Titanic Historical Society, Inc. - Titanic Revealed Exclusive

TITANIC REVEALED
EXCLUSIVE

Unpublished Titanic Photos
Only in The Titanic Commutator
Issue 163

Part 3 of Ken Marschall’s comprehensive presentation concludes with more previously unpublished photos of Titanic's exterior and interior, including inside her A-deck promenades, D-deck entrance vestibules, new close-ups of the china in the fallen sideboard, elevator grills, third-class Open Space and stairwells, crew hospital, the engines, behind-the-scenes "ghosts" shooting at Fox Studios Baja, and more. The cover photo is Mir-2 creeping along at the foot of Titanic’s towering starboard high-pressure reciprocating engine, still standing tall in the stern section.

People interested in Titanic crave details, the obscure, and want to see pictures, pictures, pictures. With rare exceptions, all images taken during James Cameron's 2001 expedition are published here for the first time. Above is an evocative photograph of the forward davit that launched lifeboat No. 1 and collapsible C. A literal time capsule of the early hours of April 15, 1912 showing the mechanism cranked back in to receive collapsible A but was abandoned when the crew were stopped in their tracks by the rising water that overcame them. The davit stands as a poignant monument to the valiant efforts to save lives that night.

Left: Contrast between Titanic's bow and forecastle deck and similar views of Olympic. Unlike other areas of the wreck, the bow remains timeless and haunting, seemingly unchanged since first glimpsed up close by Robert Ballard from the submersible Alvin in 1986. Mir-2 moves aft over anchor chains and capstans. These visually unsurpassed "Then-and-Now" comparisons will appear throughout each superb issue.

Right: The Gymnasium. No part of Titanic shows more change over recent years than her gymnasium. Deck and steel structures are much thinner on the Boat Deck than elsewhere and time is taking its toll. When first photographed in 1986, the gym was level and its walls and roof were intact. Peering through the windows, the ROV Jason Junior in 1986 revealed tantalizing glimpses inside including what looked like a bicycle pedal. Now all is buried under a collapsed roof and the crumbling remains of the walls are barely standing.

When James Cameron began filming Titanic for his epic motion picture, he wanted to go back. He had obtained some dramatic footage and was excited by glimpses inside the ship. Cameron turned that desire into reality in August 2001 when he and a team of ROV (remotely operated vehicle) technicians, cameramen, scientists, and historians left for an expedition of several weeks to explore where no one had gone before. Nearly 900 hours of video were edited to one hour for his large-format 3-D documentary film "Ghosts of the Abyss" released on April 11, 2003.

Ken Marschall worked nearly a year enhancing photographs from the video for the film's companion books "Ghosts of the Abyss: A Journey Into the Heart of the Titanic" and the children's "Titanic: Ghosts of the Abyss." Both books were geared toward a universal audience which often meant eliminating historically important images because they might seem too technical or obscure for the general public. For Marschall, editing of "must-have" pictures was a battle fought with each book project and a source of personal frustration. Despite many wonderful and important photographs not making the cut for the two books, he was pleased with the result. The publishers packed a lot more between the covers than many others would have.

Left: Cameron's brief peeks hinted at some good preservation, but nothing could have prepared us for the surprises that awaited when we saw her interior. In Titanic's Reception Room, the mahogany woodwork and columns survive in astonishing condition, their original white paint is still visible in recesses. Even the wooden ceiling pattern is evident, and although most light fixtures dangle by their wires, several are still set in place. But most thrilling of all was the discovery of the room's beautiful leaded-glass windows, almost every one unbroken. As the sub and ROV lights shone, they reflected off these beautiful, intricate patterns of glass, and called to mind some dark, haunted cathedral. Such detailed, man-made handicraft and delicate beauty in this dark abyss, one of the most inaccessible places on earth, was an utterly eerie sight, perhaps the most evocative of the entire expedition.

Right: Wireless enthusiasts around the world will be thrilled to see the Marconi and Silent Room (one of six pages of unparalleled images devoted to the subject in Part 1). Unlike the devastation of the Marconi Room, the thick, insulated walls of the Silent Room survived. All of the then, cutting-edge transmitting equipment was found still in place or directly below their original wall mountings, the walls having since dissolved away. The only known surviving 5 kW Marconi transmitting set in the world -- and such a famous one, at that -- has thrilled wireless devotees. After conducting a thorough forensic analysis of the footage, Parks Stephenson painstakingly created a computer generated image (CGI) model from which matching views were taken for this article.

The images not in the "Ghosts" books were every bit as interesting and significant, and after his clean-up and enhancement work, it was liberating for Marschall to present for the Titanic Historical Society, through the kind permission of Walden Media, LLC, these historic outtakes. There were so many he soon realized there was no way justice could be done with the hundreds of magnificent photos in a single article. Instead, they will be presented in three parts over the next three issues of THS's quarterly journal, The Titanic Commutator, beginning with No. 163 (THS members will receive them and non-members are welcome to purchase them in the Museum Shop as they are published.).

These forthcoming special issues will be new and original, they are not retelling the story that THS historian Don Lynch did so well in the "Ghosts" book. Instead Ken's personally selected photographs with enhanced captions will reveal the true condition of the ship like never before. Choosing hundreds of exceptional, unpublished images concentrating on her once-magnificent interiors, exclusively for The Titanic Commutator of never-seen-before pictures will be the last word as a resource and reference for everyone who is interested in Titanic.

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