In April 1912, the unthinkable, the unimaginable, the impossible happened: the then world’s biggest and most luxurious ocean liner sank with massive loss of life.
Ever since, and to this day the name “Titanic”, evokes an image of hugeness, and magnificence, and of horrible tragedy.
The legend of the Titanic and it’s sinking remained mythical and mystical until the wreck was located in 1985.
Now –with enough money – you can get to actually visit the wreck as part of a mission to film and model the wreck for posterity.
Ron Collier is Vice-president of business development at Sub-C Imaging of Clarenville Newfoundland.
ListenThe wreck of what is arguably the world’s most famous ship, lies almost 4 kilometres beneath the North Atlantic’s surface.
Ron Collier, VP at Sub C imaging, Newfoundland
Since it’s discovery, only perhaps 200 people have been able to descend to see it, with no visits since 2005
The Canadian firm Sub C, has partnered with the U.S. operation, OceanGate Inc. in a venture to take a handful of people down to the wreck in a deepwater submersible.
The RMS Titanic hit an iceberg late in the evening on April 14, 1912, and sank early the next morning. More than 2,200 passengers and crew were on board, including 130 men, women, and children who were passengers bound for Canada. PHOTO via CBC
OceanGate’s “Cyclops 2” which can hold five people, is the only privately owned submersible capable of descending to the depth of the Titanic.
Sub C high-tech cameras and lighting will be attached and also directed by OceanGate’s “Cyclops 2 mini sub. PHOTO OceanGate
Sub C will be providing cameras and lighting for the ultra-deep water adventure.
Sub C had previously been involved in exploring the WWII wreck of Australia’s HMAS Sydney and in an attempt to find Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Electra plane.
Graves of victims of the Titanic sinking located at Fairview cemetery Halifax, N.S. PHOTO- Archer 10-wiki
This June the project will begin to take its first passengers down to the wreck site, but it won’t be for the faint of wallet, at about $130,000 U.S. Any potential passenger will also have to undergo a variety of physical tests as well.
It may be the last anyone will see of the iconic ship.
Canadian scientists Henrietta Mann and Bhavleen Kaur at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia in examining rust samples taken from the ship on earlier dives, had discovered a previously unknown iron eating bacteria since named “Halomonas titanicae”.
In their study published in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology in 2010, they estimated that the accelerated rusting and decomposition means the ship could simply crumble and basically disappear into a mere rusty stain on the ocean floor within a matter of years. In 2010 they gave the ship only another 15-20 to be recognisable.
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