” Nargeolet, was the director of research at RMS Titanic Inc. He is set to lead this expedition, creating a moving mission for those involved.
“It’s difficult but about exploration there is an urge and drive to continue. And we are doing it because PH has a passion for continued exploration,” said historian Rory Golden, a friend of Nargeolet and the chief moral officer of this mission. , told BBC News.
The crew will hold a memorial service for the five people who died on the submarine as well as the 1,500 who died when the Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg in 1912.
They hope to document the artefacts at risk and expand the information about the ship – and marine life – sitting at the bottom of the sea.
The remote vehicle will take millions of photos that will be used to create a 3D model of the wreckage. “We want to see the wreck with a clarity and precision that we’ve never seen before,” said expedition leader David Gallo.
“If all the weather gods, the computer gods, the ROV gods, the camera gods – if all the gods align, we should be able to capture the Titanic and the wreck site as close to digital perfection as we can literally count the grains of sand,” said Evan Kovacs, who is responsible imaging program.
In 2023, the deep sea mapping company Magellan Ltd. made the first digital scan of the shipwreck. The full-scale scan was made using submersibles that took more than 700,000 images of the ship over 200 hours. These images are used to create 3D reconstruction of the Titanic.
The Titanic, nicknamed “the unsinkable ship”, met its fate on April 15, 1912, after it struck an iceberg in the mid-north Atlantic and broke in two, sinking and killing about 70% of those on board. A place to travel for the first time from England
The wreck was first discovered in 1985 by a crew led by Robert Ballard. About eight days into the expedition, he found the ship about 400 miles away on the coast from Newfoundland, Canada.
The blockbuster film directed by James Cameron and starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio still captivates audiences more than 30 years after its release. The 1997 film won 11 Oscars including best picture, best director and best original song for Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On.”