The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), dedicated to the research, exploration and education of the oceans, has released a preview of previously unseen video, never before seen publicly, of the dive that first filmed the wreckage of the Titanic in 1986.
The institution, based in the state of Massachusetts (USA), has announced that tomorrow, March 16, the full, uncut video, which lasts 80 minutes, will be available on its website. The images were recorded nine months after the famous and immense ocean liner was located at a depth of 3,780 meters, a few kilometers from the site where it sank on April 14, 1912 at 2:20 in the morning.
The ship lay at the bottom of the sea for 73 years, until a Franco-American expedition led by Jean-Louis Michel, from Ifremer, and Robert Ballard, from WHOI, located the remains on September 1, 1985 at 1:05 p.m. at a depth of 4,000 meters, 625 kilometers southeast of Newfoundland. The discovery of the Titanic wreck was made after some failed attempts by other expeditions and was essential to clarify the exact cause of the sinking. At that time, the exterior of the ship was recognized and it was confirmed that it had not sunk into the sea in one piece, as some researchers thought, but that it had split in two.
The WHOI team enlisted the help of the famous Argo research submersible and later the Alvin remotely operated underwater exploration vehicle, which took iconic images of the ship. It was the first time human eyes had seen the giant liner since it hit an iceberg and sank.
Since the Argo submersible could not get inside the ocean liner, Ballard decided to prepare more advanced technology. One year after the discovery of the wreckage of the Titanic, on July 18, 1986, he returned to the Atlantic Ocean with the Alvin submersible to explore its interior. In this second expedition, the great halls with the lamps that still hung from the ceilings and many of the ship's rooms were photographed.
Ballard's expedition inspired film director James Cameron to make a film about the story of the sinking and in 1997 Titanic was released, one of the highest grossing films in history:
In fact, the diffusion, almost 111 years after the fateful sinking of the ocean liner, coincides with the 25th anniversary of James Cameron's Oscar-winning film about the sinking of the Titanic, in April 1912, after hitting an iceberg and sinking in the deep. frigid North Atlantic on her maiden voyage from the British port of Southampton to New York. About 1,500 people died and there were about 700 survivors.
"More than a century after the loss of the Titanic, the human stories embodied in the great ship continue to resonate," said Cameron, who in addition to being a film director is a marine explorer. "Like many, I was transfixed when they ventured down and accessed the wreck. By posting this video, WHOI is helping to tell an important part of a story that spans generations and spans the globe."
