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A man shows a ceramic bottle made in the shape of the Titanic during a sale entitled Legendary Ocean in Deauville, western France. A team of maritime scientists will visit the Titanic at its watery grave in the Atlantic in order to make a com (Mychele Daniau/AFP/Getty Images)
With the aim of creating a 3-D map of the Titanic’s wreckage, a team of maritime scientists set sail Monday evening from St. John’s, Newfoundland, for the open waters of the North Atlantic.
The expedition, led by Canadian maritime archeologist James Delgado, set off on their 36-hour journey aboard the RV Jean Charcot. Upon arrival at the Titanic site, the scientists will use the most advanced technology available to explore the shipwreck and assess its condition.
This information will be processed to create a detailed three-dimensional map “unlike any that has been created before—virtually raising Titanic,” said Christopher Davino, president of RMS Titanic Inc, which conducts research and recovery expeditions to the site and has exclusive salvage rights to the wreck.
“While we have many goals on this mission, the most important is to bring Titanic to you to experience firsthand and explore,” said Davino on RMS’s website.
Over the 20-day expedition, the scientists will use sonar technology and high-resolution optical video and imaging to complete advanced 2-D and 3-D maps. Remote-operated vehicles will carry equipment and explore the site in the pitch-black depths of the Atlantic Ocean.
‘Carrying out an expedition of this magnitude requires a lot of careful preparation.’ —RMS Titanic Inc
The equipment will be able to plot the large sections and many smaller artifacts that are visible on the ocean bed. The raw data will then be processed to make the maps, which will be ultimately available to the public through DVDs or in travelling exhibitions.
The Titanic was the largest passenger steamship in the world when it left Southampton, England, bound for New York City on its maiden voyage on April 10, 1912. It sank three days later at 2:20 a.m. after hitting an iceberg about 590 kilometres south of Newfoundland.
Of the 2,228 people on board, more than 1,500 were killed after the luxury liner sank to its final resting place on the ocean floor. After decades of searching, the wreckage was discovered in 1985.
Debris from the ship, which split in two during the sinking, is scattered over an area measuring about three-by-five kilometres.
The expedition, a partnership between RMS Titanic and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, was initially set for Aug. 22, but the scientists decided to conduct some final equipment tests on land rather than at sea and therefore delayed the mission by a day.
“Carrying out an expedition of this magnitude requires a lot of careful preparation,” RMS said on its Facebook page. “Once we’re out to sea, the unexpected can happen, so we have to make plans in a specific order and with precision. On this trip, we’re heading to the North Atlantic during what is forecast to be a very active hurricane season.”
The team of oceanographers, archaeologists, and other scientists hopes to get a clear assessment on the rate of deterioration of the ship, which has been subject to the ravages of salt water and rust.
“For the first time, we’re really going to treat it as an archaeological site with two things in mind,” David Gallo, an expedition leader and Woods Hole scientist, told The Associated Press.
“One is to preserve the legacy of the ship by enhancing the story of the Titanic itself. The second part is to really understand what the state of the ship is.”
Interest in the Titanic reached new heights with James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster “Titanic,” which includes footage shot at the wreckage site.
Even by today’s standards, the Titanic was huge at 250 feet in length. Back when it set out, the most expensive one-way ticket on the ship was US$4,350, the equivalent of about $95,000 today, according to RMS’s Facebook posts.
The expedition crew is using social media such as Facebook and Twitter to keep people up to speed on their progress.
