Titanic: amazing images show its damage and its disappearance at sea

After five dives, an international team of deep-sea explorers inspected the sunken ship more than a century ago, 3,800 meters below the surface of the Atlantic.

Although some parts of the sinking were in a surprisingly good state, others even disappeared and were lost at sea.

The most deteriorated was observed on the starboard side of the ship, where were the officers' cabins.

Parks Stephenson, a historian specializing in the Titanic, said that part of what he had seen during the dive was "shocking".

"The captain's bathtub is a favorite image of Titanic fans, and it's gone," he said.

"The whole bridge on this side is collapsing, which has resulted in the cabins and this deterioration will continue to progress," he warned.

He added that the sloping roof of the front would probably be the next part to lose, which would hide the view from inside the ship.

"The Titanic is coming back to nature," he added.

Strong ocean currents, salt corrosion and metal-eating bacteria attack the ship.

A difficult dive

The Titanic has been under water for over 100 years and rests on the seabed about 600 kilometers off Newfoundland (Canada).

This pbadenger ship, which was the largest ship of the time, crashed into an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York in 1912.

More than 1,500 of the 2,200 people on board between pbadengers and crew members have died.

The Titanic expedition was executed by the same team that recently completed the deepest dive in history at the bottom of the Mariana Pit, located nearly 12 kilometers deep in the Pacific Ocean.

These dives were carried out with the aid of a submarine 4.6 meters long and 3.7 meters wide, called DSV Limiting Factor, built by the American company Triton Submarines.

Flying the submarine around the wreck site, which is split into two large pieces about 600 meters away, was a challenge.

Bad weather in the Atlantic and strong underwater currents made diving difficult.

Getting entangled in the wreckage was a significant risk to the team.

The productions were filmed by Atlantic Productions for a documentary that they will publish in the future.

Scientific expedition

Along with the recordings, a group of expedition scientists studied the creatures living in the wreckage.

Despite temperatures almost below zero, sewage and immense pressure, there is life in the area.

This, however, was one of the factors that influenced the deterioration of Titanic according to Clare Fitzsimmons, expert at Newcastle University and scientist of the expedition.

"There are microbes in the wreckage of the ship that are devouring the ship's iron, creating much weaker structures," he said.

These ice cubes – like a kind of stalactite hanging from sinking – are so fragile that they can become a cloud of dust on contact.

Scientists are currently studying how different types of metals are eroding in the deep waters of the Atlantic, in order to calculate the time it remains at Titanic.

Speaking about the expedition, Robert Blyth of the National Maritime Museum of Greenwich said that it was important to get off and document the wreckage in the state it was in. currently found.

"The wreck itself is the only witness we have now of the Titanic disaster," he explained.

"All the survivors are already dead, so I think it's important to use the wreckage as long as she still has something to say," he concluded.

BBC