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For the first time following the discovery of the RMS Titanic‘s wreck, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has uploaded to YouTube 82 minutes of rare footage shot during their July 1986 expedition.
In 1985, Dr. Robert Ballard and Jean-Louis Michel led a team of researchers from WHOI and France-based IFREMER to find the long lost RMS Titanic; they were successful in the early hours of September 1st, 1985 when a boiler appeared on a live camera feed. Dr. Ballard returned the following year with the submarine DSV Alvin and Jason Junior, a remotely operable robot, to further explore and document the wreck site.
According to the video description, the images were recorded by cameras affixed to Alvin and Jason Junior. At a depth of nearly 3,800 metres (12,500 feet), the liner is broken into two large sections with an immense debris field between the more recognisible bow section and twisted remains of the stern. Compiled from multiple passes over the wreckage, black-and-white scenes of the downward-looking cameras fly over the bow section with gaping holes where funnels once stood, cargo was loaded, and first class passengers descended the extravagant Grand Staircase.
A segment is dedicated to footage from Jason Junior that allowed the divers to further examine the the Grand Staircase noting dislodged light fixtures, pillars and rusticles, alongside detailed glimpses at equipment on the exterior decks. Bollards gleam when caught by Alvin‘s lights. The brass telemotor, to which one of the wooden wheels was mounted to, stands alone on the bridge. Promenade deck windows devoid of glass. Mighty anchors rest barely feet from the mud, a testament to the forces involved when the ship landed on the seafloor. One of the more poignant scenes centres on the remnants of a lifeboat davit lying across the Boat Deck, a reminder of the terrible toll the night of the sinking.
On her maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City, the Titanic set sail with more than 2,200 passengers and crew onboard on Wednesday, April 10th, 1912. A glancing blow with an iceberg at 11:40 pm on Sunday, April 14th caused the ship to founder two-and-a-half hours later at the cost of 1,520 lives. With the sunrise at 4:00 am on Monday, April 15th, the RMS Carpathia steamed on scene to rescue some 700 survivors huddled together for warmth on 20 small lifeboats.
Subsequent expeditions to the wreck have captured additional footage, bringing to light details never before seen — the last vestiges of the Edwardian era slowly being eroded under unrelenting waves of the North Atlantic Ocean.
Source: YouTube
© Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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