The first people to dive down to the wreck of Titanic in almost 15 years say parts of the sunken behemoth are quickly being lost to the sea.
An international team of deep-sea explorers plunged almost 12,500 feet beneath the surface to document the decay of the ship, which sunk on its maiden voyage in 1912 after striking an iceberg. Throughout the course of five dives in a submersible, the crew was able to document in detail the changes to the wreckage.
Despite some of the Titanic still being held together in good condition, parts are quickly deteriorating, historian Parks Stephenson told the BBC. Stephenson said some of what he saw during the dive was “shocking.”
“The captain’s bathtub is a favorite image among Titanic enthusiasts — and that’s now gone,” he said. “That whole deck house on that side is collapsing, taking with it the state rooms. And that deterioration is going to continue advancing.”
Stephenson said he thinks the lounge roof of the bow section would likely be the next part to fall apart, which would obscure views of Titanic’s interior.
“Titanic is returning to nature,” he said.
The deterioration is being spurred on by strong ocean currents, corrosion from the salty water, and metal-eating bacteria.
“There are microbes on the shipwreck that are eating away the iron of the wreck itself, creating ‘rusticle’ structures, which is a much weaker form of the metal,” Newcastle University scientist Clare Fitzsimmons said.
The rusticles are so delicate that they can dissipate into a cloud of dust if disturbed.
The scientists studying the wreckage are looking into how varying types of metal erode in the depths of the near-freezing ocean water and hope to assess how much time the Titanic has left before it crumbles into history.
