3D Images of Titanic Wreck Reveal the Fate of Victims Who Went Missing After the Disaster

The shrinking of RMS Titanic is one of the most famous ocean disasters in modern history. It did not only inspire numerous films and stories, but it also brought changes in maritime law. Just two hours and forty minutes after hitting an iceberg in the North Atlantic, the ship which was labeled as "unsinkable" faced its demise on April 14, 1912.

On its maiden voyage, Titanic carried 2,200 people on board; and after it sank, only 340 bodies were recovered. Of the 1,500 passengers who died, 1, 160 of them was never found. A lot of questions were raised regarding the fate of these unfortunate individuals.

Diving Deep into the Wreck

Expeditions done after the disaster did not reveal any human remains, but various personal items were found, such as clothing and shoes. As the wreck lies around 13,000 feet at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, experts suggest that the bodies could have been decomposed or eaten by marine organisms.

Forensic scientist John Cassella from the Atlantic Technological University said that human bones might still remain in the site of ruins after 100 years, but it depends on various properties of seawater, such as salinity, pH level, and presence of microorganisms.

Just recently, 3D images taken from Titanic exploration revealed haunting images of a pair of shoes and unopened bottles of champagne. In another photograph, the famous grand staircase was shown although it is barely recognizable. The pictures were released on May 17 after a 3D digital twin of Titanic was created by scientists.

Past expeditions on the wreck could only capture images from small areas as explorers are restricted by darkness and harsh environmental conditions. With the use of deep-sea mapping, photographs reveal the image of the ship with extraordinarily detailed view.

Titanic analyst Parks Stephenson said that the 3D model serves as the first major step in understanding the fate of Titanic based on evidence-based research instead of mere speculations. "There are still questions, basic questions, that need to be answered about the ship," he added.

Scientists are hopeful that the full-sized digital scan can reveal more information on what actually happened on the night of the disaster.

Looking at the Wreck from a New Perspective

Since the shipwreck was discovered in 1985, the Titanic has been explored by groups of researchers. However, the immense size of the ship cannot be captured all at once, so cameras only show snapshots.

The new scanning technique has the ability to capture the ship in its entirety. Deep-sea mapping company Magellan Ltd led the exploration in 2022 while Atlantic Productions documented the project. The team used submersibles which spent more than 200 hours to survey all the angles of the wreck. These submersibles were controlled remotely by a group of experts on board a specialist ship.

After the exploration, the team was able to collect more than 700,000 images of the entire length and breadth of the ship; and these were used in creating an exact 3D construction. The scan reveals not only the scale of the ship, but also the smaller details.