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Titanic Expedition Yields Lost Bronze Statue, High-Resolution Photos and Other Discoveries

This image released on Monday, Sept. 2, 2024, shows the bow of the Titanic with a large section of the deck railing now missing photographed this summer by a company with salvage rights to the wreck site on its first expedition there in many years. (RMS Titanic Inc. via AP)
This image released on Monday, Sept. 2, 2024, shows the bow of the Titanic with a large section of the deck railing now missing photographed this summer by a company with salvage rights to the wreck site on its first expedition there in many years. (RMS Titanic Inc. via AP)
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Titanic Expedition Yields Lost Bronze Statue, High-Resolution Photos and Other Discoveries

This image released on Monday, Sept. 2, 2024, shows the bow of the Titanic with a large section of the deck railing now missing photographed this summer by a company with salvage rights to the wreck site on its first expedition there in many years. (RMS Titanic Inc. via AP)
This image released on Monday, Sept. 2, 2024, shows the bow of the Titanic with a large section of the deck railing now missing photographed this summer by a company with salvage rights to the wreck site on its first expedition there in many years. (RMS Titanic Inc. via AP)

A bronze statue from the Titanic — not seen in decades and feared to be lost for good — is among the discoveries made by the company with salvage rights to the wreck site on its first expedition there in many years.

RMS Titanic Inc., a Georgia-based company that holds the legal rights to the 112-year-old wreck, has completed its first trip since 2010 and released images from the expedition on Monday. The pictures show a site that continues to change more than a century later.

The trip to the remote corner of the North Atlantic Ocean where the Titanic sank happened as the US Coast Guard investigates the June 2023 implosion of the Titan, an experimental submersible owned by a different company. The Titan submersible disaster killed all five people on board, including Paul-Henri Nargeolet, who was director of underwater research for RMS Titanic.

The findings from this summer's trip “showcase a bittersweet mix of preservation and loss,” RMS Titanic said in a statement. A highlight was the rediscovery of the statue “Diana of Versaille,” last seen in 1986, and the statue now has a clear and updated image, the company said.

On a sadder note, a significant section of the railing that surrounds the ship bow's forecastle deck has fallen, RMS Titanic said. The railing still stood as recently as 2022, the company said.

“The discovery of the statue of Diana was an exciting moment. But we are saddened by the loss of the iconic Bow railing and other evidence of decay which has only strengthened our commitment to preserving Titanic’s legacy," said Tomasina Ray, director of collections for RMS Titanic.

The crew spent 20 days at the site and returned to Providence, Rhode Island, on Aug. 9. They captured more than 2 million of the highest resolution pictures of the site ever to exist, the company said.

The team also fully mapped the wreck and its debris field with equipment that should improve understanding of the site, RMS Titanic said. The next step is to process the data so it can be shared with the scientific community, and so “historically significant and at-risk artifacts can be identified for safe recovery in future expeditions,” the company said in a statement.

The company said prior to the expedition that it had an especially important mission in the wake of Nargeolet's death.

The Coast Guard's investigation will be the subject of a public hearing later in September.

Nargeolet's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Titan sub's operator OceanGate, which suspended operations after the implosion. OceanGate has not commented publicly on the lawsuit, which was filed in a Washington state court.

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Culture

Trinidad and Tobago Reckons with Colonialism in a Debate on Statues, Signs and Monuments of Its Past 

A vandalized statue of Christopher Columbus towers over Columbus Square in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. Officials in the Caribbean island nation are reviewing on whether to remove statues, signs and monuments that reference European colonization. (AP)
A vandalized statue of Christopher Columbus towers over Columbus Square in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. Officials in the Caribbean island nation are reviewing on whether to remove statues, signs and monuments that reference European colonization. (AP)
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Trinidad and Tobago Reckons with Colonialism in a Debate on Statues, Signs and Monuments of Its Past 

A vandalized statue of Christopher Columbus towers over Columbus Square in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. Officials in the Caribbean island nation are reviewing on whether to remove statues, signs and monuments that reference European colonization. (AP)
A vandalized statue of Christopher Columbus towers over Columbus Square in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. Officials in the Caribbean island nation are reviewing on whether to remove statues, signs and monuments that reference European colonization. (AP)

In a small auditorium in the seaside capital of Trinidad and Tobago, Christopher Columbus and other colonial-era figures came under scrutiny late Wednesday in a lengthy debate punctuated by snickers, applause and outbursts.

The government had asked residents of the diverse, twin-island nation in the eastern Caribbean if they supported the removal of statues, signs and monuments with colonial ties and how those spaces should be used instead. One by one, people of African, European and Indigenous descent stepped up to the microphone and responded.

Some suggested a prominent Columbus statue be placed in a museum. Others requested it be destroyed and that people be allowed to stomp on the dusty remains. One man encouraged officials to round up statues of colonial figures and create a “square of the infamous.”

The majority of the more than two dozen people who spoke, and dozens of others commenting online, supported removal of colonial-era symbols and names.

“It’s an issue about how after 62 years of independence ... we continue to live in a space that reflects the ideals and the vision and the views of those who were our colonial masters,” said Zakiya Uzoma-Wadada, executive chair of the islands’ Emancipation Support Committee.

Trinidad and Tobago is the latest nation to embrace a global movement that began in recent years to abolish colonial-era symbols as it reckons with its past and questions if and how it should memorialize it as demands for slavery reparations grow across the Caribbean.

The public hearing was held just a week after the government announced it would redraw the nation’s coat of arms to remove Christopher Columbus’ three famous ships — the Pinta, the Niña and the Santa María – and replace it with the steelpan, a popular percussion instrument that originated in the Caribbean nation.

Others pushed for further changes on Wednesday night.

“What the hell is the queen still doing on top of the coat of arms? Please let us put her to rest,” said Eric Lewis, who identifies as a member of the First Peoples, also known as Amerindians.

Trinidad and Tobago was first colonized by the Spanish, who ruled it for nearly 300 years before ceding it to the British, who governed it for more than 160 years until the islands’ independence in 1962. The colonial imprint remains throughout streets and plazas, with a statue of Christopher Columbus dominating a square of the same name in the capital of Port of Spain.

The islands’ National Trust calls it “one of the greatest embellishments of our town,” but many differ.

“It’s disrespectful to those who were the victims of him. The people suffered tremendously,” said Shania James as she called for the statue to be placed in a museum. “His atrocities should not be forgotten.”

But a handful of people dismissed concerns about how their ancestors were treated, including tour guide Teresa Hope, who is Black.

“They survived, and I survived, and we will keep on moving,” she said, adding that if the actions of historical figures were scrutinized, “everything would get knocked down.”

Rubadiri Victor, president of the Artists’ Coalition, said his country should instead erect statues and monuments to honor some of the more than 200 Trinbagonians who represent the best of the islands.

“We are stumbling and tripping over heroes,” he said. “To have produced so much genius, and that lineage is nowhere present in the landscape.”

Among the suggestions of people to honor was Nobel Prize-winning author V.S. Naipaul; Cyril Lionel Robert James, a historian and journalist; and Kwame Ture, who helped spearhead the Black Power movement in the US Others suggested that prominent Amerindians and more local women be honored, including Patricia Bishop, an educator and musician and Beryl McBurnie, a teacher credited with promoting and saving Caribbean dance.

The debate was scheduled to continue soon in the sister island of Tobago, with the government having received nearly 200 submissions overall so far on what it should do.