Photograph by Walden Media

More than two miles down, the ghostly bow of the Titanic emerges from the darkness on a dive by explorer and filmmaker James Cameron in 2001. The ship might have survived a head-on collision with an iceberg, but a sideswipe across her starboard side pierced too many of her watertight compartments.

Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland, Collection Harland and Wolff, Ulster Folk & Transport Museum

The propellers of the Olympic—the nearly identical sister ship of the Titanic—dwarf workers at the Belfast shipyard where both ocean liners were built. Few photographs exist of the Titanic, but the Olympic gives a sense of its grand design.

Photomosaics © 2012 RMS Titanic, Inc, a subsidiary of Premier Exhibitions, Inc. Produced by AIVL, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI)

With her rudder cleaving the sand and two propeller blades peeking from the murk, Titanic’s mangled stern rests on the abyssal plain, 1,970 feet south of the more photographed bow. This optical mosaic combines 300 high-resolution images taken on a 2010 expedition.

Photograph © 2012 RMS Titanic, Inc. Produced by AIVL, WHOI

The first complete views of the legendary wreck
Ethereal views of Titanic’s bow offer a comprehensiveness of detail never seen before. The optical mosaics each consist of 1,500 high-resolution images rectified using sonar data.

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Photograph © 2012 RMS Titanic, Inc. Produced by AIVL, WHOI

The first complete views of the legendary wreck
As the starboard profile shows, the Titanic buckled as it plowed nose-first into the seabed, leaving the forward hull buried deep in mud—obscuring, possibly forever, the mortal wounds inflicted by the iceberg.

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Photograph © 2012 RMS Titanic, Inc. Produced by AIVL, WHOI

The first complete views of the legendary wreck
Titanic’s battered stern, captured here in profile, bears witness to the extreme trauma inflicted upon it as it corkscrewed to the bottom.

Zoom in for a closer look at this image here

Photograph © 2012 RMS Titanic, Inc. Produced by AIVL, WHOI

The first complete views of the legendary wreck
Titanic’s battered stern is captured overhead here. Making sense of this tangle of metal presents endless challenges to experts. Says one, “If you’re going to interpret this stuff, you gotta love Picasso.”

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Photograph © 2012 RMS Titanic, Inc. Produced by AIVL, WHOI

Two of Titanic’s engines lie exposed in a gaping cross section of the stern. Draped in “rusticles”—orange stalactites created by iron-eating bacteria—these massive structures, four stories tall, once powered the largest moving man-made object on Earth.

Photograph by Mark Thiessen, NGM Staff

This porthole is among more than 5,500 objects retrieved from the ocean floor around the wreck of the Titanic. Steel hull plates flexed on impact with the seabed, popping out the rigid portholes.

ALL ARTIFACTS COURTESY RMS TITANIC, INC.

Photograph by Mark Thiessen, NGM Staff

A gentleman’s pocket watch in a sterling silver case may have been set to New York time in anticipation of a safe arrival.

ALL ARTIFACTS COURTESY RMS TITANIC, INC.

Photograph by Mark Thiessen, NGM Staff

A hat of felted rabbit fur likely belonged to a businessman. In an era when dress defined the man, the bowler marked the professional class.

ALL ARTIFACTS COURTESY RMS TITANIC, INC.

Photograph by Mark Thiessen, NGM Staff

A platinum ring set with diamonds was found in a leather pouch. Women sparkled in such jewels at the ship’s fancy social events.

ALL ARTIFACTS COURTESY RMS TITANIC, INC.

Photograph by Mark Thiessen, NGM Staff

These boots lay in the leather suitcase of 35-year-old toolmaker William Henry Allen. Like many third-class passengers, he did not survive.

ALL ARTIFACTS COURTESY RMS TITANIC, INC.