The RMS Titanic, one of the world's most infamous and tragic shipwrecks, sank in 1912. Its final resting spot remained a mystery for decades, until its wreckage was discovered on the ocean floor 26 years ago.
This gallery contains haunting images of the Titanic — the ship before it sank, passengers during rescue efforts and the ship in its current deteriorating condition.
The Titanic set sail on April 10th, 1912 from Southampton, England, and was headed for New York. It was the ship's maiden voyage.
The Titanic was the largest and most luxurious ship at the time, with 39 private suites and 350 cabins in first class alone. It also housed a lavish grand staircase, saloon, swimming pool, squash courts and even Turkish baths.
This illustration shows the restaurant reception room for the first class passengers aboard the Titanic. The architectural picture was done by Bedford Lemere and Co. in 1912.
When the massive ship went down on April 15, 1912, it took the lives of 1,497 of its 2,209 passengers with it. This photograph shows members of the Goodwin family, all of whom perished in the Titanic tragedy.
This photo captured life boats full of the Titanic's surviving passengers on way to reaching the RMS Carpathia, which was the first ship on the scene after the Titanic sank.
Here, another photograph of Titanic survivors in lifeboats that are on their way to the rescue ship Carpathia.
This photograph shows two survivors of the Titanic shipwreck. The children were identified as French brothers Michel Navratil, who was 4 years old at the time the photograph was taken, and Edmond Navratil, age 2.
Built in Northern Ireland in 1909, the "RMS Titanic" was also known as the "unsinkable ship," because it had a double-bottom hull divided into 16 compartments that were presumed to be watertight. The 882.5-foot-long (268.9 meters) craft sank in April 1912 after it struck an iceberg off southern Newfoundland, and now rests on the ocean floor at a depth of 12,460 feet (3.7 kilometers).
The remotely operated vehicle Jason Jr. uses video recording equipment to peer into the Titanic's stateroom. The ROV dove and examined the wreck while tethered to its command ship, a U.S. Navy-owned submarine named Alvin.
In 2010, researchers from Canada and Spain examined the underwater Titanic using DNA technology and found bacteria eating away at the remains of the famous ship. Scientists identified a new species of rust-eating bacteria, namedHalomonas titanicae, on a sample of the ship's rusticles, which are formations of rust that are shaped like an icicle.
The massive Thompson Graving Dock at the Harland and Wolff Yard, Belfast, is where Titanic was completed after its launch on May 31, 1911.
This now vacant lot at the former Harland and Wolff Shipyard in Belfast is the site where Titanic was built, and then launched on May 31, 1911.
