The haunting return to the Titanic: Expedition to the wreck sets sail just one year after the OceanGate tragedy which saw five killed while trying to visit the lost ship – as experts reassure ‘we aren’t using manned submersibles this time around’
Adventurers set sail for the wreck of the Titanic on Friday – marking the first expedition since the doomed OceanGate mission over a year ago that tragically killed five men.
The Georgia-based firm that owns the salvage rights to Titanic, called RMS Titanic Inc, is probing the sunken ocean liner using two remotely operated vehicles (ROVs).
According to the BBC, the robotic vehicles will reach 12,000ft (3,700 metres) down – the bottom of the North Atlantic, where the remains of the Titanic lie.
They will capture millions of high-resolution photos to make a new 3D model of the debris, which is quickly deteriorating and could be lost in a few decades.
A plaque will also be laid on the seabed in honour of Frenchman Paul-Henri Nargeolet, director of research at RMS Titanic Inc, who was one of the five Titan victims.
The grandest ship: RMS Titanic departing Southampton on April 10, 1912. She would never return from this maiden voyage
Experts at deep-sea mapping company Magellan Ltd took took thousands of digital images of the wreck in summer 2022 to create a stunning 3D reconstruction (pictured)
Pictured, a remotely operated vehicles (ROV) being extended from the Dino Chouest vessel. The ROV will be used during the new expedition to gather images and map data
A joint memorial service will be held aboard the vessel for all five men, who died due to a ‘catastrophic implosion’.
The BBC has been covering preparations for the expedition which is set to leave from Providence, Rhode Island today.
‘We want to see the wreck with a clarity and precision that’s never before been achieved,’ said co-expedition lead David Gallo.
The robots, one fitted with a laser scanner and the other with optical cameras, will trace back and forth across a 0.8 mile by 0.6 mile section of seafloor.
They will capture Titanic and the wreck site ‘in as close to digital perfection as you can get’, said diver and explorer Evan Kovacs.
It will be RMS Titanic Inc’s ninth expedition to the wreck site. Pictured, crew with one of the robot vehicles
Authorities raised the alarm on June 18, 2023 when OceanGate’s Titan vessel vanished less than two hours into its venture towards the historic shipwreck
Titanic’s grand staircase was possibly the most famous part of the first-class section of the RMS Titanic. Pictured is the hole over where the staircase was located
It will be RMS Titanic Inc’s ninth expedition to the wreck site, although some of these missions have sent manned subs down instead of robots.
On Reddit this week, RMS Titanic Inc said it plans to keep the robots in the water for 20 days to obtain as much information as possible about the wreck site.
The company assured people that ‘we aren’t using manned submersibles this time’, just over a year since the tragedy involving the Titan submersible, operated by US firm OceanGate.
Titan started its dive to Titanic on the morning of June 18, 2023, but all contact with its mothership was lost an hour and 45 minutes into the dive.
Following a frantic four-day search, a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) tragically discovered Titan’s debris, about 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic.
All five men on board – Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman, British billionaire Hamish Harding, French explorer Paul-Henry Nargeolet, and OceanGate chief executive Stockton Rush – died instantly when Titan suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’, authorities ruled.
Rush – who was pushing cut price tickets at $150,000 – had described a deep sea trip aboard Titan as ‘safer than crossing the street’.
He repeatedly ignored chilling warnings his vessel was a deathtrap that ‘would kill someone’, describing them as ‘a serious personal insult’.
Famous landmarks that are known for their height pale in comparison to the depth of the Titanic, with the Statue of Liberty just 305ft, the Eiffel Tower just 1,083ft and the Empire State Building at 1,250ft
French Navy veteran PH Nargeolet (left) also was on Titan, along with Stockton Rush (right), CEO of the OceanGate Expedition
Five people were onboard, including British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding and Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, who was just 19
Titan’s ‘catastrophic implosion’ would have been caused by a sudden change from low pressure to high pressure inside the sub, possibly triggered by a defect in its walls.
In the depths of the deep ocean, the pressure increases to such an extent that only specially-adapted organisms can survive.
Titanic director James Cameron, who’s renowned for his own deep-sea exploration missions, has said Titan had ‘three potential failure points’ and indicated that its ‘Achilles heel’ was the carbon fiber hull.
However, the US Coast Guard is still investigating what exactly led to the implosion.
‘We are working closely with our domestic and international partners to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the incident,’ board chair Jason Neubauer said in a statement last month.
It also said ‘presumed human remains’ and more Titan debris had been recovered.
The wreckage of the iconic ship sits 12,500ft underwater around 370 miles from Newfoundland, Canada
Constructed by Belfast-based shipbuilders Harland and Wolff between 1909 and 1912, the RMS Titanic was the largest ship afloat of her time
The grand staircase nearer the front of Titanic (the ‘fore’ grand staircase) had the ornate carved oak wall panel with the clock at the centre. Pictured is the fore grand staircase of sister ship RMS Olympic, thought to be identical to the one on Titanic. No photos of Titanic’s grand staircases are known to exist
Titan has been described as a submarine, but it was actually a submersible.
A submarine is an independent cruiser with its own power supply and air renewal system, while a submersible needs to be supported by a surface vessel or shore team.
On average, submarines can go to around a maximum depth of 1,476 feet (450 metres), according to Marine Insight – just over the height of Chicago’s Willis Tower.
But OceanGate’s Titan submersible was designed to reach depths over eight times greater than this, at a maximum of 13,123 feet (4,000 metres).
Last year’s tragic voyage is clearly not enough to deter explorers from probing the rapidly-deteriorating wreck, however.
2022 digital images show the stern (the back of the ship) as a twisted mess of metal, after it hit the ocean floor still rotating in a counter-clockwise direction
Images show stalactites of rust on the ship’s bow, the serial number on a propeller, and a hole over where the grand staircase once stood
Owned and operated by the White Star Line, the passenger vessel set sail on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York on April 10, 1912. Pictured: Cafe Parisien on board Titanic
Constructed by Belfast-based shipbuilders Harland and Wolff between 1909 and 1912, RMS Titanic was the largest ship afloat of her time
Larry Connor, a real estate billionaire from Ohio, has said he is personally planning a voyage to the shipwreck in a two-person submersible in 2026.
James Delgado, a maritime archaeologist and historian who has dived to the wreck himself, said there is ‘still knowledge to be gained’ from visiting Titanic.
‘Meaningful results come from exploration,’ he told MailOnline.
‘Learning from what has just happened, the world needs to continue to explore the oceans, and learn more about a largely unknown and undocumented frontier that comprises much of the planet as well as a profound record of our human past.
‘It’s fair to say that this is the most studied shipwreck in the deep. Is there more to learn? Yes, there is, as there is from other deep water shipwrecks.’
Titanic is already in a fragile state, as bacteria are eating iron in the ship’s hull and will eventually consume the entire ship.
What’s left of the ship is deteriorating so rapidly underwater that it could disappear completely within the next 40 years.
Meanwhile, Australian billionaire Clive Palmer has promised to recreate the famous ship at an estimated cost of £1 billion.
‘Titanic II’, to be ready by 2027, will closely mimic the original ship’s specifications, while including modern 21st navigation and safety systems.
