A screenshot from a video taken by the OceanGate Titan submersible shows the Titanic’s telemotor steering mechanism, where one of the ship’s wheels used to be. (OceanGate screen capture)
On another deep dive to the famous North Atlantic wreck of the Titanic, Everett, Washington, OceanGate recorded a video with its Titan submersible showing that the ship is “deteriorating very quickly”.
“These changes are evident and notable, including the absence of the Gorgonian Hydroid from the bow’s rail,” reported OceanGate Expeditions this week after Titan made its final dive to the 12,500-foot site.
OceanGate Expeditions made its first dive on the Titanic last month, sending back images showing debris on the ocean floor, like the frame of a stained glass window and fragments of floor tiles from the ocean liner.
The current state of the Titanic’s bow as seen from OceanGate’s Titanic submersible. (OceanGate screen capture)
OceanGate makes multiple dives and uses 3D imaging to document the condition of the wreck in detail. In 2019, another dive team reported that the Titanic’s decay appeared to be accelerating.
The company says it will review all video, sonar, and 3D laser scans with experts to assess the deterioration, and will continue those efforts when the team is back in their home port. No one has documented the shipwreck year after year for many years and that’s what OceanGate Expeditions says it started this year. The observations so far are mainly from previous dive recordings, which do not correspond to the quality of what OceanGate is now recording.
Here are three of the most recent videos shared this week:
- 16-second video of the Titanic amidships aft showing part of a first-class balcony:
- 12-second video of the Titanic’s front mast collapsed a few years ago:
- 10-second video of the Titanic Telemotor, where the ship’s wheel was once:
The Titanic hit an iceberg on her maiden voyage from England to New York in 1912 and sank.
The loss of the ship and more than 1,500 people on board, as well as the rediscovery of the wreck in 1985, made the Titanic saga one of the most famous sea tragedies in history.
The latest Titan dive included PH Nargeolet as one of the expert teams on the expeditions. OceanGate pointed out that exactly 34 years passed from the date of the first dive from Nargeolet to the Titanic. The former commander of the French Navy, known as “the greatest explorer of the Titanic”, led six expeditions to the wreck (1987, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2010) and was responsible for the recovery of more than 5,500 Titanic artifacts.
OceanGate Expeditions will conclude its Titanic Survey Expedition, which began June 28th, on Saturday. The missions will continue over the next few years to fully document the wreck.
Next, the company will travel to the Hudson Canyon Deep Sea Discovery Expedition in September and the Great Bahama Bank Expedition in early 2022.