The most comprehensive survey of the world’s most famous shipwreck in the last decade.
During the summer of 2021, an expeditionary team will conduct a series of submersible dives to explore and document the condition of RMS Titanic and portions of the nearly unexplored debris field. Aboard each of the 18 scheduled dives will be a scientist or content expert who will gather archaeological and biological data. The goals of the expedition include:
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- better understand behavior and rarity of inhabitants at this extreme depth
- help predict the rate of decay of deeply submerged vessels
Our sponsored science team will join OceanGate Expedition’s Titanic Survey Expedition on each of the six missions and will utilize advanced and time-tested techniques to gather data for future analysis. An array of 4K cameras, 2D and 3D sonar scanners, direct observation and grid mapping are just some of the techniques and equipment that the team will utilize during each of the dives that are expected to last up to 10 hours.
The data and images from the expedition will be freely shared with the other researchers following the expedition to help expand our understanding of the ocean.
Following the tragic sinking in 1912, the wreck and artifacts have been subject to a harsh environment of corrosive saltwater, extreme pressure and biological attacks. These factors are combining to disintegrate the wreck at some unknown rate. The science team will compare the current condition to images and data from previous expeditions to better predict the rate of decay.
All OceanGate Foundation underwater exploration is conducted in accordance with the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage.
PARTICIPATING RESEARCHERS
Titanic Expedition Goals
Dr. Bridget Buxton
Expedition Science Coordinator
“My primary goal for the 2021 Titanic Expedition is to make sure we maximize our time and technology to get the most comprehensive picture of the wreck site ever created, and to make as much as possible freely available online as soon as practical after the expedition. Beyond that, I have a wish-list of specific questions to explore – the dozens of little controversies that occupy so many Titanic books and interest groups. Insofar as we’ll have an opportunity to tell a new story about Titanic through this expedition, I would like the focus to be on the experience of the lesser-known victims of the disaster, in perhaps the less glamorous parts of the ship. This will be a chance to dismantle a lot of the cultural myths of the Titanic disaster that were used, both then and now, to define Anglo-American ideals of heroism, gender, and class.”
Steve Ross
Marine Biologist
Using HD video, document (identify, count) the fauna of the wreck and surrounding areas, including the water column. When possible, obtain close-up detailed video of fauna for later analysis.
In particular, I will:
- Focus on the fish community and attached deep-sea corals.
- Document habitat usage of the observed fauna.
- Using above data, compare to other sites in the Western N. Atlantic in similar depths and across depth zones.
- Gather observational and ADCP data on bottom currents during dives.
- Evaluate the site for future missions and start plan development (with OceanGate team and colleagues).
“My goals for the expedition is for the imagery and other data we produce to serve a larger archaeological purpose — we increasingly have the ability to find and study shipwrecks at tremendous depths, and but we are still developing the theoretical frameworks through which to view and study these wrecks as a discipline. I want this expedition to explore Titanic from a more clinical point of view — think about how we are contributing to the discipline more widely through doing this work, rather than simply getting better pictures of the already most heavily documented deep-sea shipwreck. I would like to further Bridget’s point about using this time to highlight the experiences of lesser-known passengers on board, to shed light on experiences of the people we don’t hear about, or whose stories were manipulated at the time and since to fit a specific narrative about customs of the sea, manliness and heroism.”