New photos show the slow deterioration of the wreck of the Titanic

The photos taken around the legendary liner show that the wreck is deteriorating over the years and that its disappearance, in the medium or long term, is inevitable.

A slow decrepitude and a disappearance that now seems inevitable. As indicated on its website by RMS Titanic Inc., the American company that holds the rights to the wreck of the legendary liner that sank in 1912, a recent expedition organized around the wreck shows that it is slowly deteriorating under the effects of time and bacteria.

Two six-tonne remote-controlled robots, topped with very high definition cameras, whose objective was to capture millions of photos to create a 3D model of the liner, were put to work.

The legendary railing has fallen

And the effects are clearly visible. During this descent, and thanks to the two million photos collected for the occasion, the researchers noticed that the boat’s railing, the one immortalized by Jack and Rose in the film Titanic James Cameron’s bow-mounted display has disappeared from the wreck and is now at the bottom of the ocean.

According to them, the railing fell over the last two years, between two different expeditions. The last one, from 2022, showed the railing still in place.

“It’s another reminder of the deterioration that’s happening every day. People are always asking, ‘How long is the Titanic going to be there?’ We don’t know, but we’re watching it in real time,” Tomasina Ray, collections director at RMS Titanic Inc, told the BBC.

Collapse “inevitable”

This is not the first time that the ravages of time and underwater nature have taken their toll on the Titanic wreck. During a 2019 expedition, explorers discovered that the starboard side of the officers’ quarters was collapsing, making access to the captain’s bathroom increasingly difficult.

According to RMS Titanic Inc., it now appears that “the sinking of the Titanic is inevitable.” In the meantime, the teams want to conduct “a more thorough examination of the condition” of the wreck and “document what we can before it is too late.”