Titanic identification took place during the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century spread of methods of forensic identification through such means as passports, mug shots, and fingerprinting.
On board the Mackay-Bennett, all of the recovered bodies were assigned a number, and any objects or currency found on those bodies were put in a bag that had the same number on it (The Washington Times, 1912).
Some 1,160 people went down with the Titanic. but no bodies have ever been found. There are multiple theories as to why, although experts have been unable to completely solve the mystery once and for all.
Over a century has passed since the ship sank in 1912, and any bodies that were trapped within the wreckage will have decomposed and been consumed by sea life. Even the ship itself is slowly being consumed by bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms that are accelerating the degradation of the wreck.
In all, Mackay Bennett recovered 306 bodies, of which 190 were brought into port and transferred to the ice rink of the Mayflower Curling Club in Halifax, many unidentified, while the other 116 were buried at sea.
While we cannot know for sure how he spent his final moments, it is known that Captain Edward Smith perished in the North Atlantic along with 1517 others on April 15, 1912. His body was never recovered.
Some bodies sank with Titanic. Winds and currents quickly scattered the remainder. While Mackay-Bennett, the first Halifax ship to arrive on site, recovered a large number of bodies, the ships that followed found bodies and wreckage thinly scattered over many hundreds of miles.
After several trips back to the drawing board, it turns out that raising the Titanic would be about as futile as rearranging the deck chairs on the doomed vessel. After a century on the ocean floor, the Titanic is apparently in such bad shape that it couldn't withstand such an endeavor for various reasons.
Now it turns out that the Titanic will stay where it is, at least for now, as it is too fragile to be raised from the ocean floor. The acidic salt water, hostile environment and an iron-eating bacterium are consuming the hull of the ship.
There are fears that during retrieval, the Titanic wreck would disintegrate into pieces, making it impossible to have something concrete by the time the remains reach the sea surface. There are documented reports that metal-eating bacteria has already consumed most of Titanic's wreckage.
Yes, there are other examples including the second officer but my favourite example is of this extremely fortunate gentleman. His name was Charles Joughin and he was the Master Baker on board.
Halomonas titanicae
More specifically, this bacterium devours metal structures, adheres to steel surfaces and mixes with other microorganisms to accelerate corrosion and disappearance. In the process, icicle-like structures are formed which are called 'rustciles'.
470 (April 12, 2021). Since 1994, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has exercised admiralty jurisdiction over the salvage action brought by RMS Titanic, Inc., the U.S. company that has salvor-in-possession rights to the Titanic wreck site.
In all, from 44 to 48 were actually saved from the water while about 79 passengers and crew have have been found who said they had been in contact with the water.
Captain Smith having done all man could do for the safety of passengers and crew remained at his post on the sinking ship until the end. His last message to the crew was 'Be British.'"
“Fine weather started to pick up bodies at six a.m. and continued all day till five thirty p.m. Recovered fifty one bodies, forty six men, four women and one baby,” reads the April 21 diary entry of a crew member aboard the Mackay-Bennett, a cable ship that recovered the majority of the more than 300 Titanic victims ...
Efforts to locate and salvage the Titanic began almost immediately after it sank. But technical limitations—as well as the sheer vastness of the North Atlantic search area—made it extremely difficult.
A newly discovered species of rust-eating bacterium found on the ship has been named Halomonas titanicae, which has been found to cause rapid decay of the wreck. Henrietta Mann, who discovered the bacteria, has estimated that the Titanic will completely collapse possibly as soon as 2030.
In September, when OceanGate began to market the trip that was to take place this summer, Market Realist's Amber Garrett reported that the voyage had a price tag of $250,000. You may be interested in: Where does the wreckage of the Titanic lie in the Atlantic Ocean?
The ship wasn't nimble enough to avoid an iceberg that lookouts spotted (the only way to detect icebergs at the time) at the last minute in the darkness.
Its lack of structural integrity is just one of three main reasons why the Titanic is destined to remain sunk forever.
It is unclear how long the Titanic will remain intact at the bottom of the ocean. By one estimate, UNESCO has said it is expected to disappear by 2050. Research expeditions to the site have been ongoing since its discovery, while tourism opportunities are a more fledging -- and luxury -- opportunity.
The water temperature on the night of the disaster was 28°F (-2°C), which is below the freezing point of sea water. Immersion in such cold water can cause several life-threatening conditions. One of the primary risks associated with cold water immersion is hypothermia.
The leather satchel was opened to reveal jewelry, a watch, wads of American currency and an object--possibly a stickpin case--with the initials “R.L.B.” It apparently belonged to Richard L. Beckwith, a first-class passenger who escaped the sinking ship on a lifeboat with his wife.
Compounding the disaster, Titanic's crew was poorly trained on using the davits (lifeboat launching equipment). As a result, lifeboat launches were slow, improperly executed, and poorly supervised. These factors contributed to the lifeboats leaving with only half their capacity.