New Titanic scans show wreck as never seen before

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The world's most famous shipwreck has been revealed in unprecedented detail thanks to deep-sea mapping. 

The scans provide an exclusive 3D glimpse of the whole ship, allowing it to be seen as though not submerged in water, with the scans increasing hope on new information being revealed regarding the fate of the liner that sunk in 1912.

On her inaugural trip from Southampton to New York, the ship collided with an iceberg, killing almost 1,500 passengers.

Parks Stephenson, a Titanic analyst, told BBC News, "There are still questions, basic questions, that need to be answered about the ship," adding that the model is "one of the first major steps to driving the Titanic story towards evidence-based research - and not speculation."

Since the wreck of the Titanic was found in 1985, it has been extensively examined. But it's so massive that cameras can only show us tantalizing pictures of the rotting ship in the darkness of the deep - never the entire thing.

The new scan catches the whole disaster, offering a full perspective of the Titanic. It is divided into two halves, with the bow and stern separated by around 800m (2,600ft). The damaged vessel is surrounded by a massive debris field.

Magellan Ltd, a deep-sea mapping business, and Atlantic Productions, which is producing a documentary on the initiative, carried out the scan in the summer of 2022.

Submersibles were remotely operated by a team on board a specialized ship that spent more than 200 hours exploring the wreck's length and width.

More than 700,000 images were taken from every angle to reconstruct a precise 3D scan.

Scan results 'mindblowing'

Gerhard Seiffert of Magellan, who supervised the expedition's preparation, said it was the largest underwater scanning effort he'd ever completed.

"The depth of it, almost 4,000m, 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," he explained.

"And the other challenge is that you have to map every square centimeter - even uninteresting parts, like on the debris field you have to map mud, but you need this to fill in between all these interesting objects."

The scan depicts the ship's size as well as some minor features, such as the serial number on one of the propellers.

Even 100 years after the ship was lost, the bow, now coated with rust stalactites, is easily unmistakable. The boat deck sits on top, with a gaping hole providing a sight into the emptiness where the great staircase previously stood.

The stern, on the other hand, is a jumbled heap of metal. As it corkscrewed into the sea floor, this section of the ship disintegrated.

Items dispersed in the adjacent debris field include exquisite metalwork from the ship, figurines, and unopened champagne bottles. There are also personal belongings, such as dozens of shoes sitting on the silt.

Parks Stephenson, an avid Titanic studier for years, said he was "blown away" when first seeing the scans. 

"It allows you to see the wreck as you can never see it from a submersible, and you can see the wreck in its entirety, you can see it in context and perspective. And what it's showing you now is the true state of the wreck."

According to Stephenson, "We really don't understand the character of the collision with the iceberg. We don't even know if she hit it along the starboard side, as is shown in all the movies - she might have grounded on the iceberg."

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The wreck is being eroded by the water, with bacteria eating away at it and pieces collapsing. Historians believe that time is running short to properly comprehend the events of its sinking.

However, the scan has now frozen the crash in time, allowing researchers to examine every minute aspect, giving researchers hope that answers can still be found.