One of the most recognizable parts of the Titanic has fallen off after more than a century at the bottom of the ocean.
The story of the historic sinking of the ocean liner was immortalized in James Cameron’s 1997 film of the same name. One of the film’s most famous scenes occurs early on when Jack, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, lifts Rose, played by Kate Winslet, into the air as they stand at the very front of the liner.
“I’m flying!” Rose said, spreading her arms.
But an unmanned dive to the wreck this summer revealed that a segment of that same part of the ship had collapsed, NPR reported Monday.
“We discovered when we arrived on scene last month that the railing on the port side had fallen off,” James Penca, a researcher with RMS Titanic, Inc., which has exclusive rights to salvage the Titanic’s remains, told NPR. “It’s a completely natural phenomenon, different parts of the railing weaken. But for such a famous, photographed, iconic railing to now be resting on the ocean floor is a significant change.”
“The Titanic will literally never be the same again,” he added.
The RMS Titanic made the discovery when it sent out a vehicle equipped with “high-resolution cameras and scanning equipment” for the first time since 2010, according to NPR.
One of the mission’s goals was to find and photograph objects that could be recovered in the future, Penca said. The most coveted item was “Diane de Versailles,” a 2-foot-tall bronze statue from the Titanic’s first-class lounge, he said. The statue was last photographed in 1986, and the chances of finding it were like finding “a needle in a haystack,” Penca said.
“After a lot of trial and error, we managed to find Diana and take her first photos in 38 years, and we found her just hours before the end of the expedition,” Penca told NPR.
During the dive, researchers also took 2 million photos of the Titanic, NPR reported. Time is running out to capture as much of the sinking as possible, as scientists predict that bacteria could consume enough of the metal that the ruins would disappear within a few years.
More than a century after its sinking on its maiden voyage in 1912, with the loss of more than 1,500 passengers, the story of the Titanic continues to attract adventurers hoping to see the wreck with their own eyes. But the journey to its final resting place, more than 12,000 feet below the surface of the Atlantic, is fraught with peril.
Last year, the now-closed OceanGate Expeditions company became the centre of a global spectacle when five people died after their submersible, the Titan, imploded while en route to the bottom, leaving a debris field on the seabed.
After the incident, the RMS Titanic said it was planning another dive to the wreck of the ship, but would not go immediately after the disaster.
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