London: Time has never been kind to the Titanic. It took just 160 minutes for the world's most famous ship to slip beneath the surface of the Atlantic on its maiden voyage, and less than 10 minutes to then glide to its final resting place on the ocean floor below.

The wreck would sit there, lost in total darkness, for more than seven decades before a team of American and French scientists found it in 1985. Their discovery revealed untold secrets of its sinking and ignited a new generation's fascination with one of the most calamitous and deadly maritime disasters in history.

But it also brought out the salvagers. Less generous observers described them as 'high-tech grave robbers'. Already losing the battle against the ravages of deep-sea currents and metal-eating bacteria, the Titanic's brittle remains have been subjected to repeated expeditions where thousands of artefacts and even an entire 15-tonne slice of the steel hull have been removed.

Robert Ballard, who first found the wreck, once blasted private submarine operators for inflicting damage on the deck during vessel landings in the years since. One American couple even got married in a submersible hovering over Titanic's bow.