Titanic: First Full-sized Digital Scan Created Using Deep-sea Mapping

The first full-sized digital scan of the Titanic, which lies 3,800m (12,500ft) down in the Atlantic, has been created using deep-sea mapping.

It provides a unique 3D view of the entire ship, enabling it to be seen as if the water has been drained away.

The hope is that this will shed new light on exactly what happened to the liner, which sank in 1912.

More than 1,500 people died when the ship struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York.

“There are still questions, basic questions, that need to be answered about the ship,” Parks Stephenson, a Titanic analyst, said.

He said the model was “one of the first major steps to driving the Titanic story towards evidence-based research – and not speculation.”

The Titanic has been extensively explored since the wreck was discovered in 1985.

But it’s so huge that in the gloom of the deep, cameras can only ever show us tantalizing snapshots of the decaying ship – never the whole thing.

The new scan captures the wreck in its entirety, revealing a complete view of the Titanic. It lies in two parts, with the bow and the stern separated by about 800m (2,600ft). A huge debris field surrounds the broken vessel.

The scan was carried out in summer 2022 by Magellan Ltd, a deep-sea mapping company, and Atlantic Productions, who are making a documentary about the project.

Submersibles, remotely controlled by a team on board a specialist ship, spent more than 200 hours surveying the length and breadth of the wreck.

They took more than 700,000 images from every angle, creating an exact 3D reconstruction.