On the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking, its wreckage will become underwater cultural heritage protected by UNESCO, the organization's Paris headquarters said in an announcement on Thursday.
This year will mark 100 years since the tragedy, meaning that the hull will from now on be protected by the 2011
The Convention, ratified by 41 states, can only be applied to objects that sank over 100 years ago.
The Titanic, the largest and most luxurious ocean liner of its time, sank in international waters and no state has exceptional jurisdiction over the wreckage.
From now on states parties to the convention are entitled to prevent destruction, looting, sales and unsanctioned distribution of objects found at the shipwreck site. They are also entitled to take all measures they think about necessary to protect the sunken ship or be definite that the remains of the victims are treated with dignity.
The Titanic, with two, 200 people on board, departed from the British port of Southampton on April ten, 1912, for its first and last voyage from Europe to the U.S. On April 14, it struck an iceberg in the Atlantic and sank in the early hours of April 15. At least one, 496 people were killed in the world's greatest maritime tragedy, and some 306 bodies were recovered. Only 706 people were rescued.
A century has passed since the largest and the most luxurious passenger liner, the RMS Titanic, sank on its maiden voyage after crashing with a giant iceberg mid-Atlantic in 1912.
Over the years, scores of scientists and explorers worldwide have intensely studied the causes of disaster; umpteen numbers of new theories have been put forward. However, none claims to be concrete and unanimous so far.
The 46,000-ton ocean liner was thought about unsinkable but turned out to be the worst maritime catastrophe of all time. Before the midnight of April 14, 1912, it collided with an iceberg southeast of Cape Race, of its major compartments ruptured and the ship sank within a few hours.
It was carrying a total of two, 200 passengers, out of which only 700 (mostly first-class passengers) were saved and over one, 500 lost their lives.
The Titanic was still a mystery for common people till American filmmaker James Cameron came up with a fictional film on the real-time catastrophe in 1997. The film received worldwide acclaim, and that is when it caught the attention of increasingly researchers, as well as the common people.
Today it rests 12,500 deep down the sea water, around 370 miles south-southeast of the Newfoundland coast
Here are some unseen underwater expedition images released on the occasion of the disaster's 100th anniversary.
Recently, on its 100th anniversary, several artifacts of the RMS Titanic present in underwater expeditions were exhibited and auctioned. Also, a Titanic memorial cruise, made by the same company, retraced the same route in remembrance of the ill-fated ship.
