Across the officers’ quarters and along the more than 450-foot-long bow section of the Titanic, the rusticle reef that is slowly creating an unusual blend of natural and man-made patterns is turning the Titanic into one of the largest organisms on Earth.
The polymathic explorer Carl Spencer made his first dive in the Mir to the Titanic only a short time before his death aboard the nearly identical sister ship, Britannic.
Close-up view of a rusticle stalactite living on the Titanic’s number 8 boat railing near the spot where the band played. Note the calcium-absorbing and secreting invertebrates colonizing the rusticle’s outer shell.
Upon impact with the seabed, the Titanic’s prow was buried almost up to the base of its anchors. By 2003, rusticle branches had grown from the anchors down to the sea floor. The depth to which the prow is embedded can be appreciated by comparing the position of this anchor to its appearance in the 1912 photo of the Titanic leaving Southampton on the first page of this photo insert.
The wholesale disintegration of the Titanic’s iron and sulfur is shown quite dramatically in this photo of the rusticle reef hanging down from the crow’s nest region of the foremast in 2003, as the hollow steel mast began to split and sag toward collapse.
A surviving picket of rails along the Titanic’s bow section serves as an example of how the rusticle reef often branches out laterally in the currents, maximizing its surface area in the manner of a tree. The reef supports rich filter-feeding populations of anemones, gorgonarians, and tunicates, all of which are visible in this 2003 photo.
Under a mysteriously accelerating surge of rusticle growth, decks have begun collapsing one upon another, as in 2003 images recorded by Lori Johnston, compared to the photo at bottom showing decks that were still standing seventeen years earlier, when the Ballard team first surveyed the Titanic.
Young Walter Lord (top photo, left), author of A Night to Remember, with a family friend on the Titanic’s twin, Olympic, in July 1926. A 1912 photo (right) taken by Father Frank Browne from almost the same angle, in the same location aboard the Titanic, demonstrates how nearly identical the two ships were.
The Titanic rusticle reef is a complex organization of more than twenty bacterial and fungal species, arranged into layered growth bands and the channels of an interconnected circulatory system. These living fossils hint that multicellular life is not unique and may be inevitable wherever water and the right minerals exist.
This map from the September 10, 2001, dive records the location of rails blasted off the stern upon bottom impact and the important discovery that prior maps were wrong. Red markings record verification of a lateral breaking of the stern section, indicating that it was falling in a tight spiral at the moment it hit the seabed.
The growth of the rusticle reef and the deterioration of the Titanic is seen in the years 1985, 2001, 2040, and 2080.
Rusticle streamers on the port side of the Titanic’s prow reveal an interesting pattern of rooting, expansion, and branching.
Abbott, Eugene
Abbott, Rosa
Abbott, Rossmore
Abernathy, “Big” Lew
Titanic XIII expedition
X-Treme Life expedition
Adriatic
Alvin
American inquiry. See investigations
American Museum of Natural History
American Semi-Monthly magazine
Anderson, J. J.
Anderson family
Andrews, Thomas
design by, and lifeboats
iceberg impact and
lifeboat launching and
anti-Semitism, aboard Titanic
Arabic
Archer, Ernest
Argo-RISE (expedition)
Argo (robot)
artifacts
biological study of
bones
conservation of
“Heart of the Ocean”/“Love of the Sea” necklace
keys taken by Joughin
letters
Lightoller’s whistle
natural preservation of
personal effects found
released during ship breakaway
Russell’s toy pig
soup tureen
steel hatch cover
wooden
Astor, John Jacob
Astor, John Jacob, VI
Astor, Madeline
astrobiology. See rusticles; sealife
Atlantis Fracture Zone
Baffin Bay
Ballard, Robert
Argo-RISE expedition of
Bismarck
breakaway of ship confirmed by
Britannic exploration by
early reconnaissance images by
initial Titanic discovery by
open portholes/doors discovered by
submersibles used by
on Titanic artifacts
Baltic
Barker, Reginald
Barrett, Fred
Bartlett, Charles
Beauchamp, George
Beebe, William
Beesley, Lawrence
Behr, Karl
Bell, Joseph
“biolumes”
Bismarck
“black ice”
Blackmar, Frank
boiler rooms
archaeological evidence
breakaway of ship
coal bunker fires
distress messages about
implosion of
listing of Titanic and
steam source of generator engines and
bones, found by Expedition
Bourne, Jonathan
Boxhall, Joseph
Bretange
Bright, Arthur
Britannic
British inquiry. See investigations
British [Titanic] Society
Broadwater, John
Brookhaven National Laboratory
Brown, Molly
archaeological evidence about
escape by
iceberg impact and
Brown, Paddy
encouragement of
legacy of
September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and
Buckley, Daniel
Buley, Edward
bulkhead, bursting of
Burke, William
Buss, Kate
Californian
Cameron, James
boiler rooms viewed by
documentary by
on Mir protocol
1995 expedition
robots used by (See also individual names of robots)
on September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks