August 23, 2019 Comments Off on Revisiting the RMS Titanic 107 years after its sinking Views: 1188 Looking Back, Nostalgia

Ever since the remnants of the RMS Titanic were found at the bottom of the North Atlantic on September 1, 1985, within a joint American-French expedition led by prominent U.S. oceanographer Dr. Robert Ballard, different groups have been returning to the shipwreck site.

In the latest diving effort, the first in almost 15 years, an international team of deep-sea explorers scrutinized the ruins of the world’s most famous ocean-liner. The team reported that the wreck, which is located at a depth of 3,800 meters (12,400 feet), is deteriorating rapidly to the ocean. Since 2012, the wreck also holds a UNESCO status.

A submarine of the DSV Limiting Factor took five dives to the RMS Titanic’s shipwreck site in 2019. Some parts of the wreck have vanished entirely to the ocean. Photo credit: Atlantic Productions

“The captain’s bathtub is a favorite image among Titanic enthusiasts – and that’s now gone,” said Titanic historian Parks Stephenson, the BBC reports. Stephenson was part of this year’s mission which descended to the ocean bottom for five dives.

“That whole deck house on that side is collapsing, taking with it the state rooms. And that deterioration is going to continue advancing,” he said.

Each returning to the RMS Titanic’s shipwreck site is a new reminder of the ocean liner’s ill fate. When it fatally collided with an iceberg during its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York on April 14, 1912, it was not only that 1,500 people lost their lives in the tragedy, but a human dream was lost too.

RMS Titanic departing Southampton on April 10, 1912.

In a hectic, pre-World War One world, the RMS Titanic stood as a symbol of progress, technology, and the advancement of human civilization. The doomed ocean-liner was deemed unsinkable, to mention just one of the many superlatives associating to its name. It was the news of the century that the RMS Titanic had sunk some 600 km (370 miles) off the coast of Canada’s Newfoundland.

The ship had vanished in less than three hours and only 700 passengers were saved from the total of 2,200 traveling on board. The survivors were then brought to New York by RMS Carpathia which first responded to the S.O.S. call.

Titanic’s gymnasium on the Boat Deck, which was equipped with the latest exercise machines

The RMS Titanic was commissioned by Britain’s White Star Line shipping company. The ship was built in Ireland from 1909 to 1912 and for its maiden voyage took off from Southampton, on April 10, 1912. Before departing for New York, passengers had been picked from Ireland, Britain, and France.

In all her majesty, the RMS Titanic had dazzled passengers and spectators with a plethora of prominent features, one of the most memorable of which is the Grand Staircase entrance.

Grand Staircase of the RMS Titanic. Drawing from the “White Line Triple Screw Steamers” booklet / Titanic National Museums Northern Ireland

The Grand Staircase has been described as the heart of the ocean-liner. It descended across seven levels of the vessel and connected first-class passengers with a variety of public rooms. First-class elevators connected through deck A and deck E. Natural light entered the stairwell through a glass dome during the day. At night, this most opulent of interiors was lit by a giant gilt chandelier–as faithfully recreated in James Cameron’s famed movie from 1997.

Some 22 years after Cameron widely re-popularizing the story of the RMS Titanic, and 107 years after its tragic sinking, the public is still fascinated by the “ship of dreams.” The ocean-liner lives well in the memory and consciousness of people.

Swimming Pool on Olympic, Titanic’s near-identical sister ship

Attesting to that is the Titanic Hotel Belfast, which erected on the location where the ship was being built for more than three years and opened in 2017. The hotel has been packed with 119 rooms, designed to induce nostalgia for all-things-Titanic. Hotel guests can also explore the drawing offices which had been used by Harland and Wolff’s shipbuilding experts. It was in those rooms that the Titanic was sketched, drafted and designed—one of over 1,500 shipbuilding projects accomplished in the premises.

RMS Titanic leaving Belfast for her sea trials on 2 April 1912

Titanic-associated sites can be found also on the other side of the Atlantic, such as the Fairview Cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, known as the final resting place for hundreds of people who didn’t survive the ship’s sinking, or the Molly Brown House Museum in Denver, the home of one of the best-known Titanic survivors, socialite Margaret Brown (“the unsinkable Molly Brown”).

Titanic at Southampton docks, prior to departure

More than that, Titanic memorabilia, i.e. items that have been saved from the ship or which have belonged to any of its passengers, continue to hammer new record sums over auctions around the world. Such as a final known letter written aboard Titanic that fetched £126,000 at auction in 2017. Or the Titanic violin that sold for an astonishing £900,000 in 2013.

Last but not least, the latest dives to the shipwreck site have been filmed by Atlantic Production. The footage will be used for an upcoming new documentary. The ship of dreams is still living.

We also thought to remind you of Anne Frank, whose investigation is still ongoing, 75 years after her arrest in Amsterdam.



Tags: Belfast, famous shipwrecks, New York, RMS Titanic, Southampton, Titanic news