A bronze statue of the Titanic, unseen in decades and feared lost forever, is among the discoveries made by the company with salvage rights to the wreck site on its first expedition there in years. RMS Titanic Inc., a Georgia-based company that holds the legal rights to the 112-year-old shipwreck, completed its first voyage since 2010 and released images from the expedition Monday. The pictures show a site that continues to change more than a century later.
The trip to the remote corner of the North Atlantic Ocean where the Titanic sank came as the U.S. Coast Guard was investigating the June 2023 implosion of the Titan, an experimental submersible owned by a different company. The Titan submersible disaster killed all five people on board, including Paul-Henri Nargeolet, who was director of underwater research for the RMS Titanic.
The findings from this summer’s voyage “show a bittersweet mix of conservation and loss,” RMS Titanic said in a statement. A highlight was the rediscovery of the “Diana of Versailles” statue, last seen in 1986, and the statue now has a clear and updated image, the company said.
On a sadder note, a major section of the railing surrounding the ship’s forecastle deck has collapsed, RMS Titanic said. The railing was still standing in 2022, the company said.
“The discovery of the Diana statue was an exciting moment, but we are saddened by the loss of the iconic bow railing and other evidence of deterioration which has only reinforced our commitment to preserving Titanic’s legacy,” said Tomasina Ray, RMS Titanic’s Director of Collections.
The crew spent 20 days at the site and returned to Providence, Rhode Island, on Aug. 9. They captured more than 2 million of the highest-resolution photographs ever of the site, the company said.
The team also fully mapped the wreck and its debris field with equipment that should improve understanding of the site, RMS Titanic said. The next step is to process the data so it can be shared with the scientific community and “identify historically significant and at-risk artifacts for safe recovery on future expeditions,” the company said in a statement.
The company said before the expedition that it had an especially important mission following Nargeolet’s death.
The Coast Guard investigation will be the subject of a public hearing in late September.
Nargeolet’s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Titan submarine’s operator, OceanGate, which suspended operations after the implosion. OceanGate has not commented publicly on the lawsuit, which was filed in a Washington state court.
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