New photos show the Titanic’s slow decline after 140 years

A bronze statue of Diana of Versailles was found lying on the seabed

Recent images of the Titanic have revealed the ship’s continued decline and the rediscovery of a striking bronze statue. The images, taken by robotic dives this summer, reveal that a section of the bow rail has collapsed since the last images were captured in 2022.

In an exciting development, the bronze statue of Diana of Versailles, once located in the first class lounge, was found lying on the seabed. The statue was last photographed in 1986 by Robert Ballard, who discovered the wreck of the Titanic a year earlier.

The bow of the ship, made famous by Jack and Rose in the 1997 James Cameron film during the iconic scenes in “I’m King of the World” and “Flying,” has shown significant wear.

Tomasina Ray, director of collections at RMS Titanic Inc., the company behind the expedition, told the BBC“The bow of the Titanic is just iconic – you think of all those moments in pop culture – and that’s what comes to mind when you think of the sinking. And it doesn’t look like that anymore. It’s a stark reminder of the daily decline. People often ask, ‘How much longer will the Titanic be around?’ We just don’t know, but we’re witnessing it in real time.”

Fine arts decorated the hallways and rooms everywhere #TITANICbut beauty is a delicate matter. Much of TITANIC’s art was made of organic materials, which decomposed in the soil after decades of immersion in Earth’s hostile environment. #North Atlantic Ocean. photo.twitter.com/zVauzPWDTq

—RMS Titanic, Inc. (@RMSTitanic_Inc) September 1, 2024

In 2022, deep-sea mapping company Magellan and documentary makers Atlantic Productions took photographs and digital scans of the bow, showing that the railing was still intact but had begun to buckle. But it’s not just the bow that’s deteriorating, the entire metal structure is slowly being eaten away by microbes, creating rusty stalactites known as rusticles.

An earlier dive in 2019 revealed that the starboard side of the officers’ quarters was collapsing, destroying cabins and exposing the captain’s bathtub.

This year’s dives, conducted in July and August, were carried out using two remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) that captured more than two million photographs and 24 hours of high-definition footage of the wreck, which lies 3,800 metres below the surface.

When the Titanic sank in 1912, the ship broke in two, with the bow and stern lying about half a mile apart, surrounded by debris.

Among the rubble lay the two-foot statue of Diana of Versailles. James Penca, a Titanic researcher and host of the Witness Titanic podcast, described the rediscovery as “like finding a needle in a haystack” and called it a momentous event.

Penca explained that when the Titanic split, the first-class lounge where the statue stood was ripped open, exposing Diana to “the darkness of the debris field.” He described the first-class lounge as “the most beautiful and incredibly detailed room on the ship,” with the Diana of Versailles as its centerpiece.

RMS Titanic Inc., the only company with rights to salvage parts of the ship, has recovered thousands of items over the years and displayed them around the world. The company plans to return to the site next year to recover more artifacts, including, they hope, the Diana statue.

However, some have criticized the company’s continued removal of artifacts from the wreck site.