Rose would be so disappointed.
For the first time in nearly 15 years, footage has been captured by humans showing the wreck of the Titanic — and things aren’t looking good for the legendary ship.
“Titanic is returning to nature,” said Parks Stephenson, a ship historian who spoke to the BBC and was part of a new expedition aimed at examining the deterioration of the wreck site.
“The captain’s bathtub is a favorite image among Titanic enthusiasts — and that’s now gone,” he told the British outlet, calling the discovery “shocking.”
“That whole deck house on that side is collapsing, taking with it the state rooms,” Stephenson said. “And that deterioration is going to continue advancing.”
Expedition scientist Clare Fitzsimmons, of Newcastle University, cited the immense amount of life at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean as reasons why the “ship of dreams” was decaying.
“There are microbes on the shipwreck that are eating away the iron of the wreck itself, creating ‘rusticle’ structures, which is a much weaker form of the metal,” she said.
The footage that the team captured will be part of a documentary from London-based Atlantic Productions. It was posted online Wednesday.
“Following established U.S. legal protocols and under the observation of an on-board NOAA representative, the team of experts and scientists examined the remains of the ship, capturing for the first time extraordinary native 4K footage using specially adapted cameras, to capture the wreck in a way it’s never been seen before,” said Atlantic Productions in a statement.
The Titanic famously hit an iceberg on April 14, 1912, and sank about 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. It was on a voyage from Southhampton, England, to New York City.
The ship had been dubbed “unsinkable” and was the largest of its time.
“The wreck itself is the only witness we’ve now got of the Titanic disaster,” said Robert Blyth, of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, UK.
“All of the survivors have now passed away,” he told the BBC. “So I think it’s important to use the wreck whilst the wreck still has something to say.”