There were a total of 11 dives to the Titanic in 1986.
Around four decades ago, the first manned trip to the RMS Titanic, captured the images of the British ocean liner which collided with an iceberg and killed more than 1,500 passengers. Now, the extraordinary and never-seen-before footage of the wreckage has been released which has unraveled the deep-sea mystery behind the sunken ship.
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) published an 80-minute video of the expedition from 1986 to commemorate the movie "Titanic" which was released 25 years ago.
According to WHOI, the Titanic's remains were initially uncovered by a team led by Dr Robert Ballard on September 1, 1985, nearly 75 years after the ship sank on April 15, 1912. The team returned to the wreck site in June 1986 with a human-occupied submersible named Alvin and a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) named Jason Junior. According to the institution, this mission was the "first time humans set eyes on the ill-fated ship".
In the "rare, uncut and mostly unnarrated footage", the Alvin submersible approached the ship and docked on its deck. The video also shows internal views of the wreck, such as a glimpse inside the chief officer's cabin and images of the ocean floor's debris. There were a total of 11 dives to the Titanic in 1986, according to the video.
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The film's director James Cameron said in a statement, "More than a century after the loss of Titanic, the human stories embodied in the great ship continue to resonate. Like many, I was transfixed when Alvin and Jason Jr. ventured down to and inside the wreck. By releasing this footage, WHOI is helping tell an important part of a story that spans generations and circles the globe."
The Titanic was the largest ocean liner ever built and was regarded as unsinkable when it set sail. However, it collided with an iceberg on its maiden voyage from England to New York City and sank around 2 am on April 15, 1912. Only about 700 of the passengers and crew survived when RMS Carpathia arrived to rescue them. Since then, Titanic's debris has remained around 12,600 feet below the ocean's surface.