Northern Ireland

Work gets underway at wreckage site on new 3D scan of the Titanic

Company’s first expedition to site in 14 years promises most detailed look yet at wreckage

Undated handout photo issued by Atlantic Productions of new images of the bow of the RMS Titanic in her resting place at the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean taken during a survey of the wreckage from a manned submersible on an expedition in early August. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Wednesday August 21, 2019. The wreckage rests at 12,500ft and 370 miles south of Newfoundland, Canada. The scientists of the expedition will publish the full results alongside a documentary film being made by BAFTA and Emmy award-winning Atlantic Productions, London. See PA story SEA Titanic. Photo credit should read: Atlantic Productions/PA Wire..NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used in for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder..
An image of the Titanic's bow taken during a previous dive to the wreck site: PICTURE: ATLANTIC PRODUCTIONS
By Paul Ainsworth

New 3D scans of the remains of the Titanic are expected to be made available after a team carrying out an expedition began work above the wreckage site of the Belfast-built ship.

The company that owns the exclusive salvage rights to the wreck of the ill-fated liner announced on Wednesday it had arrived at the spot in the Atlantic ocean where the Titanic sank in April 1912 on its maiden voyage to New York after colliding with an iceberg.

The Titanic departing Southampton ahead of it's ill-fated maiden voyage. PICTURE: AP
The Titanic departing Southampton ahead of it's ill-fated maiden voyage. PICTURE: AP

The expedition by RMS Titanic Inc is the company’s first in 14 years, and using remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) it will document the wreckage with 3D scans that promise to provide the most detailed look yet at the ship’s remains.

The expedition follows last June’s fatal implosion of the Titan submarine, operated by expedition company OceanGate, in which five people died on a dive to the wreck site.

The RMS Titanic Inc team began work on Wednesday evening, after first holding a memorial service for the more than 1,500 victims of the Titanic disaster, and for those who died in last year’s Titan sub tragedy.

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The company posted footage of a ROV entering the water to its X social media page.

“After many months and countless hours preparing and testing equipment, the first ROV is on its way down to the Titanic!” the post stated, adding it was the first ROV it had sent down to the wreck site since 2010.

“We are beyond excited about the brand-new images and discoveries that lie ahead,” they added.

The wreckage of the White Star Line ship, built in Belfast by Harland & Wolff, lies 3,800m deep in two separate sites around 2,600ft apart on the ocean floor after it split in two during the sinking.

In May of last year, the first full digital scan of the wreckage was created using deep-sea mapping carried out in 2022 by Guernsey based company Magellan Ltd.