Titanic Discovery Digital Collection

Titanic is a ship that lives in our collective memory as a symbol of a gilded era that ended abruptly and tragically in the North Atlantic Ocean in the early 20th century. This digital collection tells part of the story of her discovery in 1985. It is primarily comprised of logbooks, scientific data, and the thousands of letters from people around the world expressing their joy and enthusiasm when Titanic was found.

HMS Titanic departed Southampton, England on April 10th, 1912 for her maiden voyage. As she made her way to her intended destination of New York, she struck an iceberg late on April 14th. Of the 2,200 passengers and crew, over 1,500 were lost when the ‘nearly unsinkable’ vessel sank at about 2:30 am on April 15th. Though sought after for decades, Titanic was not found quickly or easily. It was the work of many people over many years, and it also required the most sophisticated technology available at the time.

As the 40th anniversary of the discovery approaches, we want to share these materials more widely so that everyone can better understand this discovery and what happened in the days and weeks afterwards. Just as the sinking altered the world, ending many lives and some even say ending an era, so too her finding also dramatically changed lives, institutions, our understanding of what we can do in the ocean for science and society.

Please see related materials listed below:

• The September-October 1985 WHOI Newsletter v.26 n.9, September-October 1985 contains articles on the discovery of the Titanic: https://hdl.handle.net/1912/9959
• Oceanus magazine Volume 28 Number 4, Winter 1985/1986: https://archive.org/details/oceanusv2804wood
• Oceanus magazine Volume 29 Number 3, Fall 1986/1986: https://archive.org/details/oceanusv2903wood