Since sinking on its maiden voyage over a century ago, the wreck of the Titanic has held wide fascination, despite the risks of visiting this tomb in the depths of the ocean.
The five passengers of the submersible wanted since Sunday in the area where the liner sank were only the latest intrigued by the story of one of the greatest maritime disasters in peacetime.
Prior to this $250,000 expedition, the luxury ship hit by an iceberg inspired novelists, filmmakers and many adventurers, eager to understand what happened in 1912 in the waters of the North Atlantic.
When she left England for New York that year, the RMS Titanic was a jewel of technology and hubris, widely touted as an unsinkable ocean liner. With its 2,000 passengers and crew members, it was the largest ship ever built at the time.
On board this immense floating palace with sumptuous cabins, first-class travelers have access to a gymnasium, a squash court, a swimming pool and an à la carte restaurant.
Below the deck of the ship, hundreds of poor migrants in search of the American dream are crowded into modest neighborhoods.
But for everyone, the transatlantic voyage turns into a nightmare on April 14 at the end of the day, when the Titanic collides with an iceberg. Its hull deforms and water rushes into the 269-meter ship.
Under the weight of the water invading the compartments, the bow of the liner sank beneath the waves and it began to sink.
There are not enough lifeboats on board and in a panic the crew does not use them properly. Women and children are exfiltrated first, but some boats leave half full.
A few hours after starting to tilt vertically, the huge ship broke in two and sank into the depths. Passengers who had not evacuated perish very quickly in the freezing water.
About 1,500 people die in the disaster. Only 700 castaways were picked up by the RMS Carpathia, a steamship that had responded to Titanic’s distress calls.
The exact location of the wreck remained a mystery for 70 years, until a French-American expedition discovered in 1985 the place where it lay, 3,700 meters deep.
The reported images show the two halves of the ship on the ocean floor, surrounded by countless debris: furniture, shoes, plates and other objects once on board.
Since it was found, the wreckage has been visited by researchers, explorers, tourists and filmmakers.
The most famous of these visitors remains the director James Cameron, whose film “Titanic”, released in 1997, narrates a romance aboard the liner between Jack and Rose, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.
Huge worldwide success, the feature film has remained in the annals thanks to Celine Dion’s hit “My Heart Will Go On” and its controversial outcome, in which Jack sacrifices himself to save Rose by letting her drift on a floating door.
Even 25 years after its release, the film still generates a lot of debate about whether Jack really didn’t have room to board this makeshift raft.
A controversy that is just one example of how the story of the Titanic “seems to never end for the public”, summed up James Cameron in February.
“The Titanic has this kind of enduring, almost mythical, romantic quality,” the director said, pointing to “the men who didn’t board the lifeboats so that the women and children could survive.”
Titanic memorabilia and artifacts remain highly prized. A letter written by a Uruguayan passenger who died in the disaster will soon be auctioned, and the violin that musician and bandleader Wallace Hartley played with on deck during the sinking was acquired for $1.7 million in 2013 .
“It’s an incredibly human story,” insists AFP Tom Zaller, organizer of an exhibition on the liner which opens on June 30 in Los Angeles. “We can all identify with a passenger on this ship. (…) There are these incredible stories of survivors and people who could have gotten into a lifeboat, but stayed together because they were in love.”
Having become a historical drama, in the same way as the destruction of Pompeii by Vesuvius, the disaster generates curiosity which annoys certain families of the victims, indignant by the tourism of ultra-rich ready to spend fortunes to see the wreckage.
“I think it’s disgusting, quite honestly,” said Wednesday John Locascio, 69, whose two uncles perished in the tragedy.
“I wish it would stop, to be completely honest. It makes no sense. You go down to see a grave,” he told US newspaper The Daily Beast. “They died in a horribly tragic way. (…) They don’t want people to come down to see them. Leave them alone.”
06/22/2023 05:56:57 – Los Angeles (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
