New images of the Titanic show part of the railing at the bow of the ship has fallen off.
RMS Titanic Company
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RMS Titanic Company
More than a century after the Titanic sank, the wreck is still yielding new discoveries for researchers.
This summer, RMS Titanic, Inc. — the salvage company that owns the wreck — conducted the first unmanned dive to the site in 14 years. The expedition was equipped with high-resolution cameras and scanning equipment, and took more than two million photos of the Titanic.
The goal is to photograph the wreck in the highest quality possible and search for artifacts for future recovery expeditions.
James Penca is a researcher with the company and he joined the nearly month-long expedition earlier this summer. He spoke with All things considered Host Scott Detrow talks about the discoveries — and losses — the team uncovered.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Interview Highlights
Scott Detrow: Your group is the official company that explores and preserves artifacts from the Titanic. And this is not the group’s first expedition, they have been down there many times. What is special about this recent mission?
James Penca: We haven’t been to the wreck since 2010. It’s been 14 years. So 14 years of technology, as we all know, is pretty advanced compared to what we had in 2010. What we can bring down there, the cameras and the scanners, will make the 2010 expedition look like child’s play in terms of what we can learn from the wreck.
Remove: How did it feel? What was that moment like for you when you first saw the shipwreck?
Pencil: I have been a diehard Titanic enthusiast since I was six years old, and it never ceases to amaze me how close I am to the wreck. Seeing the first images of the ship on screen was so moving. There were tears in the room for many of us, even those who had been there before.
Remove: Let’s talk about some of the discoveries made on this trip. I understand there are some fun things and some bitter things. Let’s start with the fun things.
A virtual replica of the statue of Diana of Versailles on the fireplace in the first class lounge.
Titanic: Honor and Glory
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Titanic: Honor and Glory
Pencil: We didn’t recover anything on this expedition, but we were looking for artifacts to recover in the future. And there was one artifact that was at the top of our list. It was a bronze statue about two feet tall, called Diana of Versailles. This statue was placed in the first class waiting room on the Titanic, and this statue was the centerpiece of that elegant room. The problem with this artifact is that it had only been photographed once, in 1986. So for us, finding this statue would be one of the great achievements of this expedition, but the odds of finding it were really a needle in a haystack, two and a half miles underwater in pitch black. After a lot of trial and error, we found Diana and took the first photos of her in 38 years, and we found her within a few hours of the expedition.
A new photo of the statue of Diana of Versailles on the Titanic.
RMS Titanic, Inc
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RMS Titanic, Inc
Remove: So on the one hand, the iconic aspects of the wreck have been found and are remarkably intact. But on the other hand, there is some evidence you can gather that suggests some of the iconic aspects of the ship may be falling apart.
Pencil: Yeah, everyone knows that famous James Cameron movie, the “I’m flying” scene, you know, “I’m the king of the world”. [That] All the filming took place on the iconic bow of the Titanic at the very, very point of the ship. We discovered when we arrived at the wreck last month that the port side railing had fallen off. This is a very natural thing, different parts of the railing weaken. But for such a famous, much photographed, iconic railing to now rest on the ocean floor below, it was a significant change. The Titanic would never look the same again.
Remove: There have been many shipwrecks throughout history. There have been many high-profile tragedies. There have been many that have become major blockbusters. But there was something about the Titanic that was different. What do you think it is that captures people’s imaginations in this way, yours or others?
Pencil: You know, we’re storytellers. We love a good story. And I would put the life and loss of Titanic on par with any great story, any Hollywood movie, any great novel, any war story. Every element of it is arranged as if it were written for a Hollywood movie. It’s really too good to be true. But, the more you get into Titanic, the more true it becomes.
