Unique bronze statue photographed at Titanic's wreck

A bronze statue from Titanic that has not been seen for decades – and was feared lost forever – has been rediscovered. Newly taken pictures of the wreck show how it is slowly decaying.

» Published: September 04 2024

Unique bronze statue photographed at Titanic's wreck
Photo: RMS Titanic Inc via AP/TT

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The discovery of the bronze statue "Diana of Versailles" is one of several made during the summer's expedition by the American company that has legal rights to the 112-year-old wreck.

RMS Titanic Inc's expedition was the first since 2010. A team of around 50 people spent nearly three weeks taking millions of pictures of the ship's parts.

In the rare images released this week, the Diana statue, which once stood in the ship's first-class lounge, can be seen submerged on the seabed.

Searching for the statue was like looking for a needle in a haystack, researcher James Penca tells The Washington Post. The last time Diana was photographed was in 1986, and researchers feared that she had floated away or been completely buried in sand and sediment since then.

The images are – thanks to new technology – the highest quality ever taken of the aging wreck, the newspaper writes.

The statue appears relatively intact, but other parts of the wreck show clear signs of aging. Among other things, the expedition discovered that Titanic's front railing – known from Kate Winslet's and Leonardo DiCaprio's "flying scene" in the film of the same name – has fallen off.

She's like an aging mother or father who you love and don't want to leave you, says researcher James Penca about the ship.

The ocean liner Titanic sank off Newfoundland, on North America's east coast, on the night of April 15, 1912, after colliding with an iceberg.

More than 1,500 people died. Over 700 survived the disaster. The lifeboats were not enough for all the people on board.

The journey, which was the ship's first, had started in English Southampton a few days earlier and also picked up passengers in French Cherbourg and Cobh in Ireland.

Of the 123 Swedes who traveled with Titanic, 34 survived.

Titanic was 260 meters long and was seen, along with its sister ships Olympic and Britannic, as the world's most luxurious ships at the time.

Britannic sank in an accident in the Mediterranean four years after Titanic's sinking. Olympic sailed successfully across the Atlantic until 1935, when she became outdated and was scrapped.

The ships were owned by White Star Line. The shipping company was a competitor to Cunard Line, which still operates luxury ships between Europe and America today.

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By TTEnglish edition by Sweden Herald, adapted for local and international readers

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