For years, researchers and explorers scoured the sea in search of the doomed RMS Titanic, which sank in the North Atlantic in 1912. But only in 1985 did a team of French and American scientists strike the jackpot.
Largely unseen, uncut footage of the ship was revealed Wednesday night by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI), an ocean research nonprofit. The 81-minute video, published on YouTube, shows the wreckage of the Titanic months after it was discovered, when humans laid their eyes directly on the ship for the first time since it sank. (The wreck was found using a sonar system and underwater camera.)
“More than a century after the loss of Titanic, the human stories embodied in the great ship continue to resonate,” said Cameron in a statement provided by the institute. “Like many, I was transfixed when Alvin and Jason Jr. ventured down to and inside the wreck. By releasing this footage, WHOI is helping tell an important part of a story that spans generations and circles the globe.”
About 2,200 people were aboard the ocean liner — heralded as “unsinkable” and designed to be the most luxurious ship available — when it set out into the North Atlantic on its maiden voyage. About 1,500 people died after the ship struck an iceberg and sank in the early hours of April 15, 1912. Only about 700 passengers and crew members survived to be rescued by the R.M.S. Carpathia.
The wreckage of the Titanic has remained about 12,600 feet below the ocean’s surface ever since.
According to the WHOI, efforts to “locate and salvage” the ship began almost immediately after the sinking, but technical limitations kept the wreck hidden for nearly 75 years. By 1985, new imaging technology captured photographs of the ship and helped researchers find the wreck.
Dana Yoerger, a WHOI engineer and a member of both the 1985 and 1986 missions, said the 1986 expedition “changed how we explore the deep ocean.”
