Titanic: The Digital Resurrection (Full Episode) | SPECIAL | National Geographic

[♪ 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. 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 missile. [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. 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. [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. [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. [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 [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. 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. Just imagine the noise that there would have been. 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 killed 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. [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... ...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. 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. [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, to keep order. [Yasmin Khan] Michel Navratil said, "Honest people didn't stand a chance as passengers descended to deviance in order to survive." 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 gunshot] [Narrator] The story was headline news. Murdoch was painted as cowardly, his reputation in tatters. But even at the time, his actions were disputed. 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. 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. 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 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 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 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. [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] 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. 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 missile. 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. 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 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] Guggenheim's 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, flattening out into a spiral. Her freight and furnishings are strewn 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 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 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 Now, thanks to the twin, the search for answers can continue.