More than two miles below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean lies the ocean liner RMS Titanic. New photos from the submerged site reveal a bronze statue—one that hadn’t been seen in decades. Photos also show continued decay of the world’s best-known shipwreck.
On Monday, RMS Titanic, Inc., (RMST) released images from this summer’s Titanic expedition, the company’s first trip to the wreck since 2010.
RMST is a Georgia-based company. It holds legal rights to the 112-year-old wreck.
The trip launched on July 12, as the U.S. Coast Guard was investigating the June 2023 implosion of the Titan submersible. A different company owned that vessel.
Paul-Henri Nargeolet, director of underwater research for RMST, was aboard Titan during the accident. Sadly, he died along with four others.
Findings from this summer’s trip “showcase a bittersweet mix of preservation and loss,” RMST officials say.
The RMST crew spent 20 days at the site. Crew members captured more than two million of the highest resolution pictures of the site ever to exist, the company says. They returned to Providence, Rhode Island, on August 9.
The team fully mapped the wreck and its debris field with advanced equipment. Remotely operated vehicles equipped with cameras and lights surveyed the site. The next step includes processing the data gathered to share with scientists. RMST also asserts a hope that “historically significant and at-risk artifacts can be identified for safe recovery in future expeditions.”
A highlight was the rediscovery of a copy of the statue Diana of Versailles partially buried in sand. The two-foot-tall statue adorned a fireplace in the ship’s first class lounge. The original, larger-than-life statue stands in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France.
Underwater archaeologist Robert Ballard last saw Titanic’s Diana in 1986. Crew members on the 2024 trip obtained a clear and updated image of the statue. Many people had believed it was forever lost to the sea floor.
On a sadder note, a significant section of the railing that surrounds the ship bow’s forecastle deck has fallen, RMST Inc. reveals. The railing still stood as recently as 2022.
Tomasina Ray is director of collections for RMST. “The discovery of the statue of Diana was an exciting moment,” she says. “But we are saddened by the loss of the iconic bow railing and other evidence of decay.”
Ray adds that the ship’s worsening condition “has only strengthened our commitment to preserving Titanic’s legacy.”
Since the fall in Eden, Earth and everything on it has continued to decay. But the story doesn’t end there. The Bible promises restoration for the Christian—who becomes “a new creation—and also one day for the entire Earth.
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. — 2 Corinthians 5:17
