Just before midnight on 14 April 1912, the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean. Just a few hours later, the 882-foot (269 m) ocean liner was sinking rapidly towards the ocean floor. More than 1,500 passengers -- including some of the world's wealthiest people -- were lost at sea. In May 2018, the first group of nine modern-day explorers will each pay a whopping $105,129 USD for a voyage to the bottom of the sea, organized by the London-based travel company Blue Marble Private. The eight-day adventure will include several descents in a state-of the-art submersible that will explore what remains of the Titanic.
A memory slowly dissolving:
- The Titanic only carried enough lifeboats for 1,178 people -- slightly more than half of the number of people on board, which included hundreds of Europeans seeking a new life in North America.
- The wreck was discovered in 1985, found in two main pieces on the ocean floor at a depth of 12,415 feet (3,784 m). Since then, thousands of artifacts have been recovered and put on display in museums around the world.
- A recently-discovered “extremophile bacteria” at the site could eat away at what's left of the famous shipwreck in 15 to 20 years, according to a 2016 study.