“Spooky”. Rare footage released from Titanic wreck | Abroad

More than a century after the Titanic sank to the bottom of the Atlantic after colliding with an iceberg, new images of the wreck were released on Wednesday. The video footage was made in 1986 but has never before been published in its entirety.

Employees of the American research institute Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) took the images at a depth of about three kilometers, just a few months after researchers discovered the wreck in 1985.

Several documentaries on the Titanic have since shown some of that original footage, but Wednesday became one for the first time on YouTube longer video of 80 minutes of raw footage released.

1,500 dead

The Titanic hit an iceberg on April 15, 1912 during its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York. The ship, considered virtually unsinkable, was the largest ocean liner in operation at the time. More than 1,500 people died in the shipping accident, which sparked global outrage over the lack of lifeboats.

The Titanic leaving Southampton. © Bettmann Archive

It was not until September 1, 1985 that the broken ship was discovered by a team from WHOI and the French National Institute of Oceanography off the coast of the Canadian province of Newfoundland.

During 11 diving excursions in July 1986, images were taken from a manned submarine and a small, remote-controlled craft that could maneuver through confined spaces.


Quote

It was like people were looking back at us. It was pretty spooky

Robert Ballard, oceanographer

“Wall of steel”

Robert Ballard was one of the oceanographers aboard the manned submarine ‘Alvin’. “The first thing I saw emerging from the darkness at 10 meters was a wall, a gigantic wall of steel that rose more than 30 meters above us,” he said during an interview on Wednesday from the US city of Connecticut. “I never looked down at the Titanic. I looked up at the Titanic. Nothing was small,” he said.

As the Alvin rose to the surface again, Ballard was shown the ship’s portholes. “It was like people were looking back at us. It was pretty spooky,” he recalls. There was no trace of human bodies, but he did see shoes, including a pair of shoes that appeared to belong to a mother and a baby. They looked like tombstones marking the place where some of the dead crewmen were laid to rest. “After the Titanic sank, those who didn’t have life jackets died of hypothermia and their bodies sank,” Ballard said.

Robert Ballard surveying the Titanic wreck in July 1986.

Robert Ballard surveying the Titanic wreck in July 1986. © via REUTERS

25 years of ‘Titanic’

The unveiling of the footage coincides with the new release of ‘Titanic’, marking the 25th anniversary of the film, which garnered 11 Oscars, including Best Picture.

“More than a century after the loss of the Titanic, the human stories that the great ship embodied continue to resonate,” Titanic director James Cameron said in a statement. “Like many, I was fascinated when Alvin and Jason Jr. (the unmanned vessel, ed.) went to the wreck. With the release of these images, WHOI is helping to tell an important part of a story that spans generations and goes around the world.”

Jason Jr.  captures images of the Titanic in 1986.

Jason Jr. captures images of the Titanic in 1986. © AP

via REUTERS

© via REUTERS

Director James Cameron at a poster of 'Titanic' starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.

Director James Cameron at a poster of ‘Titanic’ starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. ©EPA

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