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00:00:00On the night of April the 14th, 1912, the RMS Titanic slipped beneath the ocean waves.
00:00:15Her disappearance is riddled with rumour and speculation.
00:00:24What happened on that terrible night to cause the death of 1,523 men, women and children?
00:00:45Today a team of investigators are sifting through the wreckage to find out exactly how
00:00:50and why she went down.
00:00:53This is about to take us back in time to witness the sinking of the unsinkable.
00:00:59The RMS Titanic.
00:01:14This is the Nadir, a French research vessel en route to a historic spot, 640 kilometres
00:01:21off the coast of North America.
00:01:32The crew plot a course for one of the most notorious points in the North Atlantic, the
00:01:37site of the Titanic disaster.
00:01:41The Nadir is joined by another French vessel, the Ocean Voyager.
00:01:55On board is a highly specialised team of scientists and engineers.
00:01:59Each one will be exploring a particular phase of the Titanic disaster.
00:02:06Paul Mathias is leading the field in underwater imaging technology.
00:02:11He will try to find out the extent of the damage caused by the Titanic's collision with
00:02:15the now infamous iceberg.
00:02:21Naval architect Bill Garske believes that vital clues can be found in the steel from
00:02:26which the Titanic was made.
00:02:29Did her steel shatter like glass during its sinking, as eyewitnesses claim?
00:02:37David Livingston works for the company that actually built the Titanic.
00:02:41He wants to know why she sank so quickly, and how she came to break in two.
00:02:49Roy Cullimore is the team's biologist.
00:02:52His job will be to determine how much damage marine organisms are having on the wreck.
00:02:58Will they seal the Titanic's ultimate fate?
00:03:02Charles Haas and Jack Eaton are historians with a special interest in the RMS Titanic.
00:03:08They will provide the historical context to this extraordinary investigation.
00:03:13Together, this team will attempt to discover why the Titanic, a supposedly invincible ship
00:03:19built to endure any hazard, should have been destroyed by such a minor collision.
00:03:36410 degrees west and 490 degrees north is the location of the wreck site.
00:03:44A simple buoy and flag are used to mark one boundary.
00:03:49It was in these waters some 85 years ago that the Titanic drama began.
00:04:07For the engineers, divers and scientists involved, exploring the Titanic is proving to be an
00:04:12exciting challenge.
00:04:18Great care is being taken to prepare the gear for the first dive.
00:04:29On the bridge of the Nadir, the captain guides the ship over the wreck site.
00:04:39Directly below them lies the remains of the greatest sunken ship of all time.
00:04:55During her maiden voyage to New York City, a glancing blow with an iceberg started a
00:05:00chain reaction that was to lead to a catastrophe few thought possible.
00:05:07The team believe that something extraordinary must have happened to the ship's structure
00:05:11to cause her to split and sink so quickly.
00:05:33Today, the Titanic lies buried in over 3,500 metres of water.
00:05:39Torn in two, her bow and stern lie 800 metres apart.
00:05:48The forces that caused such destruction must have been awesome, but the true facts of what
00:05:54happened that night have remained elusive until now.
00:05:57For Charles Haas, the investigation holds special importance.
00:06:02The Titanic is the subject of a great many myths and a great many bits of misinformation.
00:06:08That's why I think this expedition is so significant, because science is giving us the tool to eliminate
00:06:14some of this misinformation and tell what really did happen that night.
00:06:26Paul Mathias will be the first to explore the site of the wreck.
00:06:32But first, his underwater imaging equipment must be loaded onto this state-of-the-art
00:06:36submersible, the Nautil.
00:06:43It's one of only a handful in the world capable of taking humans down to such depths.
00:07:02Mathias' dive will hopefully determine the extent of the damage caused by Titanic's collision
00:07:08with the iceberg.
00:07:10At the time, it was widely believed that a massive gaping wound in her side caused her
00:07:16sinking.
00:07:17But this was never proved conclusively.
00:07:19After the Titanic hit the iceberg, there was enough damage to sink her.
00:07:28Exactly what damage occurred to the hull is not known with certainty.
00:07:33The reason is, a major part of the bow of the boat is under the mud, and it's been a
00:07:41mystery for 80 years.
00:07:45Today we're going to try to solve that by looking beneath the mud, using a seismic profiler,
00:07:50much like a physician might use an ultrasound.
00:07:55The sonar device will create images by sending and receiving acoustic signals.
00:08:03Mathias hopes his signal will be able to penetrate the deep mud, enabling him to see even the
00:08:08smallest hole in the Titanic's hull.
00:08:12His evidence will provide the first step in the reconstruction process.
00:08:21To position the sonar receiver accurately in the mud, the team will be relying on the
00:08:25dexterity of Nautil's robotic arms and the skill of its operator.
00:08:33Inside the tight confines of her cabin, there's only room for three divers and a deep-sea lab.
00:08:44This is the first time this kind of approach has been used to image a hull that's buried
00:08:49beneath the mud.
00:08:52I think this is overall going to give us a lot more information about the Titanic than
00:08:56we've ever had before.
00:09:09The investigation of the wreck of the Titanic is extremely dangerous.
00:09:18The pressure that will be exerted on the shell of the Nautil is immense.
00:09:22One tiny crack in the titanium and she would instantly implode.
00:09:53These waters can be hostile.
00:09:58Freezing temperatures and strong currents will add danger to every dive.
00:10:22Once in the sea, the divers free Nautil from her tethering lines.
00:10:53Back in the control room on Nadir, the crew monitors the sub's progress in real-time,
00:10:59using state-of-the-art visioning software.
00:11:02But their hands are tied if the sub should get into trouble.
00:11:06From now on, she's on her own.
00:11:14Free-falling, the Nautil begins her descent into the steadily darkening waters.
00:11:21It will be an hour and a half before she reaches the Titanic.
00:11:38In the control room on Nadir, the crew monitors Nautil's slow descent to the wreck site.
00:11:51Well, this is Paul Matthias calling.
00:11:55From 3,800 meters below the ocean surface,
00:12:01a couple of very tiny portholes up here in the front that we're looking out of that are six inches thick.
00:12:06Depth indicator says we're at 3,767 meters.
00:12:12That's about two and a half miles straight down from the ship we left about an hour and a half ago.
00:12:19And I'm looking forward to seeing the bottom come up here any second now.
00:12:33We're finally touched down, and I can see a sandy, muddy bottom here.
00:12:38It's lighted by our lights. It would otherwise be pitch black down here.
00:12:49But out of the darkness, a ghostly silhouette appears.
00:13:06One of my impressions about seeing the Titanic is the majesty of it.
00:13:11It's a gigantic ship, still upright.
00:13:19And you can see what was once obviously a very impressive, very well-equipped sailing vessel.
00:13:50Before Matthias can search for iceberg damage, Nautil's robotic arms must be brought to life.
00:13:58The pilot activates the claws and carefully clutches the sonar device.
00:14:04SONAR BEEPS
00:14:17Paul Matthias must first assess the visible damage.
00:14:21It'll help him to interpret what he'll find later under the mud.
00:14:28SONAR BEEPS
00:14:34Coming up on an edge here, an opening in the hull that you can pick up on the video.
00:14:40This is above the mud line.
00:14:42Here we can see into the hull, and at the same time our seismic profiler's starting to show a nice hyperbolic shape.
00:14:53This confirms that we're starting to pick up openings in the hull with this system.
00:14:59Very encouraging.
00:15:02After collecting these baseline images, the crew moves on to its biggest challenge,
00:15:07to find the holes that may have caused the Titanic to sink.
00:15:14This is the first time sonar has been used at this depth, so there's no guarantee of success.
00:15:21MUSIC
00:15:29The survey will be slow. Three hours of painstaking work.
00:15:35MUSIC
00:15:48The story of the Titanic's destruction begins three days into her maiden voyage.
00:15:54MUSIC
00:15:59Her captain, E.J. Smith, had received several radio warnings from other ships reporting ice in the vicinity.
00:16:08Smith immediately altered his course, heading further south to avoid the danger.
00:16:13But he kept up Titanic's fast speed.
00:16:17I can't imagine any condition that would cause a ship to founder.
00:16:21Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that. Captain Smith.
00:16:27Smith's confidence was soon to be dashed.
00:16:35At 11.40 on Sunday evening, lookouts high in the crow's nest spotted an iceberg looming in the haze.
00:16:45They rang a warning bell three times to signal the bridge.
00:16:52The Titanic was turned hard to port.
00:16:58But it was too late.
00:17:04Captain Smith sent one of the ship's builders, Thomas Andrews, to assess the damage.
00:17:10MUSIC
00:17:16Moving quickly towards the ship's forward compartments, Andrews made a thorough inspection.
00:17:31What he saw was devastating.
00:17:40In the collision, the Titanic's hull plating had been pierced by the iceberg.
00:17:48Even though the ship was designed to survive some flooding, Andrews was very uneasy.
00:17:53There was damage in all of the first six compartments.
00:17:58MUSIC
00:18:05He told Captain Smith that, in his opinion, the ship had an hour and a half, maybe two, before she'd sink.
00:18:14The Titanic was doomed.
00:18:17MUSIC
00:18:25Subsequent inquiries into the disaster desperately tried to ascertain the extent of the iceberg damage.
00:18:31Historian Charles Haas.
00:18:36When the investigations into Titanic's loss convened, they were faced with a problem.
00:18:44The one person who could have told them the most about the ship and what had happened that night, Thomas Andrews, was lost.
00:18:55Even the survivors' testimonies were riddled with contradictions and inconsistencies, as naval architect Bill Garsky explains.
00:19:03That's one of the difficulties in trying to determine what happened,
00:19:06is because as you look at each survivor's testimony, you'll find that each one has a different reaction to what happened.
00:19:15But there was one expert at the inquiry who believed he knew exactly what had happened that night.
00:19:22Naval architect Edward Wilding worked for the shipyard that built the Titanic.
00:19:29Wilding proposed that the key to understanding the damage could be found in the nature of the flooding.
00:19:37The Titanic had flooded unevenly in six compartments.
00:19:44He believed that each compartment may have suffered in its own unique way.
00:19:53Wilding also proposed to the investigators that the total amount of damage from the iceberg collision could have been very small.
00:20:01But the press ignored him.
00:20:06People wanted to believe that the great ship could only have been destroyed by a massive gash in her side.
00:20:12The very well accepted London graphic had a drawing of the hull showing 15 feet above the keel, a big open wound.
00:20:26Over the years, this assumption has come to be held as fact.
00:20:31But could the Titanic have suffered a gaping wound?
00:20:35Paul Mathias and the crew of the Nautil are now being retrieved from the icy North Atlantic after nine hours in the water.
00:20:43The Titanic's crew is now being evacuated by a ship.
00:20:47The Titanic's crew is now being evacuated by a ship.
00:20:51The Titanic's crew is now being evacuated by a ship.
00:20:55Paul Mathias and the crew of the Nautil are now being retrieved from the icy North Atlantic after nine hours in the water.
00:21:04Their findings will be crucial to the entire investigation.
00:21:12Once on dry land, Mathias and his assistant, Steven Zorenko, set about combing through their data.
00:21:20Boom. Look at that. There's another one.
00:21:26Well, except it's longer. See it? It goes from here to here.
00:21:31A series of punctures in the Titanic's hull soon becomes apparent.
00:21:38For the next few hours, Mathias and Zorenko will attempt to identify the hull damage, compartment by compartment.
00:21:50A new and startling picture emerges with each piece of new evidence.
00:21:58Their conclusion? RMS Titanic wasn't torn open by a giant, gaping wound.
00:22:05Just as Edward Wilding had predicted, a series of small holes and separations in the steel were responsible for the flooding.
00:22:13OK, let's see. We have a small hole here.
00:22:17As Paul Mathias plots the cracks in the Titanic's hull, he believes that much of the damage is only as thin as a human finger.
00:22:262-5-5-3.
00:22:30It'll be right here.
00:22:33And one right next to it here.
00:22:37OK, then we have a 15-foot hole.
00:22:4056-9-9.
00:22:44Just here.
00:22:46By being able to use our sonar and look through the mud, we've got some indication of a small hole here near the peak.
00:22:53Two more small holes about 5-10 feet.
00:22:57Fairly small here.
00:22:59And cargo hole number one.
00:23:01And we've got a larger hole here that extends back.
00:23:05It's on the order of 15 feet or so.
00:23:07And then we're seeing another 32-foot, approximately 32-foot separation that extends back here into cargo hole number three.
00:23:16And then finally, the biggest hole is back in boiler room number six.
00:23:21The separation runs all the way across, apparently back across this transverse bulkhead.
00:23:28On the night of the disaster, the impact of the iceberg had buckled the Titanic's steel plates and popped rivets, creating tiny holes in the hull.
00:23:40Incredibly, these small wounds started a pattern of flooding that would lead to her eventual sinking.
00:23:46Matthias eagerly shares the news with naval architects Garske and Livingston.
00:23:51Not a continuous sort of zipper or gash, not a long 300-foot type of opening.
00:24:00Though his discovery has prompted many questions, one stands out.
00:24:05What was the cause of the sinking?
00:24:08This is Belfast in Northern Ireland.
00:24:11The city where the RMS Titanic was perceived as the most dangerous in the world.
00:24:16The Titanic sank in the sea in June 1942.
00:24:20The Titanic sank in the sea in June 1942.
00:24:23And in the wake of the 1943 disaster, the Titanic sank in the sea in June 1944.
00:24:28The Titanic sank in the sea in June 1944.
00:24:32And in the wake of the 1943 disaster,
00:24:34the city where the RMS Titanic was built.
00:24:42A team of naval architects are about to solve the mystery
00:24:45of why the Titanic managed to sink in just two hours.
00:25:04Two researchers have been able to recreate the sinking,
00:25:07relying mainly on Edward Wilding's testimony of the flooding.
00:25:15Right, what have we got?
00:25:17Hello, John, this is condition C1...
00:25:20John Bedford and Chris Hackett have created a computer model
00:25:23using Wilding's specific calculations.
00:25:27They also agreed that the Titanic was not torn wide open.
00:25:31The total damage was just over one square metre,
00:25:34the equivalent surface area of an average-sized human being.
00:25:38John Bedford is intrigued by their findings.
00:25:43And I found that...
00:25:45I found that...
00:25:47I found that...
00:25:49I found that...
00:25:51I found that...
00:25:54And I found that the media and the literature on the subject
00:26:00was so full of misleading information
00:26:04that I began to get interested.
00:26:10And the more we looked at it,
00:26:12the more surprising things that we found.
00:26:17Their version of the reconstruction begins at 11.40.
00:26:21Bedford and Hackett calculate that immediately after impact,
00:26:25water would have been rushing in at around seven tonnes per second.
00:26:32The Titanic's watertight doors
00:26:34were capable of containing the flooding in one compartment,
00:26:37but with six filling simultaneously,
00:26:40total containment was impossible.
00:26:44Just ten minutes after the collision,
00:26:46most of the damaged compartments had filled to the top.
00:26:51HEAVY RAIN
00:26:55According to the inquiry report,
00:26:58we've got the mail room afloat,
00:27:00which brings it up to 24 feet.
00:27:03Unaware of the impending danger,
00:27:05five men trying to drag the mail to higher ground
00:27:08became trapped in the flooding and drowned.
00:27:20We can then go on another ten minutes to midnight.
00:27:24The water's risen to G deck through number one hatch.
00:27:30Twenty minutes after impact,
00:27:32passengers walking along the promenade
00:27:34commented that they suddenly felt as if they were walking downhill.
00:27:39By midnight, Bedford and Hackett estimate
00:27:42that the ship would have taken on nearly 8,000 tonnes of water.
00:27:50Based on the figures after 20 minutes at 12.20...
00:27:58By 12.20, just 40 minutes after the collision,
00:28:01the bow is almost five metres away from being totally submerged.
00:28:06As the first two lifeboats were launched,
00:28:09there were still three places on board.
00:28:11No-one could comprehend that the ship was actually going under.
00:28:16And that's it there.
00:28:18There's still no water at all, really, in number four.
00:28:23And everything is flooded down to the waterline except number five.
00:28:30The bow is submerged, as you see.
00:28:32One hour after the iceberg struck,
00:28:34all the damaged compartments are filled to the waterline.
00:28:39Bedford and Hackett estimate
00:28:41that the Titanic would now have taken on 25,000 tonnes of water.
00:28:47At this point, Captain Smith must have known time was running out.
00:28:51He ordered distress rockets to be fired
00:28:53as radio operators frantically signalled for help.
00:28:56All in vain.
00:28:59OK, she's still stable.
00:29:02So we can carry on.
00:29:04At 1.40, two hours after impact,
00:29:07the already grim situation took a turn for the worse.
00:29:18The brave crew of the Titanic
00:29:20are now on their way back to bed.
00:29:24The brave crewmen who had been supplying power to the ship's lights
00:29:29now had to scramble for their lives.
00:29:37Further compartments flood, pulling the bow under the water.
00:29:45The enormous stern heaved up into the night sky.
00:29:54In just over two hours,
00:29:56the RMS Titanic was lost beneath the waves.
00:30:00We can carry on filling up
00:30:02and see if that's sufficient to sink her.
00:30:09And it is.
00:30:11And away she goes.
00:30:14That's it. So that's 20 past two.
00:30:23That's her sunk.
00:30:35Over 1,500 people were still on the ship as she went down.
00:30:45One of the greatest marvels of its time
00:30:48was that she had been sent to the bottom of the sea
00:30:51by a mere square metre of damage.
00:31:02But Roy Cullimore isn't surprised by this revelation.
00:31:08At the time, she was the biggest.
00:31:11She was the best.
00:31:13She could beat nature.
00:31:15She could go through an ice floe.
00:31:17She was unsinkable.
00:31:19She was fast. She was big.
00:31:22But she was a pimple on the ocean.
00:31:25Nature could yawn and knock her aside and dead.
00:31:37The building of the RMS Titanic represents a time of great optimism.
00:31:42It was believed that the technology of man
00:31:45could overcome the forces of nature.
00:31:48When she set sail, no-one was concerned
00:31:51that she hadn't been equipped with enough lifeboats
00:31:54to carry all the passengers on board.
00:31:56But from this point on, not only procedure,
00:31:59but the fundamental principles of safety at sea would change forever.
00:32:08Today, we know unsinkable ships are impossible to build.
00:32:14Designs now focus on keeping vessels afloat
00:32:17long enough to rescue those on board.
00:32:24Safety drills are mandatory and help to ensure quick evacuation.
00:32:37Unlike the Titanic, modern ships also carry adequate lifeboats.
00:32:44Anyway, since the Titanic,
00:32:46there is enough room in the life raft for everybody.
00:32:53Survival suits like this are provided for all passengers.
00:32:57They offer protection against freezing seas.
00:33:05Of those who lost their lives in the Titanic disaster,
00:33:09most didn't die from drowning,
00:33:11but from exposure to the ice-cold water.
00:33:31The deep sea in which the Titanic lies is a new frontier.
00:33:363,500 metres down,
00:33:38few people have been able to travel to such a depth.
00:33:44Prototype submersibles like Nautil have revolutionised scientific study.
00:33:49They have opened up new worlds from which we have much to learn.
00:34:02For biologist Roy Cullimore,
00:34:04the Titanic is like another planet teeming with life.
00:34:19We tend to think of the Earth as a surface.
00:34:26We live on the surface or close to the surface,
00:34:29and the birds fly overhead, the trees grow in the soil,
00:34:33the water laps at the beaches,
00:34:36and we don't realise that there are many biological universes on this planet.
00:34:47Cullimore believes that the Titanic is now host to a giant community of microbes,
00:34:52many of which are actually eating her away.
00:35:03Here's a picture of the organisms that are out there.
00:35:06The Titanic is one side.
00:35:09Well, you're going into a new frontier by going forward.
00:35:18The biological traps he is building
00:35:20will enable him to identify the bacteria residing on the wreck.
00:35:28A strip of 35mm film is used as bait.
00:35:34Since film is made from gelatin,
00:35:37it will provide a good source of nourishment for multiplying bacteria.
00:35:43In order to identify the microorganisms,
00:35:46he deposits a substance rich in iron at the bottom of the tube.
00:35:50And what they're going to do is they're going to mine the film.
00:35:53They're going to try and take the film, the gelatin off,
00:35:57and so they're going to tunnel, they're going to etch it away,
00:36:00and then we're going to hopefully see some beautiful patterns,
00:36:03because science isn't just science, it's also art.
00:36:06So what we do is we now put this down,
00:36:09we then have to put some additional weights on.
00:36:12Roy hopes to encourage only the bacteria that favour iron to grow here.
00:36:16As these bacteria slowly devour the iron deposits in the Titanic,
00:36:20they build these elaborate structures known as rusticles.
00:36:24It's ironic that such tiny organisms
00:36:28are responsible for the deterioration of such an enormous vessel.
00:36:35The ship is starting to disintegrate.
00:36:37And it's that disintegration
00:36:39because the rusticles are sucking more and more iron out of the steel,
00:36:43and now the ship cannot support itself,
00:36:46so gradually she's going to go in,
00:36:49which means the integrity, the structure of the ship,
00:36:52one day will collapse.
00:36:57Collymore's task is to determine how much of the Titanic
00:37:01has been eaten by the microbe-infested rusticles.
00:37:04What's frustrating me is, how fast are they growing?
00:37:08How fast are they extracting the iron from the plates of the Titanic?
00:37:15How long will the Titanic last?
00:37:19His evidence will help to determine exactly how long she has left.
00:37:24And for the investigation team, time is precious.
00:37:28Naval architects David Livingston and Bill Garsky
00:37:32are looking back to the night of the disaster for more clues.
00:37:36Now they know the exact damage caused by the collision
00:37:39and the pattern of the subsequent flooding,
00:37:42they can begin to grapple with one of the most puzzling mysteries.
00:37:46How and why did the Titanic break into pieces on such calm seas?
00:37:51This is a really jumbled mass of twisted metal, pipe, cable, wires.
00:37:59You name it, it's there, and it's all crushed up together.
00:38:02It's not a... It's unbelievable.
00:38:05It's not a very inviting place at all.
00:38:08It's almost like a giant... It's ripped it apart.
00:38:11I mean, it's... It looks that way.
00:38:15When the revelation came that the ship was broken in two,
00:38:20it was absolutely astounding to us,
00:38:23because of the weight, the credence that we had given the historical reports,
00:38:28and in particular the two investigations
00:38:31that had found that the ship had sank largely intact.
00:38:34In their testimonies, all the surviving officers
00:38:37said they saw the Titanic sink intact.
00:38:41But others saw the ship break into pieces.
00:38:44Why do their accounts show such inconsistencies?
00:38:52There are almost as many interpretations
00:38:56and depictions of the breakup
00:38:59as there are people who gave the testimony.
00:39:04One survivor, Jack Thayer, had drawn a sketch of what he saw.
00:39:09It was reproduced on the front page of the Philadelphia Bulletin
00:39:13and clearly shows the ship breaking at the surface.
00:39:21Others claim the ship broke up under the water.
00:39:25The controversy is, did the vessel break at the surface?
00:39:29Did it break on the way down?
00:39:31Or did it break when it got to the ocean bottom?
00:39:38As you go up, that's the steering wheel.
00:39:41That's the rudder.
00:39:43That's the rudder.
00:39:45That's the rudder.
00:39:47That's the rudder.
00:39:49That's the rudder.
00:39:51Once you go up, that's the scariest part,
00:39:54in terms of, you start to sweat.
00:39:57David Livingston will be searching the wreck site
00:40:00for clues to the breakup.
00:40:02George Tullock, one of the expedition organisers,
00:40:05is giving him some last-minute advice.
00:40:07That won't happen until you're locked into this pit.
00:40:10Once you're locked into that pit,
00:40:12and you're decided that he's ready...
00:40:15This is the first time a naval architect
00:40:18has explored the Titanic wreck.
00:40:26Besides being a naval architect,
00:40:28I think any engineer would be fascinated
00:40:31whether we will ever know precisely what happened.
00:40:35I doubt that.
00:40:37I think we can make a guess at what might have happened
00:40:41and in the order in which it might happen.
00:40:48We are here.
00:41:19As David Livingston sinks to the wreck site,
00:41:22the crew on board Ocean Voyager
00:41:24is preparing the unique equipment that will aid his dive.
00:41:29Four specially designed underwater light towers
00:41:32will shine a blazing spotlight on the wreck.
00:41:44Once at the Titanic,
00:41:46Livingston's first task is to position
00:41:48Roy Cullimore's biological experiments
00:41:50on the wreckage of the bridge.
00:42:00So, those are some instruments and tests that we have to place.
00:42:07And I suggested that they're placed on the bridge.
00:42:10That's the goal.
00:42:12OK.
00:42:14But at an area where there should be a lot of collusion,
00:42:18so that the scientists can see what is happening
00:42:24and what sort of interactions there are.
00:42:30The experiments will remain here for several days
00:42:33in order to give the bacteria time to gorge on the bait inside.
00:42:38Livingston makes his way from the bow to the stern,
00:42:41where he'll begin to look for clues on the break-up of the wreck.
00:42:51Once there, the crew uses Nautil's robotic arm
00:42:54to drag the deep-sea tower lights into position.
00:43:08We have just moved away a little bit
00:43:11and we have asked the command to turn on
00:43:15exterior lights to the submarine.
00:43:28Ah, this is beautiful.
00:43:30Yeah, yeah.
00:43:32Very, very powerful lights.
00:43:34This is the first time. Now I can see this engine.
00:43:37Out of the darkness,
00:43:39the Titanic's massive four-storey engines are revealed.
00:43:46The rubble surrounding them
00:43:48is all that remains of the stern's once-magnificent decks.
00:43:58Despite the confusing shadows,
00:44:00Livingston sets sail for the first time.
00:44:04It's about inspecting the jagged edges.
00:44:07To his trained eyes, the engines appear to have snapped in half.
00:44:19The port engine, the fact that one of the cylinders is broken off
00:44:24indicates some of the very immense forces
00:44:28that were acting on the hull at that time.
00:44:32The engine itself is a massive structure,
00:44:35both engines together with some 2,600 tonnes.
00:44:41But the fact that such a big piece of engine has just disappeared
00:44:47and quite cleanly indicates
00:44:51some of the forces that were at work during the sinking.
00:44:56He concludes that the Titanic must have broken here
00:45:00between two of the engines.
00:45:04But he still doesn't know how or why she broke.
00:45:16Nearly two-and-a-half hours after the collision,
00:45:19as the last of the lifeboats were being lowered,
00:45:23tremendous forces must have been building,
00:45:26strong enough to tear the Titanic to pieces.
00:45:31A second officer, Charles Lightoller,
00:45:33gave a first-hand account in his testimony.
00:45:39Just then, the ship took a slight but definite plunge.
00:45:45Those that didn't disappear underwater right away
00:45:48instinctively started to climb toward the stern,
00:45:51which was rising steadily out of the water.
00:45:56I knew only too well the utter futility
00:45:59of struggling towards the stern.
00:46:02There was only one thing to do.
00:46:08Striking the water was like a thousand knives
00:46:11being driven into one's body.
00:46:15As Lightoller and others struggled for their lives,
00:46:18the Titanic would come one step closer to total destruction.
00:46:42From the icy seas,
00:46:44Lightoller described an astonishing drama.
00:46:49The bow of the ship was now rapidly going down,
00:46:53and the stern rising higher and higher out of the water.
00:47:01The terrific strain of bringing the after end
00:47:04of that huge hull out of the water
00:47:06opened the expansion joint near number one funnel,
00:47:09causing the funnel to fall...
00:47:12...missing me by inches.
00:47:31Second Officer Charles Lightoller
00:47:33may have seen the Titanic break apart,
00:47:36but his account does not explain the mangled conditions
00:47:39she's in today.
00:48:10David Livingstone returns from the wreck site
00:48:13with more questions than answers.
00:48:21One of the surprising things
00:48:23was the way in which the vessel had broken up.
00:48:28There doesn't appear to be a pattern.
00:48:31One panel of steel is bent one way,
00:48:34this neighbouring panel is bent another way,
00:48:38and no one simple explanation can explain
00:48:43just all the forces that were happening to the ship.
00:48:51The Titanic was a massive wreck.
00:48:53It was a massive wreck.
00:48:55It was a massive wreck.
00:48:57It was a massive wreck.
00:48:59While Livingstone is left to grapple with the puzzle,
00:49:02Bill Garsky's colleagues in the United States
00:49:05may be on the verge of a breakthrough.
00:49:29Piece by piece,
00:49:31they have been able to create a virtual Titanic.
00:49:40Here at Gibson Cox in Gaithersburg, Maryland,
00:49:43a computer model has been made
00:49:45based on key information sent from the expedition,
00:49:48as well as the ship's original design plans.
00:49:53So what we have here is the Titanic,
00:49:57or the beginning of the finite element model of the Titanic.
00:50:01The team can now reveal the escalation of forces
00:50:04that must have been acting on the Titanic's hull.
00:50:08Next we've added a deck,
00:50:10and lastly there's the boat deck.
00:50:17For the first time, researchers can not only calculate,
00:50:20but also visualise the effect of the forces on the Titanic's structure.
00:50:27The stresses within the ship are shown with a spectrum of colours.
00:50:33Red represents the most severe.
00:50:36To begin their reconstruction,
00:50:38the team must first look at the stresses within the Titanic on calm seas.
00:50:43I don't see very many stresses in that.
00:50:48But as the wounded ship fills with water,
00:50:51the stresses in the midsection increase dramatically.
00:50:54Wow, what is that?
00:50:56This is the ship just prior to break-up.
00:50:59It's taken on a lot of water in the bow,
00:51:02and that rapid change causes the stresses to increase.
00:51:13So basically our ship is bending.
00:51:17The forward end of the ship is flooded.
00:51:20The top part of the ship is pulling apart in tension.
00:51:24The bottom or the keel of the ship is compressing,
00:51:28and the steel plates in the keel are actually buckling.
00:51:36As the bow is pulled down, the huge stern rises in the air,
00:51:41the equivalent of a 25-storey building suddenly looming above the water.
00:51:51Wow.
00:51:57The stresses that we have in the deck
00:52:00are on the order of 35,000 pounds per square inch.
00:52:07And that's about 50% higher than what the Titanic was actually designed for.
00:52:21The number of stresses within the Titanic structure
00:52:25was so enormous that they eventually overwhelmed her.
00:52:50Knock, knock.
00:53:05Most importantly, this model helps to support eyewitness testimony
00:53:10that the Titanic did in fact break apart on the surface.
00:53:21The next clue in the great ship's demise
00:53:24is about to be hauled from the ocean floor.
00:53:31Today, a piece of the steel from the Titanic's hull
00:53:34will be raised to the surface.
00:53:50For the crew on board Nadir, this is a great moment.
00:54:21The Titanic's steel has its own story to tell
00:54:24after nearly a century of burial at sea.
00:54:31The night of the disaster,
00:54:33many survivors claim that they heard incredible noises,
00:54:37chilling sounds emanating from the ship itself.
00:54:51Bill Garsky explains.
00:54:55In the case of Titanic, you're talking about thousands of square feet of plate
00:54:59that are being mutilated and torn
00:55:01and giving off a tremendous amount of noise.
00:55:08Was it possible that the noises heard that night
00:55:11were the Titanic's steel plate shattering like glass?
00:55:16In order to find out,
00:55:18the investigation team must first discover
00:55:20how brittle the Titanic's steel actually was.
00:55:23This key piece of evidence is headed for America.
00:55:27MUSIC
00:55:45Here at this leading metallurgical laboratory,
00:55:48the sample of the Titanic's steel is about to be dissected and analysed.
00:55:57Under the guidance of leading metallurgist Professor H.P. Lely,
00:56:01a team will try to assess how brittle the Titanic's steel actually is.
00:56:19The first step is to cut a small sample piece
00:56:22and scan it in an electron microscope.
00:56:27So what do we have there?
00:56:31Metallurgists Chris Ramsey and Scott Miller
00:56:34study the steel's microstructure,
00:56:36looking for potential weaknesses and defects.
00:56:40And then go back down to magnification, see what we have.
00:56:47Let's go to a little higher magnification shot.
00:56:50Lots of ferrite and pearlite, big inclusion.
00:56:53That's a big one, probably a big old manganese sulfide.
00:56:56That's a big one.
00:56:58Big manganese sulfide inclusion.
00:57:00As they suspected,
00:57:02the steel is full of large manganese sulfide inclusions.
00:57:06These chemical imperfections would create areas of fragility,
00:57:10a weakness that would undoubtedly have caused the steel to become brittle.
00:57:15As Bill Garsky explains,
00:57:18brittleness was not unusual in steels
00:57:21produced in the early part of the 20th century.
00:57:25Steels in the turn of the century were made in very small lots,
00:57:29maybe 70 tons,
00:57:32whereas today we make them in 400-ton batches.
00:57:35Quality control was a problem in those days.
00:57:39Certainly compared to today's steels, this is inferior.
00:57:42But for the steels at the time,
00:57:44it was probably about as good as they could do.
00:57:46We've got pearlite.
00:57:51You wouldn't want to build a ship out of this stuff today.
00:57:55At the time the Titanic was built,
00:57:58no-one suspected that these chemical impurities
00:58:01could make steel so fragile under extreme conditions.
00:58:08The Titanic was built in the late 19th century.
00:58:11It was the first ship of its kind in the world
00:58:14to be built on a ship of steel.
00:58:16It was the first ship of its kind in the world
00:58:19to be built on a ship of steel.
00:58:22Investigators suspect that the cold water temperatures
00:58:26of the North Atlantic may have exacerbated the problem.
00:58:33The waters of April 14th to 15th, 1912,
00:58:36are unusually cold for the Atlantic at that time of year.
00:58:3928 degrees seawater is not the ordinary seawater you find in April.
00:58:51Professor H.P. Lely chills a bar of the Titanic's steel
00:58:55to the same temperature the seawater would have been
00:58:58on the night of the disaster.
00:59:00The sample will then be subjected to a violent impact.
00:59:22The shattered sample of the Titanic's steel
00:59:25is now sent to another lab for further testing.
00:59:28It will be examined by mineral scientist Timothy Fahey.
00:59:32I find it quite exciting to be able to work on steel from the Titanic,
00:59:37to be able to look at the mystery of what all went together
00:59:41to contribute to the sinking.
00:59:47Fahey's tests confirm that the Titanic's steel
00:59:50with its weak manganese sulphide areas
00:59:52became even more brittle when subjected to cold temperatures.
01:00:00The fracture surface shows 95% of the grains in the sample cracked.
01:00:14The lines of fracture trace back to the weak spots in the steel
01:00:18in almost every case.
01:00:24So you see the effect of manganese sulphide particles
01:00:27on the fracture behaviour of this steel.
01:00:30More or less, when you take the steel down to a lower temperature,
01:00:34you're actually shattering something that's just full of holes.
01:00:43On the night of the disaster, as the Titanic began to break up,
01:00:47it now seems plausible that much of the ship's steel suffered fracturing.
01:00:53This new evidence supports what some survivors heard,
01:00:56a deep rumbling and crashes like the breaking of millions of China plates.
01:01:18But despite this accumulation of evidence,
01:01:21nobody knows for sure exactly what happened to the Titanic
01:01:24once she dipped beneath the waves and headed for the seabed.
01:01:29Her bow seems to have escaped relatively unscathed.
01:01:48The stern, however, is completely destroyed.
01:01:52Her decks are curled back and the hull is devastated.
01:01:56What could have happened to the stern to cause such damage?
01:02:00Bill Garsky is not the only team member eager to know.
01:02:04We don't have a real fine understanding of what happened as the ship sank,
01:02:11from the water surface down to the seabed,
01:02:15because of the myriad of forces that are involved here.
01:02:24With his colleague David Livingstone,
01:02:26he must now try and answer the remaining questions.
01:02:29Especially around the stem, it still looks very much like a ship.
01:02:36The railings are there, fantastic shadows.
01:02:40They believe that as the bow dropped, it was already filled with water.
01:02:45This prevented it from being crushed by the increasing water pressure.
01:02:49The bow actually is in good condition compared to the stern
01:02:53because of the equalisation of pressure during the sinking process at the surface.
01:03:00The model is not strictly correct.
01:03:02David Livingstone believes that the wreck site holds two vital clues
01:03:06as to how the bow arrived in its final position.
01:03:09On the starboard side, there is this big wave,
01:03:14almost a bow wave of silt where the ship was pushing in,
01:03:18and the bottom of the anchor is just about on the silt.
01:03:24I see.
01:03:26The other clue as to how the bow hit the bottom is found on the port side.
01:03:30Over the top of the bridge.
01:03:33To Livingstone's surprise, there's a giant bend in the hull.
01:03:37Have a very good look at the big radius bend.
01:03:40The bend of the port side in the hull certainly took me by surprise.
01:03:47The condition of the hull in that area where it had bent right around 180 degrees
01:03:55in a radius of perhaps about three metres,
01:03:59and the hull hadn't fractured.
01:04:02The plates were intact.
01:04:06What could have happened, Bill, was that the ship was sinking nose down.
01:04:12Nose down.
01:04:13But going sideways at the same time.
01:04:21And then buried itself into the silt.
01:04:26The ship sank.
01:04:37The back end, just with the momentum of the steel and all the entrained water in it,
01:04:41just wanted to keep going.
01:04:43Yes.
01:04:44And squashed up.
01:04:45Right, that sounds plausible.
01:04:47It just actually concertinaed and made this big buckle.
01:04:51Yes.
01:04:52And that is, I think, just about there.
01:04:58Understanding how the stern arrived on the bottom is a little more complicated.
01:05:06The stern wreckage is in chaos, and this in itself is an important clue.
01:05:13Livingstone and Garsky believe that after the bow pulled the stern underwater,
01:05:18they separated.
01:05:23The incredible pressure on the air trapped inside the stern
01:05:27caused inward implosion, in which the decks were peeled back.
01:05:34The Titanic's propellers also provide clues
01:05:37as to how the stern finally landed on the bottom.
01:05:47They are bent upwards,
01:05:49suggesting that the aft end of the stern hit the bottom first.
01:05:56And it would almost look as if the aft end hit the bottom,
01:06:00just dropping like a stone.
01:06:10Hit the bottom, hit some very hard mud,
01:06:13and then would have stopped in a rather short time.
01:06:16And that would cause classic shock damage.
01:06:19Anything that was not well attached would break loose.
01:06:30It took 15,000 people and two years to build RMS Titanic.
01:06:3625,000 tonnes of steel were used in her construction.
01:06:40Her engines produced nearly 50,000 horsepower.
01:06:45But the forces of nature simply tore the greatest ship of her day to pieces
01:06:49in a matter of minutes,
01:06:51and then spread them out across the ocean floor.
01:07:03The scattered pieces have not been fully mapped.
01:07:06The team's next job will be to plot their final location for historic record.
01:07:15Over the past few days,
01:07:17the crew of Nadir has been busy modifying the Nautilus submersible.
01:07:24She has been outfitted with another of Paul Matthias' sonar devices.
01:07:29Matthias will now attempt a first.
01:07:33Using new software technology,
01:07:35he will try to create the first archaeological map of the entire wreck site,
01:07:39around 2.5 square kilometres in total.
01:07:46The Titanic is a huge ship.
01:07:48It's bigger than anything we've ever imagined.
01:07:51It's a massive ship.
01:07:53It's a massive ship.
01:07:55It's a huge ship.
01:07:57It's bigger than anything we've ever imaged.
01:07:59It's one giant behemoth on the ocean floor.
01:08:07There has never been a routine, detailed survey of the Titanic.
01:08:16Preparation for this part of the investigation had begun some time ago,
01:08:20half a world away in warm, shallow waters off the coast of Greece.
01:08:26Paul Matthias came here to fine-tune his imaging technology
01:08:32on the Titanic's identical twin ship, the Britannic.
01:08:37She sank two years after her sistership, during the First World War.
01:08:46The quality of a sonar image largely depends on how close its receiver,
01:08:50the fish, can get to the wreck.
01:08:54As the fish passes over the wreck, it sends out an acoustic signal.
01:08:58The signal rebounds off the ship, and the software creates an image.
01:09:11In a matter of hours, the Britannic is revealed,
01:09:14lying on her side, on the ocean floor.
01:09:18The next step will be to validate what Paul Matthias has seen in his images
01:09:23with an actual inspection of the Britannic.
01:09:35By fine-tuning his software here in shallow seas,
01:09:38he increases his chances of being able to capture an accurate image
01:09:42of the Titanic in extremely deep waters.
01:09:48MUSIC PLAYS
01:09:59Matthias confirms much of what his sonar had seen.
01:10:09The railings on the bow.
01:10:18MUSIC CONTINUES
01:10:23The promenade deck.
01:10:31The great hull that sank her during the First World War.
01:10:40Even her massive propeller.
01:10:48MUSIC CONTINUES
01:10:53He leaves with high hopes.
01:11:10Compared to the warm waters of the Mediterranean,
01:11:13the North Atlantic is a formidable challenge.
01:11:17MUSIC CONTINUES
01:11:26The weather has taken a turn for the worse.
01:11:29There's no guarantee that Paul Matthias will succeed
01:11:32in this inhospitable environment.
01:11:35MUSIC CONTINUES
01:11:46On his way down to the Titanic, he prepares his imaging software.
01:11:58Ten metres above the wreck, the team begin to scan the area,
01:12:02a process they call mowing the lawn.
01:12:07What we're doing now is we're scanning across the seabed
01:12:10in the nauteal with a sonar,
01:12:13looking out to 600 feet on either side,
01:12:17and we're building up a picture of the seabed.
01:12:21A routine survey has never been done in the area.
01:12:25This is the first tape of side-scan data
01:12:30over the Titanic taken by a submarine.
01:12:33We've also collected the data on optical disk on the computer.
01:12:38That one's at 2347.
01:12:42Matthias and his team-mate, Steven Zurenko,
01:12:45can now begin to plot the first archaeological map of the wreck site.
01:12:51Wow, look at that.
01:12:53Look at that.
01:12:56That's the bow.
01:12:58For the first time, the bow can be seen in its entirety on the ocean floor.
01:13:04That's a nice image. That's a really nice image.
01:13:13The stern is also revealed.
01:13:17The broken end of the stern is right here.
01:13:20Yeah, look at that.
01:13:22Looks like it's bent right here.
01:13:26And the sonar mapping has turned up a surprise.
01:13:32That is a big piece of the hull right there.
01:13:39When the Titanic broke in half, she was severed in two places,
01:13:44creating a third piece, most of which has disintegrated.
01:13:49Now, recorded on videotape and plotted on the map,
01:13:53an 18-metre-long piece of her hull has been discovered intact.
01:13:59Researchers believe the other half of the Titanic's massive engine
01:14:03is under this piece.
01:14:07Future explorations of the site may provide the answer.
01:14:19But for now, the team continue to map the entire wreck area.
01:14:235-7-1-7.
01:14:255-7-1-7.
01:14:27And 2-5-5-7.
01:14:292-5-5-7. OK.
01:14:32OK, the propeller end of the stern is 5-1-7-0.
01:14:40Debris field off the back.
01:14:42The sonar data has also outlined two other important areas.
01:14:47Within these circles lie most of the artefacts from the Titanic disaster.
01:14:58Scattered across the ocean bottom
01:15:00are objects that poured from the Titanic as she sank.
01:15:09Each one tells its own story.
01:15:17MUSIC
01:15:20MUSIC
01:15:43It's here in the French countryside
01:15:45where most of the Titanic's treasures will come for restoration.
01:15:51MUSIC
01:15:59A specialist team is hard at work.
01:16:12A protective coat of polish is being applied to one of the ship's whistles.
01:16:17It was last heard at high noon on the very day the Titanic struck the iceberg.
01:16:22Historian Jack Eaton is delighted at this find.
01:16:26This was Titanic's voice.
01:16:28This is what made her speak.
01:16:31The whistles.
01:16:33And there they are. We have them. We know what they're like.
01:16:38It's one thing reading about them,
01:16:40but to see them gives you an entirely different impression of what they were.
01:16:47MUSIC
01:17:07Stefan Pennek heads the team of conservationists.
01:17:11Each has their own special skill.
01:17:18As a trained archaeologist,
01:17:20Pennek carefully supervises the preservation of the Titanic's artefacts.
01:17:30Master woodworker Thierry Pellonc
01:17:33is meticulously rebuilding the wooden base of one of the ship's compasses.
01:17:39EACH OBJECT RETRIEVED WILL FORM PART OF THE TITANIC'S HISTORICAL RECORD
01:17:45Each object retrieved will form part of the Titanic's historical record.
01:17:53I think humans couldn't leave without having their own roots and culture.
01:18:02It's probably the main difference between animals and human people.
01:18:09EACH OBJECT RETRIEVED WILL FORM PART OF THE TITANIC'S HISTORICAL RECORD
01:18:14The craftsmen and women take a minimalist approach to conservation.
01:18:18For them, objects are all the more significant
01:18:21if they retain traces of the trauma they have suffered.
01:18:31With this ceramic figurine,
01:18:34seawater can easily pull a glossy surface away from its base.
01:18:43So chemical treatments and air drying will stabilise the cracking.
01:19:05In the hands of Marielle Boucherat,
01:19:08a simple souvenir from Holland is transformed.
01:19:23The complex metal latticework that adorn the benches on the Titanic's decks
01:19:28now soak in tubs of chemicals.
01:19:35Stéphane monitors the levels of chloride in the bath.
01:19:39It's a primary cause of corrosion in metals.
01:19:45Each object will react differently when exposed to seawater,
01:19:49so Stéphane must call on his team's years of experience
01:19:52and diverse backgrounds to save the Titanic's artefacts.
01:20:04So in terms of training, you have to be able to understand chemics,
01:20:08physics, divination processes.
01:20:11You have to be able to understand, in terms of history, art,
01:20:16what's the meaning of the object.
01:20:18You can't restore a clock or a car
01:20:22if you don't know a bit of the techniques involved in it.
01:20:28Isabelle Cellier-Canson is putting back the intricate workings of a clock.
01:20:33Its hands frozen in time on April 15th, 1912.
01:20:38Remarkably, a man's suitcase has been recovered from the ocean floor.
01:21:09Martin Plantek carefully unfolds the garments inside.
01:21:24Dirt and oxides are washed away from the trousers, gloves and shirts
01:21:29that were so neatly folded for a trip to America.
01:21:34The unpacking action is one of the strongest feelings of movement.
01:21:40The unpacking action is one of the strongest feelings of the conservation process, because
01:22:09that's the time where you do what should have been. When you arrive from a trip, you
01:22:18unpack your stuff. In fact, we just switched. The guy can't unpack now, and we have the
01:22:28next one. It's very strong in terms of emotion.
01:22:37Of all the objects being preserved here in France, perhaps the most incredible are those
01:22:43made of paper.
01:22:57I think it's unbelievable. If you had to bet about that, no one will bet about having
01:23:03paper being able to be recorded.
01:23:13Music sheets, banknotes, letters and diaries have all survived because they were protected
01:23:19inside leather bags. For the historians in the investigation team, there is no greater
01:23:32reminder of the many lives that were lost.
01:23:37Roy sends best wishes. Wishes he was traveling like you. I wish you prosperity wherever you
01:23:45go.
01:23:46Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Hope to hear from you in the New
01:23:52Year.
01:23:53I am just living from day to day for the time when you will be back. I could not be untrue
01:23:58even if I wanted to.
01:24:05When we put the picture together, when we look at the objects that these people had
01:24:10in their final moments, it gives us, I think, a greater understanding of just exactly who
01:24:14they were. And by knowing the characters in the drama, you get a much better insight into
01:24:23the great drama of that night.
01:24:30In total, around 5,000 artifacts have been recovered from the wreck. Many can now be
01:24:38seen in exhibits all over the world. Undoubtedly, they will keep the memory of the RMS Titanic
01:24:47alive long after the ship herself has gone.
01:25:00The Titanic herself could be considered to be the ultimate artifact. But the ship can
01:25:09never be razed, and certainly never preserved.
01:25:16Unlike the artifacts that are being conserved in France, the Titanic is rapidly disappearing.
01:25:31At the wreck site, Roy Cullimore is about to retrieve his rusticle traps. Inside these
01:25:40tiny vials may be the answer to how long the Titanic has left.
01:25:50Maybe we're approaching the time when the Titanic is going to become very fragile, and
01:25:57we need to know how fragile she is becoming.
01:26:07The structure of a rusticle is extremely delicate, so the vials are collected with great care.
01:26:28Back in his lab, Cullimore quickly gets to work.
01:26:40In a strip of the 35mm film he used as bait, evidence of bacterial growth is present.
01:26:49These trails were created as microorganisms ate the gelatin in the film.
01:27:00Cullimore discovers many different kinds of bacteria. Evidence that the life the Titanic
01:27:07now supports is both varied and vigorous.
01:27:11The solutions in the red cap tube can be found in the red cap tube.
01:27:17Cullimore discovers many different kinds of bacteria. Evidence that the life the Titanic
01:27:22now supports is both varied and vigorous.
01:27:27The solutions in the red cap tubes show discolouration, clearly indicating the existence of iron-eating
01:27:34bacteria.
01:27:38From his investigations, Roy Cullimore can now confirm that iron bacteria are indeed
01:27:44devouring the Titanic.
01:27:47It's a complicated living system, and it's not just one species. We've already isolated
01:27:55a number of community structures of bacteria from there.
01:28:02Inside the hard shell of a single rusticle, Cullimore has found bacteria, fungi and other
01:28:14moulds. He injects nutrients into a sample to keep it alive, hoping to discover how these
01:28:21organisms create their unique outer shell.
01:28:29The anatomical structure of a rusticle is complicated. Because there are an infinite
01:28:36number of water channels, ducts and cavities, the amount of surface area that can be found
01:28:41in a single rusticle is astounding.
01:28:51The science of the rusticles is fascinating from the point of view that the rusticles
01:28:59have such a huge surface area. If I took 650 tonnes of rusticles on the bow of the Titanic,
01:29:10spread the surface area, it would cover 23,000 square miles of surface area.
01:29:29So essentially we're seeing that there's a complex community. We don't understand all
01:29:35of the components. This is a new part of science that we're only just beginning to explore,
01:29:41the edge of yet another universe.
01:29:47Each time Cullimore dries out a sample rusticle, he extracts some of the Titanic's iron. From
01:29:53the amount of iron he's collected, he believes that as much as 20% of the bow has already
01:29:58been consumed by the organisms.
01:30:05And from the philosophical point of view, what I see there is we're seeing the inevitability.
01:30:13Everything recycles, absolutely everything.
01:30:17Today, the story of the RMS Titanic is about to enter its final chapter.
01:30:28Once the most luxurious liner in the world, she's now slowly crumbling away.
01:30:39By extensively exploring the Titanic now, before it's too late, the story of her tragic
01:30:45demise lives on.
01:30:59In the light of morning, the survivors of the Titanic disaster found themselves adrift
01:31:08in the cold North Atlantic.
01:31:13705 people had survived in her lifeboats.
01:31:2128 men stood until they were rescued on this upturned boat.
01:31:29Many survivors huddled together in prayer.
01:31:36The passenger ship Carpathia was the first to rescue survivors that morning.
01:31:44While the rest of the world waited to hear what had happened, most of the rescued were
01:31:51silent, too stunned to tell of their ordeal.
01:31:56Though they would complete their voyage to New York, for most, life would never be the
01:32:01same again.
01:32:05In the Titanic's huge dock, her lifeboats sat, moored together where the great ship
01:32:13should have been.
01:32:16A place of joyous arrival was instead a reminder of tragedy and loss.
01:32:27Tragically, a lot of people lost their lives on the Titanic, and I don't think we should
01:32:35dwell on the tragedy so much as learn from the tragedy so that it doesn't happen again.
01:32:42And the Titanic maintains an elegance as if she's saying to us, don't avoid me, but
01:32:49learn from me. Don't avoid tragedies, but learn from tragedies.
01:33:00In 1912, the Titanic disaster shocked the world.
01:33:06Even today, we're still fascinated by the events of that night.
01:33:16Science has given us a way to go back in time, to replace myth with fact, and to develop
01:33:22theories based on hard evidence.
01:33:30We've accomplished a lot on this operation.
01:33:44We've imaged the hull beneath the mud line and detected the damage caused by the iceberg.
01:34:00We know perhaps a little better what the mystery of Titanic is all about.
01:34:09It's a question of steel, a question of naval architecture exceeding the limits of what
01:34:17the ship was designed for. That's why she sank, exceeding the limits of what she was
01:34:22designed for.
01:34:27We now know the details of what happened to the Titanic on that fateful night. With each
01:34:33new telling of her tragic tale, her memory will live on.
01:34:43Every expedition really contributes new information, but I think this one really is contributing
01:34:51solid, reliable information, not only in terms of the present condition, but by extension
01:34:58what the ship's future condition will be, as well as what happened in the past.
01:35:07Titanic represented not so much the end of an era. Titanic represented the cause and
01:35:15the reflection that, well, maybe we're not so great as we thought we were. But I'll tell
01:35:25you what, it's not going to happen again.
01:35:30This expert team of scientists, engineers and historians have been able to reconstruct
01:35:35a defining moment of the 20th century. Though the lessons learned from the Titanic have
01:35:41saved many lives, the tragedy of the greatest marine disaster in history will touch our
01:35:47hearts forever.