RMS Titanic
Wreck Location
The exact geographic location of the TItanic was discovered and released publicly by Dr. Robert Ballard upon the legendary vessel's discovery in 1985. The position is posted across the internet and can be found very easily.
Titanic lies several miles northeast of Newfoundland on the Grand Banks. Nearby are several sea mounts named after ships which were in the vicinity of Titanic as she sank and a large trench named Titanic Canyon after the vessel. The Grand Banks is also a popular area for commercial fishing by both Canadian and American vessels alike. There is at least one neighboring shipwreck. Edward Y Townsend, an American Great Lakes ore freighter and sister ship to the ill fated Daniel J. Morrell, lies nearby, having broke in half and sunk while being towed to Europe for scrap. Other possible neighboring but as of yet undiscovered shipwrecks include the fishing vessel Andrea Gail and fellow White Star Liner Naronic. Wreckage from both wrecks was found drifting in the area where Titanic lies.
~ GPS Shipwreck Location ~
Latitude: 41° 43' 52.2588" N Longitude: -49° 56' 57.9984" W
Description
An important historical note; there is only one geniune reel of footage from Titanic known to exist today depicting the ship before she sank. All other supposed films are other liners; most often her sister ship Olympic. You may ask, why is there a lack of motion media regarding the most famous ship in history? Before she sank, Titanic was less popular than her sister ship Olympic. The Olympic was the "press ship" of her class, therefore receiving almost all the media attention. This is why her hull was painted white, so as to allow the primitive cameras of the time to capture every porthole and small detail on her hull, where a black hull would have hid Olympic's details. Thankfully, a newsreel cameraman decided to visit the shipyard and film the Titanic, even if the original source footage is less than 30 seconds long. The video shows the Titanic about to enter the Thompson Graving Dock only half completed, hence the greyish hull and unpainted funnels. Thankfully, the skeleton crew aboard Titanic had decided to steam her up so we see some indication of life from Titanic's third funnel in the form of exhaust. Whether the exhaust indicates an engine test, a boiler test or the ship preparing to move under her own power is unknown. Enjoy this marvelous, beautiful and yet haunting rare archive as this is the only real video you will ever see of Titanic when she was "alive".
The wreck site is two miles below the ocean's surface, making it impossible to dive without an ROV or a manned submersible. The wreck lies in two main sections; the bow and stern, the ship having broke in half as it sank. Between the two main sections lies a large debris field containing large and small objects which were dislodged from the main sections as the Titanic sank. The interior of the Titanic varies depending on which section of the ship is explored. Some areas are in a fantastic state of preservation while others have deteriorated completely or were completely destroyed during the sinking. Since its discovery by Dr. Robert Ballard in 1985, the wreck has been steadily deteriorating due to corrosion mixed with large scale salvage and vandalism. The crow's nest is gone, having been knocked carelessly by a submarine into an open cargo hatch. The main mast collapsed after being violently ripped off by a robotic submersible and most of the promenade deck has collapsed, with only a small section of the enclosed portion remaining standing. Large "rusticles" dangle from all areas of the wreck. None of the four iconic funnels are left standing and lie in pieces on the debris field. As of 2012, the Titanic has been declared a protected heritage site by the United Nations.
Footnotes
RMS Titanic was an Olympic-class ocean liner built between 1909 and 1912 at Harland and Wolff Limited shipyards in Belfast, Northern Ireland. At the time, she and her sister ship Olympic were the largest most luxurious ships in the world and the largest modern man made objects ever constructed. While almost exactly similar in dimensions and structure, Titanic was heavier than Olympic and featured an increased number of staterooms and added passenger luxuries. Whilst on her maiden voyage under Captain Edward John Smith, Titanic struck an iceberg on April 14, 1912 sinking in two hours killing over 1,500 people. The disaster has since become a popular subject of almost legendary status, being adapted into multiple books and movies.