Titanic scan reveal ground-breaking details of di ship final hours

BBC News

09-04-2025

A detailed analysis of a full-sized digital scan of di Titanic don reveal new insight into di doomed liner final hours.
Di exact 3D replica show di violence of how di ship wey tear into two as e sink afta e hit iceberg in 1912 - 1,500 pipo die for di disaster.
Di scan provide a new view of a boiler room, wey confam eye-witness accounts say engineers work right to di end to keep di ship lights on.
And a computer simulation also suggest say holes for di hull wey dey di size of A4 pieces of paper lead to di ship demise.
"Titanic na di last surviving eyewitness to di disaster, and she still get stories to tell," na so Parks Stephenson, a Titanic analyst tok.
Dem don study di scan for one new documentary by National Geographic and Atlantic Productions dem call Titanic: The Digital Resurrection.
Di wreck, wey lie 3,800m down in di icy waters of di Atlantic, bin dey mapped using underwater robots.
More dan 700,000 images, taken from evri angle, bin dey used to create di "digital twin", wey dey revealed exclusively to di world by BBC News in 2023.
Becos di wreck dey so large and lie in di gloom of di deep, to explore am wit submersibles only show tantalising snapshots. Di scan, however, provide di first full view of di Titanic.
Di immense bow stand on di seafloor, almost as if di ship still dey kontinu im voyage.
But sitting 600m away, di stern na a heap of mangled metal. Di damage bin happen wen e slam into di sea floor after di ship break in half.
Di new mapping technology dey provide different way to study di ship.
"E be like a crime scene: you need to see wetin di evidence be, in di context of wia e dey," Parks Stephenson tok.
"And to get beta view of di whole wreck site na key to understanding wetin happun here."
Di scan show new close-up details, including a porthole wey bin most likely dey smashed by di iceberg. E tally wit di eye-witness reports of survivors wey say ice come into some pipo cabins during di collision.
Experts don dey study one of di Titanic huge boiler rooms - e dey easy to see on di scan becos e dey sidon for di back of di bow section at di point wia di ship break in two.
Passengers say di lights bin still dey on as di ship plunge beneath di waves.
Di digital replica show say some of di boilers dey concave, wey suggest say dem bin still dey operate as dem sink inside di water.
Lying on di deck of di stern, dem also don discover valve for one open position, wey indicate say steam bin still dey flow into di electricity generating system.
Dis go be di effort of a team of engineers led by Joseph Bell wey bin stay behind to shovel coal into di furnaces to keep di lights on.
All of dem die in di disaster but dia heroic actions save many lives, na so Parks Stephenson tok.
"Dem keep di lights and di power working to di end, to give di crew time to launch di lifeboats safely wit some light instead of in absolute darkness," e tell di BBC.
"Dem hold di chaos at bay as long as possible, and all of dat show by dis open steam valve just sitting dia on di stern."
A new simulation don also provide further insights into di sinking.
E take a detailed structural model of di ship, wey dem create from Titanic blueprints, and also information about di speed, direction and position, to predict di damage wey bin happun as e hit di iceberg.
"We use advanced numerical algorithms, computational modelling and supercomputing capabilities to reconstruct di Titanic sinking," na so Prof Jeom-Kee Paik, from University College London, wey lead di research tok.
Di simulation show say as di ship make only a glancing blow against di iceberg e dey left with a series of punctures wey run in a line along a narrow section of di hull.
Titanic suppose to dey unsinkable, designed to stay afloat even if four of di watertight compartments dey flooded.
But di simulation calculate say di iceberg damage spread across six compartments.
"Di difference between Titanic sinking and not sinking dey down to di fine margins of holes about di size of a piece of paper," na so Simon Benson, an associate lecturer in naval architecture at di University of Newcastle tok.
"But di problem na say those small holes dey across a long length of di ship, so di flood water come in slowly but surely into all of those holes, and den eventually di compartments dey flooded over di top and e make di Titanic sink."
Unfortunately di damage no fit dey seen on di scan as di lower section of di bow dey hidden beneath di sediment.
Di human tragedy of di Titanic still dey very much visible.
Personal possessions from di ship passengers dey scattered across di sea floor.
Di scan dey provide new clues about dat cold night in 1912, but e go take experts years to fully analyse evri detail of di 3D replica.
"She only dey give her stories to us a little bit at a time," Parks Stephenson tok.
"Evri time, she dey leave us wanting for more."