Ghostly boots of a Titanic victim
LYING two-and-a-half miles down, on the bottom of the North Atlantic, these boots are a haunting reminder of the suffering endured by the victims of the Titanic disaster.
The photograph of the seabed near the shipwreck has been released to mark the 100th anniversary of the sinking.
Experts believe the image shows where one of the dead came to rest, as fragments of a coat were also discovered nearby.
James Delgado, chief scientist on an expedition in 2010 that mapped the entire wreck site, said: ‘I as an archaeologist would say those are human remains.’
The way they are laid out makes a ‘compelling case’ that it is where ‘someone has come to rest’, he said.
The image, along with two others showing pairs of boots resting next to each other, were taken in 2004.
It is the first time the images, held by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, have been released to the public. And on Saturday night, the ship retracing the Titanic’s voyage held a service to mark the 100th anniversary of the sinking.
At 11.40pm – the time the Titanic hit the iceberg in the North Atlantic – passengers gathered on the decks of the MS Balmoral at the site where the ship sank, 400 miles off Newfoundland. After a moment of silence, three wreaths were cast into the sea. The ship’s whistle was then sounded before the names of all 1,514 who died were read out.
About 50 of the 1,309 passengers on board the cruise are direct descendants of passengers and crew on the Titanic.
Jane Allen, from Devon, whose great-uncle Thomas Pears died, said it reminded her of the horror.
She added: ‘You are in the middle of nowhere. And then you look down over the side of the ship and you realise that every man and every woman who didn’t make it into a lifeboat had to make that decision, of when to jump or stay on the ship as the lights went out.
‘And when the lights went out it must have been horrendous.’