For 100 years, historians both amateur and professional have pondered the mighty RMS Titanic and her unfortunate demise at the hands of an iceberg in the North Atlantic.
Perhaps no one has been more fascinated than “Titanic” film director James Cameron, who worked with National Geographic on the documentary “Titanic: The Final Word,” which aired Sunday on The National Geographic Channel.
As part of the program, Cameron led the re-creation of the sinking in computer-generated imagery, which brings to light many details about how the ship and its passengers quickly were doomed.
Click play to watch Cameron’s CGI re-creation of the sinking.
The most famous wreck in maritime history rests in the Atlantic 12,415 feet down. She struck the iceberg at 11:40 p.m. April 14, 1912, and sank at 2:20 a.m. April 15, with the loss of 1,496 passengers and crew.
The slowly disintegrating wreck was discovered in 1985 by a French and American team and has been kept on the minds of many through images and recovered artifacts.
Click play for a NOAA report on the resting place and the wreck’s current state.
It took only two hours and 40 minutes for Titanic to sink. As the bow sank, her stern rose out of the water, exposing the propellers, and the ship broke in two because of the immense strain.
Almost all of the passengers and crew who plunged into the icy water drowned or died of hypothermia or cardiac arrest within minutes. Reports of the water temperature vary, but all have it right around the freezing point.
A mere 13 survivors in the water made it into lifeboats.
