In 2022, the deep-sea mapping company Magellan deployed two remotely operated vehicles 12,500 feet (3,800 meters) beneath the Atlantic Ocean to capture around 715,000 photos of the Titanic. As Gizmodo previously reported, experts compiled the photos into a highly precise digital twin of the wreck, which continues to reveal heartbreaking details of the tragedy that claimed over 1,500 lives more than 11 decades ago.
Magellan’s efforts are detailed in a forthcoming National Geographic documentary titled Titanic: The Digital Resurrection. Fascinatingly, a few previously unknown features have come to light, including new evidence that a heroic team of engineers sacrificed themselves to keep the ship’s lights on as long as possible, as reported by the BBC.
“Titanic is the last surviving eyewitness to the disaster, and she still has stories to tell,” Titanic analyst Parks Stephenson told the BBC.
According to National Geographic, the Titanic’s digital twin represents one of the largest underwater 3D scans ever accomplished. It consists of 16 terabytes of data, equivalent to approximately six million ebooks. The two remotely operated vehicles that took the photos and millions of laser measurements are named Romeo and Juliet (missing an obvious opportunity to name them Rose and Jack). The model is so accurate that researchers can explore its life-sized projection as if they were walking along the ocean floor beside the true wreck.
In one of the digital twin’s boiler rooms, experts identified previously undocumented details: concave boilers, indicating that they were still running just before the ship became completely submerged, according to the BBC. An open valve observed on the stern’s deck further supports this theory, suggesting that steam continued to power the ship’s electrical systems until the final moments—aligning with survivor testimonies that the lights remained on as the ship sank.
That means a team of engineers continued running the furnaces to keep the lights on as long as possible. Titanic struck the iceberg in the middle of the night, so without the ship’s lights, the crew would have had to launch the lifeboats in total darkness. The heroic team of engineers all perished, sacrificing their own lives to ensure the survival of others.
The 3D model also highlights other devastating features, such as a smashed-in porthole that was probably damaged by the iceberg, which also confirms survivors’ reports about ice entering into some cabins. These details would have been harder to observe in-person from a submersible, where “you can only see what’s immediately in front of you,” Stephenson, who has previously dived down to the wreck, told National Geographic. “It’s like being in a dark room and you have a flashlight that’s not very powerful.”
Nevertheless, it will take a long while for specialists to thoroughly analyze the digital model. In the meantime, experts created a computer simulation to better study the fatal collision with the iceberg—and discovered something tragic: the ship was within a hair’s breadth of surviving, as reported by The Times. According to the simulation, the collision lasted just over six seconds. The Titanic was designed to stay afloat even with four flooded compartments—but the long, thin streak of damage punctured six, with some of the fatal gashes no bigger than two sheets of A4 paper. According to the BBC, the gash streak isn’t visible in the 3D model because, in the real wreck, it’s now buried beneath ocean sediment.
Ultimately, Titanic’s digital twin and computer simulation exemplify how technology can help researchers investigate places of interest without endangering human lives or causing further damage to fragile environments.
