The famous railing of the Titanic has been broken off

New, high-resolution images offer unexpected discoveries and unfortunate news on the RMS website TitanicThe ship's final resting places. The photos released on September 2 are from the first photographic and research expedition by the salvage company RMS Titanic, Inc. in over 14 years. In particular, the documentation confirms that one of the most iconic sections of the ship spent 112 years in the icy waters of the North Atlantic at a frightening depth of 12,500 feet below the ocean's surface.

More than 1,500 passengers and crew members on board the Titanic died during the famous tragedy on April 15, 1912, en route from Southampton, United Kingdom, to New York City. Although his exact whereabouts remained a mystery for years, an expedition led by Robert Ballard confirmed the luxury cruise liner's exact location in 1985. Since then, numerous researchers, experts and tourists have made the often perilous journey back to document the historic archaeological site. In 1994, a U.S. federal court awarded RMS Titanic, Inc. sole “salvage and possession rights,” making it the only organization legally authorized to recover artifacts from the wreck. The group and its subsidiaries have now led eight expeditions, the most recent of which lasted 20 days in July.

[Related: Staggering 3D scan of the Titanic shows the wreck down to the millimeter.]

According to an announcement on Monday, researchers collected over “2 million images and videos at the highest resolution yet” during their latest exploration. They also successfully mapped the ship and its debris field using LIDAR, sonar and a hypermagnetometer – a device used to specifically target metallic objects such as shipwrecks. Using these tools, researchers were able to find one historical relic in particular that many thought had long since disappeared – a 2-foot-tall bronze statue known as Diana of Versailles. According to Titanic According to researcher James Penca, the Diana of Versailles served as the centerpiece of the First Class passenger lounge, which is generally considered the most beautiful and detailed room on the ship.

“But unfortunately, if Titanic “The ship was split in two when it sank, the saloon was torn open. And in the chaos and destruction, Diana's coat was torn off and she landed in the darkness of the wreckage,” Penca told the BBC on August 1. The bronze bust was first (and last) discovered during an expedition in 1986. Many experts suspected that sediment or debris scattered by ocean currents had covered the bust since then. Finding it now, actually half-buried on the sea floor, “was like looking for a needle in a haystack,” Penca explained.

The new discoveries also made it clear how fragile the remains of the ship are.Titanic For a long time, the wreck's most famous feature was the railing that surrounds the bow's foredeck – a section also made famous by James Cameron's “King of the World” scene in the 1997 film. However, images taken over the summer show that a large part of the structure has broken off and fallen off the port bow. Given the documentation from previous expeditions, the team believes this must not have happened until 2022.

“The discovery of the Diana statue was an exciting moment. But we are saddened by the loss of the iconic bow railing and other signs of decay,” said Tomasina Ray, collections manager of RMS Titanic, Inc., in Monday's announcement.

Time is certainly not on the side of conservationists. Given the harsh ocean conditions and the destructive capabilities of metal-eating bacteria, some observers believe that the vast majority of Titanic could fall into disrepair within a few decades. Nevertheless, Ray explained that both the reappearance of Diana of Versailles and the disappearance of the railings “have only strengthened our commitment to preservation. Titanic's legacy.”