Rare footage of the Titanic shipwreck has finally been released, 37 years after the ruins were first discovered.
The video was taken by a team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the French National Institute of Oceanography months after they discovered the wreckage in September 1985.
The exploration team said the vessel was lying at a depth of 2.5 miles and was located 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland in Canada.
The 80-minute film of the wreckage will be published on the WHOI’s YouTube page at 12.30pm on Thursday to mark the 25th anniversary re-release of James Cameron’s blockbuster film.
Over 1,500 people died when the ship sank after colliding with an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York in 1912, and in July 1986, 11 divers took shots from a manned submersible and a small remotely operated vessel.
Oceanographer Dr Robert Ballard said the first thing he saw when he descended under the sea was a “giant wall of riveted steel that rose over 100 and some feet above us”.
He added: “I never looked down at the Titanic. I looked up at the Titanic. Nothing was small.”
The three-man submersible vessel had to surface when its batteries took on water which allowed Mr Ballard to see the Titanic’s portholes from above.
“It was like people looking back at us. It was pretty haunting actually," he said.
WHOI engineers Andy Bowen said the biggest challenge was the “remoteness of the location", adding that the “water is near-freezing".
Coordinated in tandem with the 25th anniversary re-release of the 1997 film, Cameron said: “The human stories embodied in the great ship continue to resonate.
“By releasing this footage, WHOI is helping tell an important part of a story that spans generations and circles the globe."
