For The First Time Video Footage Of Titanic Wreck Released

2004 photo of the Titanic wreck (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - On July 18, 1986, the Titanic video footage was released to the public. The video is the first recording of the ship in a wreck. The video footage is stunning in its clarity and detail, showing one of the ship's majestic staircases and a coral-lined chandelier slowly swinging on the ocean currents.

Launching History, Saturday, July 18, at the time of its launch, Titanic was the largest ocean liner ever built. The ship is about 274 meters long and 45 meters from the waterline. With such a design, Titanic was considered unsinkable due to its large size and special construction.

On its maiden voyage, Titanic carried more than 2,200 people, including some of the richest and most famous in the world. In the final hours of April 14, 1912, four days after sailing, the 'unsinkable' Titanic hit an iceberg.

The collision with an iceberg and sinking in the icy waters of the North Atlantic resulted in the deaths of about 1,500 people. Many people said that actually a lot could have been saved if the ship had carried enough lifeboats. The lifeboats prepared for emergencies were only for 1,178 people, while the ship itself was able to accommodate 2,435 passengers and about 900 crew members.

It wasn't until 73 years later, in 1985, that the wreck of the Titanic was found. Marine geologist Robert Ballard, together with Jean-Louis Michel of the Institute of Research for Exploitation of the Sea (IFREMER), found the remains of the Titanic 563 km southeast of Newfoundland, 13,000 feet on the seabed. Ballard, who is from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Massachusetts, received assistance from the United States Navy, who provided him with the Argo, a high-resolution sonar device.

Ballard's discovery caused a great stir among the public. Apart from that, the discovery also started a new era in underwater exploration and scientific research, especially around the topic of the Titanic. The following year, Ballard returned to the wreck, this time to dive down in a submarine named Alvin. He recorded and photographed the Titanic under the sea which looked like a ghost ship.

Ballard was accompanied by Ralph Hollis and Mark Bowen, to explore the inside of the ship. Two miles below sea level, explorers found time frozen. As if seeing life on the Titanic, they found a wood-burning stove and champagne bottles that had not been opened.

They also find the ship's safe, but ultimately decide to leave it all at the bottom of the sea. They were sure that Titanic's debris would not be damaged if it remained on the ocean floor.

“That ship is the scary part. I can see it when I walk in the glass. All around me were the ghosts of the lifeboats and the piercing screams and screams of people who were freezing to death in the water, ”said Ballard.

Although Ballard has spent years visiting the wreck, he has not found any traces of other human remains. It finds no other soft, degradable materials such as wood and carpet. Ballard also said he did not find any human remains that were likely to have been eaten by sea creatures not long after the ship sank.

“There is no light at such great depths and very little life to be found. The area is a quiet and peaceful place. A fitting place for the remains of the greatest sea tragedy. Forever maybe stay like that, "concluded Ballard.