The Titanic has been the subject of numerous landings and expeditions to the wreck site since it was discovered in 1985. ROV dives have allowed us to explore, discover and document the remains of the ship, as well as contribute to its gradual deterioration. After the latest “excursion” we have good news and bad news. We found one treasure, but another has been lost.

Last time. These are two uncrewed dives conducted a few weeks ago by RMS Titanic, Inc., the company that has exclusive salvage rights to the remains of the Titanic, using a vehicle equipped with high-resolution cameras and scanning equipment. In fact, it was the company’s first such dive since 2010.

One of the mission’s goals was to find and photograph artifacts that could be salvaged in the future. In the background, the search for the most coveted treasure: the “Diana of Versailles,” a bronze statue that occupied the Titanic’s first-class lounge. The statue was last photographed in 1986, and the chances of finding it again were like “finding a needle in a haystack,” researchers said.

Good news. The company’s latest discoveries include a bronze statue that had not been seen for decades and was feared lost forever. RMS Titanic said in a statement that the voyage’s findings “show a bittersweet mix of preservation and loss.”

“After much trial and error, we managed to find Diana and take her first photographs in 38 years, and we found her just a few hours before the end of the expedition. This rediscovery of the statue is a perfect argument against any idea. “We are leaving the Titanic in peace,” the company said.

And the bad news. The landing also confirmed that a significant section of the railing surrounding the ship’s forward deck had fallen. The railing was supposed to stand until 2022. In other words, the most iconic scene of James Cameron’s film, the one where Jack, played by DiCaprio, lifts Rose, played by Winslet, into the air, is no longer there, an impossible sight today.

“When we arrived at the wreck last month, we discovered that the port side railing had fallen off,” said James Penca, a researcher with RMS Titanic, Inc. “That’s a natural thing, different parts of the railing.” But he added, “It’s a significant change that such a prominent, photographed, iconic railing is now sitting on the ocean floor. Titanic will literally never look the same again.”

Millions of distortion photos. During the dive, researchers took nearly 2 million photos of the Titanic, as well as 24 hours of high-resolution footage. As they say, time is of the essence to capture as much of the wreckage on camera as possible, because scientists predict that bacteria could eat away at the metal shell enough that the remains would disappear within a few years.

In fact, they found that in addition to the missing railing, almost the entire metal structure had been eaten away by microbes, forming rust stalactites called rusticles.

Next step. The mission has fully mapped the wreck and debris field with equipment that will allow for a better understanding of the site. The next step, the company said, will be to process the data in a way that can be shared with the scientific community so that “historically significant and at-risk artefacts can be identified for safe recovery on future expeditions.”

It’s actually going to be about bringing back the Diana statue. “It was a work of art that had to be seen and appreciated. And now this beautiful work of art is at the bottom of the ocean… pitch black, where it has been for 112 years. Bring Diana back so people can see it with their own eyes… the value that it has, the history, the diving, the preservation, the shipwrecks, the love of sculpture… We can never leave this at the bottom of the ocean,” the company says.

Image | YouTube

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