1 September 1985
The wreck
The wreck was discovered in 1985 by a joint French and American expedition led by Robert Ballard, working with IFREMER from the U.S. Navy research ship Knorr. On 1 September 1985 the first underwater images were recorded, and later video showed the ship lying upright in two pieces, about 12,500 feet (3,810 metres) down, some 400 nautical miles (740 km) from Newfoundland.1 Greenwich dates the location of the wreck to 1 September 1985, approximately 2.5 miles below the Atlantic, by a joint French/USA expedition.2
The inquiry, following Second Officer Lightoller’s account, recorded that “the ship did not break in two” and that she did eventually attain the perpendicular before going slowly down.3 Britannica, writing after the wreck was examined, says the ship broke in two between the third and fourth funnels as the stern rose and the midsection came under great strain.1
These two accounts are not a mistake in one source or the other. In 1912 the court recorded what Second Officer Lightoller said he saw: that the ship did not break in two, and that she attained the perpendicular before going down. In 1985 the wreck was found in two pieces, and Britannica, writing after that examination, describes a break between the third and fourth funnels. We keep both, because the 1912 wording is what the official record said, and the wreck is what was later found.
We do not show photographs of the wreck. The 1985 images, and later surveys, remain under copyright. The photographs on this site are all public-domain pictures of the ship, the yard, the people and the sea in 1909–1912.