The BBC is reporting that the first full-sized digital scan of the Titanic, 3,800m (12,500ft) down in the Atlantic, has been completed using deep-sea mapping, providing a unique 3D view of the entire ship.

“There are still questions, basic questions, that need to be answered about the ship,” Parks Stephenson, a Titanic analyst, told BBC News.
 
He said the model was “one of the first major steps to driving the Titanic story towards evidence-based research – and not speculation.”

They note that while the Titanic has been extensively explored since the wreck was discovered in 1985, it is so huge that in the gloom of the deep, cameras can only ever show us tantalizing snapshots of the decaying ship – never the whole thing.

The new scan captures the wreck in its entirety, revealing a complete view of the Titanic. It lies in two parts, with the bow and the stern separated by about 800m (2,600ft). A huge debris field surrounds the broken vessel.

The scan was carried out in summer 2022 by Magellan Ltd, a deep-sea mapping company, and Atlantic Productions, who are making a documentary about the project.
Submersibles, remotely controlled by a team on board a specialist ship, spent more than 200 hours surveying the length and breadth of the wreck. They took more than 700,000 images from every angle, creating an exact 3D reconstruction. 

Thanks to Alaric Bond and Dick Kooyman for contributing to this post.