[ominous music playing]
[captain] ETA over the
wreck is approximately
ten minutes from now.
[crew] Roger that,
that's secure, here we go.
Survey, we are headed off.
Juliet, survey.
Yeah, whenever you're
happy, I'm happy.
Off we go.
[Narrator] In a remote
spot in the middle of the
Atlantic Ocean,
nearly 400 miles
from Newfoundland.
[crew] Clear to dive.
Clear to dive.
[Narrator] A remarkable
expedition is underway.
[captain] Roger that.
Juliet is clear to dive.
I've got a green board.
Pumps are now in.
Heading one eight zero.
[Narrator] It's destination...
[captain]
Surface LF wreck on Sonar.
[Narrator] ...the most
famous wreck site in history.
[captain]
Present depth,
three-eight-one-zero.
At bottom.
[Narrator] For over a century,
the tragic fate of Titanic has
been a global obsession.
[reporter] Scientists
have found wreckage of the
S.S. Titanic.
[Narrator] A story so compelling
that people risk their lives,
spending millions of dollars
just to get a
glimpse of the wreck.
This investigation will
allow us to see Titanic in
a whole new way.
- The remarkable
new images of the Titanic,
as you've never seen it before.
- The largest underwater
scanning project in history.
It's incredible to
see it like this.
[Narrator] Over
700,000 scanned images,
16 terabytes of data,
and almost two years of
research and processing,
have produced a full-sized
digital replica of the ship,
a virtual twin of Titanic.
Wow.
This is a view I've
never had before.
[Narrator] A replica
so detailed...
See the numbers?
- It's incredible when
you see the full scale.
[Narrator] ...It will offer
new insights into the sinking.
- Looking at it in this scale,
you would think the ship had
been struck by some
enormous m*ssile.
[Narrator] And new
evidence of the final moments
of those on board.
- They were trying to
launch one last lifeboat.
[theme music playing]
[reporter] When she set
sail from Southampton,
England in the spring of 1912,
she was hailed as
the most luxurious steamship
in the world.
And on this her maiden voyage,
she was unsurpassed
and unsinkable.
Her name, of course,
the Titanic.
On tenth of April 1912,
Titanic begins her maiden
voyage from Southampton
to New York.
She's billed as the greatest
most luxurious ship of her day.
[Narrator] It is the golden
age of the ocean liner.
Two companies,
White Star Line and Cunard,
vie for supremacy on the
route across the Atlantic.
Cunard ships were
typically faster.
But White Star had the
edge when it came to luxury.
And the gigantic Titanic
was the jewel in their crown.
[Yasmin Khan] On board,
there are aristocrats.
There are business magnates,
but there's also immigrants who
are going to the Americas
to make a new life.
[Narrator] In just
seven days time,
Titanic should be steaming
triumphantly into New York.
The world's press,
waiting to greet her.
Instead, she'll be at the
bottom of the Atlantic,
and almost 1,500
people will be dead.
A century on, many
details about the sinking are
still debated.
[Yasmin Khan] Titanic's never
given up her secrets easily,
and for 70 years, nobody
even knew where she was.
And then in 1985,
Bob Ballard found the wreck.
[reporter] Today, the
French and the American men,
who found the
Titanic will celebrate.
[Narrator] Ballard had found
the greatest of all lost ships,
and scientists clamored to
study the wreck.
But 2.5 miles down,
under atmospheric pressure,
almost 400 times greater
than at sea level,
conditions make it hard to
see more than fragments of
the ship at a time.
[crew] We're still
searching for the stern.
We can't find it.
[Yasmin Khan] Many
expeditions have been down
to the wreck over
the past 40 years.
But it's pitch black down there.
So, it's not being possible
to see the whole ship.
Viewing it has been like shining
a flashlight in the dark,
until now.
[captain] Your depth is
eight-zero-five meters,
heading three-zero-zero.
[Narrator] After a 2-and-
a-half-hour descent to
the ocean floor,
two unmanned subs named,
Romeo and Juliet,
get to work.
While Romeo films
high-resolution footage
of the ship and sea floor.
[captain] The stronger
that laser line gets,
it starts to get more defined.
[crew] Roger that.
Moving to next position.
[Narrator] Equipped with
lasers recording millions of
measurements, Juliet captures
every inch of the wreck.
[captain] Oh, yeah,
that's looking nice right there.
You must be really close now.
- I have every expectation
that we're going to see the most
accurate portrayal of the wreck
site that's ever been offered.
[captain] Park's
at the ladder Tom,
are you ready?
[Narrator] World-renowned
expert, Parks Stevenson,
has been on multiple
dives to Titanic.
[captain] Thrusters, we are
beginning to pump them now.
[Narrator] He hopes the
scan will offer insights into
some of the questions
which still surround the wreck.
[captain] Hatch is secure.
[Parks Stephenson] I'm
intrigued by mysteries.
People thought that
the ship could not sink.
So how did she end up
like this on the ocean floor?
[captain] Coming up
on the wreck site.
[Parks Stephenson] What
actually happened that night?
I often view the shipwreck
as the last surviving witness
to the disaster.
The way she's torn apart,
the way the pieces of
her are bent or torn,
these all tell a story, and so,
it's vital that we
listen to the stories that the
wreck can tell.
[Narrator] Footage from
the Romeo sub quickly offers
glimpses of these stories.
Snapshots of humanity among
the scattered wreckage.
Hundreds of wine bottles.
A dress.
A doll's head.
All are a stark reminder.
Titanic isn't just an
object of fascination.
She's a graveyard.
One which the scan
will allow us to study from
a respectful distance.
After three weeks at sea,
scanning 24 hours a day,
the work of the
expedition team is complete.
Hi five. Yeah.
Job done, sailing home.
[Narrator] But it will take
over a year to research and
piece together the enormous
amount of data gathered.
[Parks Stephenson] This
operation has a lot of promise.
Having a tool of a virtual
twin of the Titanic wreck,
that's huge.
[Narrator] Awaiting
access to the digital twin,
Parks has assembled a team to
help him examine it in detail.
[Parks Stephenson] This
will give you just basically the
context of the ship itself.
[Narrator] Master Mariner,
Captain Chris Hearn,
wants to study the twin
from a sailor's point of view.
[Chris Hearn] As
somebody who has crossed
the Atlantic and been in ice,
a ship is very much
about its crew.
What was their experience
when the ship was sinking?
If you had the whole wreck site,
what could you do with that?
- We can totally
recreate that night.
[Narrator] Metallurgist,
Doctor Jennifer Hooper,
has spent years in the
lab studying small fragments
of the wreck.
[Jennifer Hooper] Going
from examining the materials
in a laboratory to feeling
like I'm on the sea floor,
staring at this wreck site
is something I never
thought I would
see in my lifetime.
- Hopefully, we're going
to get the answers
to some of these
questions that have been
bugging me for decades.
[Narrator] After almost
two years of research and
processing, over 700,000
scan images have been
painstakingly pieced together.
At a gigantic sound stage,
colossal LED panels will
project the image of the
twin at up to full scale,
bringing the investigators
face to face with the severed
wreckage of Titanic.
[ominous music playing]
[underwater metal groaning]
[ominous music playing]
[underwater metal groaning]
[Chris Hearn]
Well, look at that.
I can tell you, I'm in the
ship simulation business,
and I've never seen
anything like that.
[Parks Stephenson] I've actually
been here in a submersible,
but I only see just a
little bit out my viewport.
It's just so immense.
When you are in a submersible,
you can see maybe only a
few meters in front of you.
But with the digital twin, you
can see the entire wreck site.
Now, I have a better view
of Titanic than I ever did
at the Titanic.
- We're around 12,000 feet
at the bottom of the ocean.
Looking up at the Titanic.
- Studying this under
microscope doesn't really
prepare you for this.
Seeing the Titanic
wreck site in full scale,
I finally understood how
small I am in comparison to
everything that I'm looking at.
I was able to truly experience
the sense of destruction.
[Parks Stephenson] This is
where she ripped in two.
[Narrator] The digital
twin not only allows the team
to explore the ship itself,
but the destruction caused
by the crash that sank her.
[Chris Hearn] I wasn't really
prepared for the level of
damage that the scan showed us.
It's catastrophic in its scale.
That really struck me.
[Narrator] We've known
since her discovery that the
ship lies in two parts.
But the wreck site
is so massive,
no one has ever seen it
all at once, until now.
The stern sits a third
of a mile from the bow.
[ominous music playing]
[underwater metal groaning]
[Parks Stephenson] Okay, now,
this is something you don't
normally see because it's
very dangerous underneath the
overhanging stern here.
Trying to get in here
with a submersible,
it's not very often done.
[Narrator] The twin allows
the experts to study near
inaccessible parts of the ship.
[Parks Stephenson] Here's a
starboard propeller over here.
[Narrator] Taking in features
which are almost impossible to
see on a manned
mission to the site.
[Parks Stephenson] Ah,
you see that right there?
The numbers.
That's 401, that's
Titanic's hull number.
[Jennifer Hooper] Oh, wow.
It's in pristine condition.
[Parks Stephenson] The best.
[Narrator] From the tiniest
details to its colossal scale,
the scan offers an entirely
new perspective on Titanic.
And the experts have only
just begun to scratch the
surface of what the
twin can tell them.
[Parks Stephenson] I am really,
really excited to
see what the rest of this
is going to look like.
To have the wreck site
at my command to see what
happened to the ship.
Wow.
The possibilities are endless.
[ominous music playing]
[metal groaning]
[Yasmin Khan] The disaster
of 14th, April 1912
happens on a cold,
clear, starry night,
four days into
Titanic's maiden voyage.
Jack Phillips, a
wireless operator,
receives a message
that there is pack ice and
icebergs up ahead.
In first class, Captain Smith
is with Bruce Ismay,
chairman of the White Star Line.
While up on the bridge,
First Officer Murdoch
is keeping watch.
At 11:39 p.m.,
three bells ring out.
[bell ringing]
And that's the warning
of an obstacle up ahead.
First Officer Murdoch rams
the engine ship's
telegraph to stop,
sending a signal
to cut the power.
He then demands that Titanic
turn harder starboard,
hoping to steer
the ship to safety.
And seconds later, the
Titanic hits the iceberg.
[thud]
Many on board felt nothing.
Even Frederick Fleet,
who sounded that alarm from
the crow's nest, said it
felt like a close shave.
[Narrator] And yet this
glancing blow sank a ship
thought to be unsinkable.
The experts were hoping
that the twin can show us how.
[Jennifer Hooper]
With the scan,
what is exciting is
that we actually do have our
first visible ice damage.
So, take a look up
here at this porthole.
This porthole was
smashed by the ice.
First-class passenger,
Margaret Swift,
saw the ice that had come
through that porthole.
That tells us that the
iceberg was at least 30 feet
above water line.
So, the scan is telling us
the size of the iceberg.
It's definitively giving us
information that will help us
understand more about
the collision that night.
[Narrator] It's tantalizing new
evidence of the iceberg strike,
but Titanic's fatal wound
appears hidden from view.
When she sank,
the ship's bow hit the
seabed with such force
that nearly half of
it was buried in mud.
Now the twin can
provide the experts with
a brand-new perspective.
[Parks Stephenson] Okay, I
have never seen this depicted
before, and certainly
not in this scale.
[Chris Hearn] What a
different view now.
[laughs]
[Parks Stephenson] You see
how much of the bow has dug
into the ocean bottom?
Can you imagine the force
needed to propel that much of
the ship into the ocean bottom?
[Jennifer Hooper] I mean, the
iceberg damage should be here,
but it's not.
We can't see it because
it's under the sea floor.
- No, it's at least 20-25 feet
below the mud line.
[Narrator] Although evidence
of the impact appears lost
to the ocean floor,
the experts think that the twin
could still provide answers.
To decode the clues
offered by the wreckage,
the investigation turns
to Titanic's birthplace.
[ships horn]
Taking over two years to build,
Titanic was designed
and constructed here...
at Harland & Wolff in
Northern Ireland,
on the shores of Belfast Lough,
a company at the
forefront of shipbuilding,
even today.
Built in this dock, her
blueprints were drawn up by
skilled draftsmen next door.
[Yasmin Khan] Titanic was the
most technologically advanced
ship of the age.
These original blueprints
show she was divided into 16
watertight compartments.
These were designed to collect
floodwater in a small area.
What's more, Titanic
would stay afloat,
even if up to four
of these flooded.
This was what cemented
her reputation as
the unsinkable ship.
[Narrator] After the tragedy,
Harland & Wolff's
naval architect, Edward Wilding,
was called on to explain how the
ship's fail-safes were so
catastrophically overwhelmed.
His starting point was that
more than four compartments
must have been damaged
by the iceberg,
the weight of the
floodwater pulling the ship
below the surface.
- Wilding set
about calculating the impact of
the iceberg and concluded
that there had been a series of
puncture holes along the hull on
an area of about 12 square feet.
Wilding based his findings on
the testimony of surviving crew
and passengers and on
his own detailed knowledge
of the ship's design.
But even after the
wreck was discovered,
testing his theory
was impossible.
The evidence buried
below the mud line.
[Narrator] But now, the
investigation has brought
together experts from around
the world to put Wilding's
findings to the test.
At University College London,
renowned naval architect
Professor Jeom-Kee Paik
is joined by fellow specialists,
Doctor Simon Benson,
and Doctor Stephen Payne,
designer of the cruise liner,
Queen Mary II.
[Dr. Stephen Payne] This is
the first time we can actually
use a computer simulation
to test Wilding's hypothesis.
[Narrator] Based on information
from Titanic's blueprints,
combined with their
estimated speed of 22 knots,
the team uses cutting-edge
technology to simulate the
iceberg strike.
Wow, here it goes.
We can see the
ship glancing blow,
and it's actually
turning to starboard,
as it comes past.
Ah, yeah, interesting.
We can see the ice
actually splintering off.
We actually now find out
from these simulations that
the time it took for
the Titanic to collide
with the iceberg,
the glancing blow
was 6.3 seconds.
[Narrator] 6.3 seconds.
A mere moment.
Yet what could
have been a fleeting
scrape proved catastrophic.
And the simulation can now
reveal the full extent of the
damage for the very first time.
- Well, this for me
is where it gets really
interesting because here,
we really see the
power of the simulation.
So, here's the collision.
And it very quickly
spreads quite a thin line
of gash, isn't it?
But we can see the
ruptures occurring.
[Dr. Simon Benson]
Wilding predicted that the
total area of the holes
would be about 12 square feet.
We are, with this
new prediction,
looking at something
in the order of 18.
- The Wilding
estimation is incredible.
[Narrator] The figures
may differ slightly,
but Wilding was right.
The scale of the damage
was minimal compared to the
size of the ship overall.
But crucially, it wasn't
confined to one area.
[Chris Hearn] Wow.
[Parks Stephenson] So,
this is the damage.
- We're seeing a simulation
of the iceberg damage
for the very first time.
[Narrator] The digital
twin allows the experts to
see the impact pattern
precisely mapped out.
[Jennifer Hooper] The
damage begins, the front,
and it crosses over
the compartments,
all the way to boiler
room number six.
And then it crosses into
boiler room number five.
You have one small section
in boiler room number five,
and another very small section
of damage in the forepeak.
[Parks Stephenson] How small?
- That last bit is only the
size of two pieces of paper.
That's six compartments
along the starboard side and
the ship was only designed
for four compartments to flood.
So you've got small
margins on one end or the
other that sank this ship.
[Chris Hearn] So,
two small holes?
- That's what the
simulation shows us.
[Narrator] The areas that made
all the difference are tiny.
Small holes either side of the
four badly damaged compartments.
Without them,
Titanic might not have sunk.
- We all imagine that
it was a giant hole...
Yeah.
- That sank such a massive ship.
In reality, it was a very
small amount of damage over
a long distance and fractions
of a second that ended up
sinking the ship.
[Parks Stephenson] So, if true,
it suggests an irony that in
turning to avoid the iceberg,
the crew had created an
area of damage lengthy enough
to open up too many
compartments to the sea
and sink the ship.
[Narrator] The irony
doesn't stop there.
At the British inquiry
into the sinking, Wilding,
one of the men who
knew Titanic best,
predicted that had the
crew not turned the ship
to try and avoid the iceberg,
instead, hitting it head-on,
she would have stayed afloat.
The simulation will now
put that theory to the test.
- Because this has
never been done before.
[Dr. Stephen Payne]
No, absolutely not.
Let's see it go.
Oh, wow.
Look at this crumpling
of that deck.
All the energy of
the Titanic is now going
into that collision.
Okay, so, can we
have the close-up?
So we're really gonna see
the crumple zone as that wow.
All that steel
mashing into the ice.
[Dr. Simon Benson]
Just imagine the noise that
there would have been.
[Dr. Stephen Payne]
Wilding predicted that
with this collision,
Titanic would survive.
We look at the blueprint.
We see, well, where
are we going to?
We've lost the peak tank,
cargo tanks, and we've ended.
- So it's just
forwarded the bridge.
Just forwarded the bridge.
So we've actually only lost
what, 4 compartments?
- 4 compartments.
- So.
She would have stayed afloat.
It would have.
[Jennifer Hooper] So,
based on the simulation,
it would not have sunk.
[Chris Hearn] Yeah.
[Narrator] The front-on
simulation gives us a fleeting
glimpse of a different
outcome for the tragic ship.
What it doesn't provide
is a sailor's perspective.
Think about the crew.
You don't steer directly
into an iceberg.
I doubt very highly
anybody would have done it.
A lot of the crew had
their bunks forward.
And so, if Murdoch making
that kind of an action to
take the iceberg
right on the bow,
he would have likely
k*lled everybody that was
in those forward spaces
But the officer's
maneuver to try and
turn away from the iceberg,
as hard as it is to say,
essentially seal
the Titanic's fate.
[Narrator] With the
ship now taking on water,
the lives of over 2000
people hang in the balance.
The decisions made
by Titanic's crew,
are about to become
more crucial by the minute.
[ominous music playing]
[rushing water]
[Narrator] Within 20 minutes
of the iceberg strike,
Captain Smith has had
multiple reports of flooding in
the ship's boiler rooms.
- Fireman, Fred Barrett,
was a witness to what happened.
He was working in
boiler room six.
When he gave his testimony
to the inquiry, he said,
"The bell rang.
He called out
"Shut all doors."
Then a large volume of
water came through the side
of the ship.
He ran from that section,
just as the watertight
doors came down.
The man responsible for
keeping the ship's boilers
alight was Chief Engineer
Joseph Bell.
He was in charge of 200
men who powered Titanic
24 hours a day.
[Narrator] The boiler
rooms ran over half the
length of the ship.
40 minutes after the collision,
number six was already lost,
and number five had a small,
paper-sized breach.
[Yasmin Khan] Titanic
was taking on water fast.
Wilding estimated that
16,000 tons of it had now
entered the ship.
[Narrator] The damaged
compartments fill up.
The ship tilts forward,
water spilling from one
compartment to the next.
Suddenly...
[rushing water]
the water bursts into
boiler room five.
And Bell was heard to say,
"My God, we are lost."
[Narrator] Bell and his
men were forced back to
boiler room two,
the only one still capable
of providing power to the ship.
[Yasmin Khan] One hour, 40
after the iceberg strike,
Chief Bell sent his stokers
up on deck to save themselves.
And all 35 engineering officers
stayed with him below deck.
[Chris Hearn] Ultimately, it
came down to a skeleton crew
in boiler room number two,
essentially of the
engineers themselves.
Everybody else
has been released.
[Narrator] It's clear to
Bell that Titanic is doomed.
He now had to pivot from
saving the ship to saving lives.
[Yasmin Khan] They were in
the middle of the Atlantic,
and it was pitch black.
If the power went off, they
would be in total darkness,
making it incredibly difficult
for people to get to the deck
and into lifeboats.
And if the Titanic's
wireless room went down,
the nearby ships couldn't be
alerted to stranded survivors.
[Narrator] In short,
without power,
the chances of those on
board surviving were slim.
The courage of Titanic's
engineers is a story that's
endured for over a century.
But now, the digital twin
allows the experts to actually
examine the place where
Bell and his men battled
on clearly visible,
where the ship tore apart.
[Jennifer Hooper] Okay, so
we're in Boiler room number two.
This is essentially the
last place where they kept
the fires going.
[Parks Stephenson]
This is what's left of the
heart of Titanic.
The steam that's being
generated in these boilers is
providing the power and
the light to the ship.
These engineers down here,
they couldn't see
what was going on outside.
[Jennifer Hooper] The conditions
must have been terrible.
Brutally hot.
The steam.
- Real tests of leadership
often come under the
worst of circumstances.
I reflect on Bell's
efforts that night.
He was going to do everything
he could so that other people
may have a chance to live.
[Narrator] The digital twin
shows us not only the location
of Bell's last stand,
it also offers new evidence
of how he kept the power on,
even as the ship began to sink.
Nearly 2,300 feet
across the wreck site,
the experts have spotted a clue.
[Parks Stephenson] Okay,
we're coming up on the
port side of the
stern back here.
There's the mainmast
that's collapsed and lying
over the edge.
So, let's rotate
this thing around.
And take a look at this.
I found this very interesting.
It's a steam valve.
It didn't come from here.
It landed on the wreck
after the stern had settled.
And the flap is seen in
the open position right now.
[Jennifer Hooper]
Why is that important?
[Chris Hearn] Well, this
is a line that was taking
the remaining steam
from the boiler rooms to
the emergency dynamos.
[Parks Stephenson] They
provided life to the ship,
the lighting, the heating,
running the pumps.
[Narrator] Titanic's
emergency dynamo was over
40 feet higher than
the main generator,
so it would take
longer to flood.
It was connected to
boiler room two through
an emergency pipe,
and the valve had to
be opened manually.
[Chris Hearn] You can see this
steam valve is clearly open,
which means steam was
continuously flowing through
to the emergency dynamos,
and this action to
keep this open saved
hundreds of lives.
[Narrator] Survivors
testified that over two hours
after striking the iceberg,
the ship's lights were still on.
[Jennifer Hooper] So this
is proof that the survivors
who saw lights to
the very end, it's true.
Yeah.
[Narrator] This steam valve
is frozen in its final act.
Responding to Bell's orders.
Keeping the power
on and hope alive.
While Bell and his men
fight on, above them,
panic is starting to spread.
At the lifeboats,
the crew struggle to keep order,
and senior officers
are faced with
life and death choices.
[Narrator] Until 11:39 P.M.
passengers had enjoyed a
peaceful evening and luxurious
surroundings and
were looking forward to
arriving in New York.
But nearly two hours
after Titanic hit the iceberg,
the situation for those on
board is deteriorating fast.
As water begins to
flood the corridors,
the passengers start
rushing to the boat deck.
[Yasmin Khan] By law in 1912,
ocean liners were only
required to have 16 lifeboats.
And in an emergency
would have been expected to
stay afloat long enough to
ferry people to a rescue ship.
So, Titanic only had enough
lifeboat spaces for about half
of those onboard.
[Narrator] The order is
to start loading women and
children into the boats.
In the chaos, most
of the lifeboats aren't
even launched full.
A tension quickly
turns to panic.
On the boat deck,
there are scenes of
both heroism and heartbreak.
[Yasmin Khan] Ida Strauss,
for instance,
wouldn't board a lifeboat
if she couldn't go with her
husband and said,
"We have lived together,
and we'll die together."
Rhoda Abbott, who was traveling
with her two teenage sons,
reached a lifeboat
being boarded.
But realizing that her
boys were considered too old
to go in a lifeboat,
stepped back and
remained with her children.
[Narrator] 17-year-old
first-class passenger
Jack Thayer, noted
who joined the boat after
Rhoda Abbott retreated.
He recorded.
"There was some disturbance
in loading the last two
forward starboard boats.
A large crowd of
men was pressing to get
to the lifeboats.
No women were around
as far as I could see.
I saw Ismay,
who had been assisting in
the loading of the last boat,
push his way into it.
It was really every
man for himself."
Bruce Ismay was the chairman
of the White Star Line.
He went on to survive,
but his reputation
never recovered.
[Narrator] As passengers
become increasingly desperate,
the crew struggle to keep order.
[Yasmin Khan]
Michel Navratil said,
"Honest people didn't
stand a chance as passengers
descended to deviance
in order to survive."
[Narrator] With the
sinking of Titanic making
headlines around the world,
the press was hungry
for heroes and villains.
But these were some of
the most chaotic moments
of the whole tragedy,
and conflicting versions
of events quickly emerged.
- The first officer,
William Murdoch,
was in charge of the
lifeboats on the starboard side
of the ship, and
he was desperately trying
to lower them as the water
was gushing up to meet them.
Afterwards, as these
newspaper reports show,
he was accused of
having shot himself on the
bridge and abandoning his post.
It says here "he was seen
whipping a gleaming bit of
metal from his pocket,
deliberately placing
it to his temple,
and pulling the trigger."
[distant g*nsh*t]
[Narrator] The story
was headline news.
Murdoch was painted as cowardly,
his reputation in tatters.
But even at the time,
his actions were disputed.
[Yasmin Khan]
Second Officer Lightoller,
the most senior officer
who survived the sinking,
refuted the
accusation of suicide,
writing that he'd seen
Murdoch swept overboard and
that he had died a hero's death.
[Narrator] Now, Parkes
believes that the twin can
offer clues about
Murdoch's final moments.
[Parks Stephenson] Well, this is
the number one lifeboat station,
the forward davit.
[Chris Hearn] That was
Murdoch station, right?
[Parks Stephenson] Yes, it was.
And you'll notice here that
that davit is in the upright
or retracted position.
[Narrator] Davits are
cranes used to winch lifeboats
down to the water.
Before being wound back
to launch the next.
[Parks Stephenson] This
davit is in the up position,
meaning its crew is basically
trying to get a lifeboat
ready to be launched.
[Narrator] In an attempt to
save as many lives as possible,
Murdoch, unlike some officers,
had allowed men
to join the women and children
aboard his lifeboats.
[Parks Stephenson] Murdoch
has been watching the water
rise this whole time.
He knows he's out of time,
and he's working against
the rising water to try and
get one more boat
into the water.
And this coincides with
Second Officer Lightoller's
description, who was
standing on top of the
deckhouse back here.
[Narrator] At 2:15 a.m.,
minutes before the
ship went down,
Lightoller witnessed
Murdoch trying to launch
one final boat.
Suddenly, Titanic
dipped and the lifeboat
was washed overboard.
While survivors scrambled
onto it from the freezing water,
Murdoch was swept away.
[Parks Stephenson]
Historians have disputed that,
but this davit right here
stands in mute testimony that
supports Lightoller's
version of events.
Because, being in the
up position is exactly
what Lightoller described.
[Narrator] History has
not been kind to Murdoch.
And while we may never
know exactly how he died,
the twin does suggest
that the accusation of
cowardice of abandoning
his ship may not be fair.
[Parks Stephenson] I think
it really shows that he was
struggling to save as many
lives as possible right up to
the very end.
They were trying to
launch one last lifeboat.
He never gave up on his duty.
[Narrator] For
survivors like Lightoller,
the scenes at the lifeboats
were some of the most
distressing of the
whole disaster.
But for those left on board,
the worst was still to come.
[distant screams]
[Narrator] Two hours
after Titanic hit the iceberg,
the ship is partially submerged,
but remarkably, thanks
to Bell and his engineers,
she still has power.
[Yasmin Khan] In Titanic's
wireless room, two operators,
Jack Phillips and Harold Bride,
are still at their post,
and desperately
sending out messages.
[Narrator] Shortly
after 2:00 a.m.,
Captain Smith told the men
they had done their duty and
were relieved from their posts.
Bride prepared to leave,
but Phillips worked on.
[Yasmin Khan] Bride
who survived the wreck,
recalled his
colleague Jack Phillips'
selfless conduct, saying,
"He was a brave man.
I learned to love
him that night.
And I suddenly felt a great
reverence to see him standing
there sticking to
his work while everybody
was raging about.
I will never live to
forget the work of Phillips
for the last awful 15 minutes."
[Narrator] But soon
after 2:00 a.m.,
The messages abruptly stop.
Titanic is about to go under.
[eerie music playing]
After the sinking,
two official
inquiries concluded that the
ship gently slipped
below the waves.
But even at the time,
many survivors
contradicted that,
testifying Titanic broke
apart before she sank.
Something confirmed
when the wreck was
discovered in 1985.
And the twin now
allows us to see in
unprecedented detail,
where the pieces came to rest,
a third of a mile
apart on the ocean floor.
But exactly how this
great ship broke in two,
is something Parks has been
investigating for decades.
[Parks Stephenson]
There's a lot of mysteries
in the Titanic disaster.
But the one that I've been
most focused on throughout
my career in Titanic research,
is the breakup.
And I think we've got the
evidence that's going to answer
those questions, right here.
[Narrator] The severed
ship is too badly damaged
to reveal exactly what happened.
But Parks believes that the
scan can still provide answers.
Not by studying the
wounded wreck itself,
but the seabed around it.
[Parks Stephenson] There's
an entire debris field of
artifacts, of steel sections,
that you need to take a look at.
[Jennifer Hooper] Wow.
[Parks Stephenson]
We're flying away.
[Chris Hearn] Wait a minute.
Oh it's the stern.
We're looking down.
[Parks Stephenson] We're
going to get a God's eye view
of the debris field.
[Narrator] Covering around
15 square miles countless
sheds of Titanic are scattered
across the ocean floor.
Among them, key pieces,
which Parks believes
may be clues.
[Parks Stephenson] You
can see how immense it is.
I mean, it looks chaotic,
but there is a pattern to this.
And I bet we can find
the evidence that we're
looking for to reconstruct
the breakup here.
[Narrator] The twin allows
the experts to study Titanic's
shattered fragments in
more detail than ever before.
If they can piece together
this twisted metal jigsaw,
the experts may be able
to find out how Titanic
broke in two and what it
meant for those on board.
[distant screams]
[Narrator] When Titanic
broke in two at 2:17 a.m.,
on April 15th,
almost 1,500 people were
still on board the ship.
Those in the lifeboats
watched on in horror.
[Yasmin Khan] Jack Thayer,
who was a 17-year-old
first-class passenger,
recorded in his memoirs
what he saw.
"Suddenly, the whole
superstructure of the ship
appeared to split.
Her stern was gradually
rising into the air."
"We could see groups of
people still aboard clinging
in clusters or bunches
like swarming bees,
only to fall in masses,
pairs or singly as the
great after part of the ship,
250 feet of it,
rose into the sky."
"Gradually, she turned
her deck away from us,
as though to hide
from our sight,
the awful spectacle."
[Narrator] Based on
historical accounts like these,
many have assumed that the
ship snapped cleanly in two.
But the investigation suggests
the truth may be more complex.
To find out what
really happened,
the experts have used the
unique level of detail provided
by the scan to comb
through the debris field,
identifying shattered
sections of the hull,
and painstakingly piecing
them back together.
[upbeat music playing]
[Chris Hearn] Wow.
Look at the size of that area.
[Jennifer Hooper] So we're
looking at the side of the ship,
and we're seeing some
of the pieces of the hull
found in the debris field.
They're massive.
We're talking like 100 feet or
more up the side of the ship.
The big piece at the top,
I've studied rivets
from that big piece under
the microscope, steel rivets,
and how that piece was
actually held onto the ship.
- So, you have a personal
connection to this piece.
[Chris Hearn]
Wow, that's amazing.
I'm speechless, like, the
size of these pieces is huge.
[Narrator] By allowing us
to see the hull reassembled,
the digital twin shows
that far from snapping neatly,
a huge section of the ship
was completely destroyed.
- It was a giant
catastrophic fracture.
As the stresses are building up,
you've got tension across
the top, compression,
and buckling on the bottom
of the ship, and slowly,
it turns into a domino effect.
It's stressed on
the next component and
the next component.
It's like a chain reaction.
[Narrator] Almost all of a
ship's strength is in a shell.
With that compromised,
her exposed
interior was obliterated.
[Chris Hearn] I thought it
was more of a clean break,
and it certainly was not.
You would think the
ship had been struck by
some enormous m*ssile.
It's that catastrophic.
[Jennifer Hooper] 20% of the
ship just completely destroyed
in probably a matter of seconds.
So many people lost their lives.
[Narrator] Titanic shattered
in multiple places.
[Parks Stephenson] This
was a cataclysmic moment.
70, 80 feet of it
broke at the same time with
human beings in there.
It's unimaginable.
[Narrator] As
Titanic broke in two,
the fate of everyone in that
part of the ship was sealed.
The twin can offer a
glimpse into the final moments
of those on board.
Including two of
America's richest men.
[Narrator]
When Titanic goes down,
80% of the men are lost.
- Although some male
passengers did survive,
Edwardian ideals of stoicism,
and chivalry,
meant that the vast
majority of men would stay
behind on the ship.
Alfred Rush, a 17-year-old,
he'd only been presented
with his first pair
of long trousers
the night before,
refused to enter
the lifeboat, saying,
"I will stay with the men."
[Narrator] Another famous
tale of self-sacrifice,
was that of multi-millionaire
Benjamin Guggenheim.
- We have the
testimony of James Etches,
a steward, who said,
"I gave a life
belt to Guggenheim,
and he gave me a message.
It said, 'If anything
should happen to me,
tell my wife in New York
that I've done my best in
doing my duty.
We've dressed up in our
best and are prepared to
go down like gentlemen."
Another steward reported
hearing him say,
"No woman shall be left on
this ship because Ben Guggenheim
was a coward."
The popular narrative is
that he escorted his mistress,
and her servant,
to the lifeboats,
and then went back to
the first-class cabins.
[Narrator] The image of
Guggenheim waiting bravely
for the waters to meet
him is a romantic one.
But if he did
remain in his room,
his death would have
been far from peaceful.
The digital twin makes clear
the violence that those in this
section of the ship experienced
in their final moments.
[Yasmin Khan] Guggenheims
suite was right at the
epicenter of where
the ship broke up.
[Narrator] Near
Guggenheim's room,
was that of another of
America's richest men,
J.J. Astor.
Titanic had over
300 first class cabins,
and Astor was reported
to have paid over $30,000
in today's money for a
pair of these premium suites.
What's left of them
is visible on the twin.
Blown apart as the
ship went down.
Astor's body was recovered
a week after the sinking.
[Parks Stephenson] It
seems to have been important
at the time that the noblemen,
like the J.J. Astors,
or the Benjamin Guggenheims,
died a very noble,
rather peaceful death.
But, in Titanic,
it didn't matter
what your status was.
You would all
meet the same fate.
[Narrator] On
that night in 1912,
death did not discriminate.
Over 60 feet below
Astor's suite,
Joseph Bell and his
engineers had remained tending
to the fires as
the ship went down.
Made visible by its position,
right at the ship's fracture,
is what's left of
boiler room two.
[Parks Stephenson] If you
look at this boiler here,
you see the shadow up
in the upper quadrant?
It's concaved inward.
And that's an indication
of an implosive event,
which means that these boilers
had to have been operating at
the time the ship breaks,
and the bow starts to go under.
[Chris Hearn] They stayed here.
They steel themselves
to their task because
they were professionals,
and they knew their duty.
And their duty was to
give people a chance up on
the top deck.
And for me, this is a
really powerful place.
[Narrator] All 35 engineers
would go down with the ship.
[Chris Hearn] We're
standing right at the point
where their lives ended.
So, this scan gives us an
opportunity to observe a
memorial to the bravery
and the dedication
of those engineers.
[Narrator] Bell's
body was never found.
Two hours and 40 minutes
after the ship hit the iceberg,
about 700 people are huddled
together in lifeboats.
The rest are either fighting
for their lives in the freezing
water or dead.
But over a century on,
the scan can still
shine a light on the lives lost
to the ocean floor.
[Yasmin Khan] After
the ship broke up,
the bow quickly disappeared,
but the stern stayed
afloat for a few more minutes.
And up there on the poop deck,
was Assistant Purser
Frank Prentice,
who saw exactly
what was happening.
He recalled that Titanic rose
suddenly and described hearing
everything that wasn't secured
crashing through the ship.
Then she began to plummet.
Frank Prentice climbed
over the railing,
and he dropped down 100
feet into the water below.
[Narrator] The bow sinks first,
shedding its contents
the whole way down.
It hits the mud with such
force that it jackknifes.
[dramatic music playing]
The stern follows,
Fl*ttening out into a spiral.
Her freight and
furnishings are strewn
across the ocean floor.
Thousands of items
are buried in the mud.
Some are about to be
seen for the first time in
over 100 years.
[Jennifer Hooper] When
I saw the debris field,
my first instinct was
thinking about putting
the ship back together,
thinking about the materials.
But, part of me
understands that...
there are
personal possessions.
There's cups.
There's suitcases.
There's bits of leather,
there's people's things that
may last a lot longer
than the metal.
[Narrator] The debris field
has already yielded answers
about the ship itself.
But it can also offer a unique
insight into life on board.
An ornate bench,
which lies 715 feet
from the stern,
once adorned one
of the upper decks.
And 416 feet away,
the centerpiece of
a glass ceiling dome,
which once capped one
of the grandest staircases
on the ship.
Footage captured during
the scan has been subject
to months of research,
using records and
insurance claims to try and
identify the owners of
items glimpsed on the seabed.
One of the suitcases
matches the claim of
first-class passenger,
Charlotte Cardeza,
who survived the wreck.
[Yasmin Khan] She was well
known for her Louis Vuitton
luggage and her extensive
collection of shoes.
Charlotte Cardeza's maid
recalled being impressed by her
mistress's bravery.
Reporting that she remained
entirely calm in spite
of the danger.
[Narrator] This array of
shoes and opera glasses,
may have belonged to
theater owner Henry B. Harris,
who perished in the sinking.
One of the most
intriguing personal items
lies nearly 500 feet
from the stern,
a pigs tusk bangle
next to a shark's tooth.
[Yasmin Khan] This shark's
tooth is a lucky charm,
and it would have been
attached to this pocket watch
which bears an
Advance Australia crest.
We've tracked down
that belonged to a
Scottish businessman,
Colonel John Weir.
After his death,
a family secret was revealed.
His Scottish wife had a nasty
surprise when she made her
claim to the estate
because it turned out he
had an Australian
family who were making
exactly the same claim.
[Narrator] These remarkable
findings bring humanity
to the dark and
desolate wreck site.
But there are still countless
items on the sea floor,
whose owners are unknown.
A pair of men's shoes, lying
together on the promenade deck,
suggests they mark the
final resting place of
a third-class passenger,
whose remains are long gone.
And this ornate doll's head,
which may have
belonged to any of some
60 children who did
not survive the tragedy.
For prolific Titanic explorer,
Parks Stephenson,
the digital twin enables
investigation and study of the
site without disturbing or
further damaging the wreck.
[Parks Stephenson] Every time
I think I've seen everything
I need to see out of this,
I see something new.
This digital twin has opened
up a whole new thought process.
And where that takes me,
I don't know if I
see the end of it.
This is the most impactful
thing that has happened since
the wreck was first
found in 1985.
[Jennifer Hooper] Look at
the rusticles all over the ship.
[Chris Hearn] It's like the
by-product of bacteria, right?
[Jennifer Hooper] Yeah,
it's actually corrosion on
the sea floor.
It's bacteria that eats
the iron and produces rust.
So, it's slowly
eating the wreck.
It's eating the ship,
and the ship will
eventually degrade and
just fall in on itself.
This is a unique site.
It's its own ecosystem, now.
It's living and breathing
and changing constantly.
[Narrator] Titanic
won't be here forever.
But the digital twin is now
frozen the evidence in time,
allowing research to
continue long after the
wreck's inevitable decay.
It has already offered
remarkable insights into
what happened to
the ship that night,
and the response
of those on board.
Now, thanks to the twin,
the search for
answers can continue.
[dramatic music playing]
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Titanic: The Digital Resurrection (2025)
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