The famous bow of the Titanic is falling apart (14 photos + 3 videos)
New footage from the Titanic wreck shows the iconic bow railing crumbling. Videos and photos taken by robotic underwater vehicles show how quickly the iconic ship is falling apart as it lies 12,500 feet below the surface. 
The team that carried out the research warns that it is only a matter of time before the Titanic finally breaks apart.
“People always ask how long Titanic will last,” said Thomasina Ray, director of collections at RMS Titanic Inc, who led the expedition. “We just don’t know, but we’re watching it in real time.”
For more than 100 years, the Titanic’s famous bow has remained as recognizable as it was before it sank. But new footage shows a 15-foot-long section of the ship’s forward railings have collapsed to the seabed, revealing the great liner’s rapid disintegration.
The bow finally collapsed after more than 110 years under water
The Titanic is currently located 350 nautical miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, and is only accessible by remotely operated vehicles
Filmed in 2004
Early in the morning of April 15, 1912, the Titanic sank into the North Atlantic, killing 1,500 passengers and crew. The ship was lost to time until a team of researchers took the first photographs of the wreckage in 1985. The images showed that the railing, which was immortalized in the 1998 film Titanic, had miraculously survived more than 70 years after the sinking.
However, during an expedition in July and August this year, two remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) launched by RMS Titanic Inc discovered that a 4.5m section of the bow railing was missing. A 3D scan of the section later revealed that it had fallen in one piece to the seabed.
Commentators on social media expressed mixed feelings about the incident, with many saddened to see the iconic ship slowly falling apart.
One commenter wrote: "It's sad that half the bow railing is gone, but it's only natural that a ship that's been at the bottom of the ocean for so many years is going to fall apart." Another added: "It makes me so sad to see it slowly deteriorate." And someone else noted: "It's so beautiful, but it's making me cry because it's aging so fast."
At the same time, some commenters believe that the Titanic should be left alone. One wrote: "Enough expeditions to this damn wreck! It's a graveyard, leave it alone!" Another was even more categorical: "Leave this damn boat alone! Expeditions only speed up its deterioration. Let it rest in peace."
In July-August, two ROVs descended to the Titanic and discovered that the bow of the ship was beginning to collapse
An expedition conducted by RMS Titanic Inc discovered that a 4.5 m long section of the forward railing collapsed
The railing was made famous by scenes featuring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as Jack and Rose in the 1997 film Titanic
“The bow of the Titanic is just iconic — you have all these pop culture moments — and it’s what you think of when you think of the shipwreck. And the ship doesn’t look like that anymore,” adds Thomasina Ray.
Images and 3D scans of the wreck created by deep-sea mapping company Magellan and documentary filmmakers Atlantic Productions in 2022 showed the railing was still there. Based on this evidence, the researchers believe that the section must have collapsed within the last two years. The ship's metal structure is being eaten away by microorganisms, forming large rust growths that resemble stalactites.
The crew found that the railing had broken off the bow of the ship and fallen to the seabed
3D scans of the ship and surrounding area show that the section of railing fell as a single piece
Since the Titanic sank in the North Atlantic on April 15, 1912, its wreckage has remained underwater at a depth of more than 3,800 meters
After more than 100 years underwater, the railing has remained intact, but as you can see in this 1993 photo years, microorganisms gradually cause the metal structure to become covered in rusty growths
Since the discovery of the wreck, successive teams of explorers and researchers have watched the once-majestic ship slowly disintegrate.
By 2022, the bow of the ship has already begun to sag under the force of erosion, and now it’s only a matter of time. “It’s another reminder of the destruction that’s happening every day,” says Thomasina Ray. Before the Titanic is lost for good, researchers are making plans to preserve and salvage what can be saved.
RMS Titanic Inc even notes that new areas of destruction could open up “unimpeded access to the ship’s interior,” opening up new opportunities for discovery. Over the course of the expedition, two vehicles have collected more than two million photographs and 24 hours of HD film.
Based on images of the wreck taken in 2022 (pictured) that show the rails still in place, researchers believe the bow of the ship may have collapsed at some point within the last two years
This image shows a section of the railing as it was during previous expeditions. Below is the Titanic's anchor
RMS Titanic Inc hopes that further deterioration of the ship will reveal new access points to the interior
The company is currently studying this data and hopes to use it to create a detailed 3D image of the Titanic. This summer's expedition also discovered an artifact long thought lost. When the 1985 expedition released the first images of the wreck, they showed a bronze statue, "Diana of Versailles," lying in the debris field.
However, due to the culture of secrecy surrounding the discovery, the exact location of the statue was never recorded. Now, the 60cm-tall figure, which once graced the mantelpiece in the first-class lounge, has been found again.
The Diana of Versailles once graced the Titanic's first class lounge, but has not been seen since it was sighted by the original expedition in 1985
It was like finding a needle in a haystack, and this year's discovery was significant. The first class lounge was the most impressive and beautifully decorated room on the ship.
RMS Titanic Inc, the company with the exclusive rights to salvage the sunken Titanic, has recovered thousands of items from the wreck. Now they plan to raise the Diana of Versailles statue from the ocean floor and put it on display for all to see.
"To have Diana back for people to see for themselves is priceless," says Thomasina Ray. "It will reignite a love of history, diving, conservation, shipwrecks, sculpture. I would never leave something so precious at the bottom of the ocean."
