The тιтanic is perhaps the most famous shipwreck in history. The ocean liner sank in the early hours of April 15, 1912, striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City. The shipwreck’s exact location remained elusive until U.S. Navy officer Robert Ballard and a team of France’s national oceanographic agency, IFREMER (Insтιтut Francais de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer) found the тιтanic wreckage in 1985.

Ballard and his team initially used sonar to try and find the ship. However, Ballard knew sonar was unlikely to find the wreck and opted to use a submersible (The Argo) outfitted with cameras to locate debris, rather than an entire ship. The team was successful after a week’s fruitless searching. At 12:48 am on Sunday, September 1, 1985, pieces of debris began to appear on the search vessel’s screens. One was identified as a boiler identical to those shown in pictures of the тιтanic from 1911.

The following day, the main part of the wreck was found, and Argo sent back the first pictures of the тιтanic from her sinking 73 years before. The news made headlines all over the globe, and since that time, research vessels from numerous nations have mapped the wreck using the latest technology available at the time.

Now, 111 years after its sinking, filmmaker Anthony Geffen and his team followed deep-sea mapping company Magellan as they undertook the largest underwater 3D scanning project of its kind. They mapped the wreck of the тιтanic 12,500 feet below the North Atlantic.

The results of that scanning expedition are now set to be displayed in all of its HD glory with National Geographic’s new documentary, “тιтanic: The Digital Resurrection.” It’s set to air on Friday, April 11, at 9/8c on the National Geographic channel, and streaming the next day on Disney+ and Hulu.

The Technology Behind the Digital Resurrection

“тιтanic: The Digital Resurrection” was a two-year project that started in 2022 and was carried out by VFX artist and technical director Will McMaster and a team of oceanographic surveyors from Magellan. The company specializes in deep and ultra-deepwater site investigation, subsea intervention and seabed mapping.

Magellan operates Argus Worker Electric Work-Class ROV (remotely operated vehicle) systems, which can be outfitted with dredging equipment and the latest in subsea surveying, positioning, and mapping sensors for a wide range of requirements.

For this project, Magellan used specialized ROVs, named Romeo and Juliet, to garner detailed data points, LiDAR scans, and pH๏τogrammetry that were transformed into stunning, detailed 3D models of the тιтanic created by McMaster and his exceptional imaging team. The ROVs traveled down 12,500 feet to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, where they snapped over 700,000 images of the тιтanic, partially inside but mostly on the ship’s surface. All of those images were then sтιтched together using pH๏τogrammetry to create the model.

The digital-twin model (Fig. 1) is so incredibly detailed that a rendering of it can be projected to a life-size scale (1:1) in a warehouse. This would allow researchers to walk around it and zoom in on individual features, including a steam valve from the тιтanic’s boiler room. The scan revealed the valve was left open as the ship sank to the ocean floor. According to National Geographic, the model is the largest underwater 3D scan ever created, packing 16 TB of data.

The detailed scan also found some other notable insights, including hull fragments that indicate the ship didn’t just split in two—it was torn apart, ripping through the first-class cabins. It also exonerates First Officer Murdoch, who was accused of abandoning his post. The position of a lifeboat davit, now in high-resolution detail, suggests his crew was preparing a launch just moments before the starboard side was underwater, corroborating Second Officer Charles Lightoller’s testimony that Murdoch was swept away by the sea.

A Mᴀssive Debris Field

The 90-minute documentary doesn’t just focus on the тιтanic;. It also looks at the 15-square-mile debris field, littered with hundreds of personal artifacts, including pocket watches, purses, gold coins, hair combs, shoes, and a shark’s tooth charm, providing a glimpse into the lives that were lost. The scans also reveal the state of the decaying wreck, with iconic areas collapsing due to the rust the ship has endured over the last century.

According to McMaster, there’s enough data to create models that could potentially be viewed using virtual-reality (VR) headsets, allowing users to see and explore the тιтanic wreck as it appeared in 2022 (Fig. 2).

“The model, as it is, is a fully 3D model, so you could create a VR experience,” said McMaster. “Because it’s 3D data, you could render it out in 360-degree video. You could put on a VR headset and explore the wreck with real-time 3D graphics.” He went on to explain that because of how the model was captured, you could fully relight it as well, meaning you could see darkened areas in detail or the entire ship using virtual lights.

It took months for McMaster to create the detailed models of the wreck, and because the ROVs worked 24/7 to collect that data, he had to be on-hand to make sure data wasn’t lost as it was arriving in real-time. McMaster spent four weeks capturing the data, making sure it was complete and backed up during his time in the Atlantic, resulting in one of the most stunning models ever created for National Geographic.

Check out the trailer for “тιтanic: The Digital Resurrection”: