The wreck of the RMS Titanic is falling apart due to the lack of regular maintenance to prevent corrosion from being immersed in seawater, as a team of researchers in operating a properly constructed underwater probe announced they’ve found that a large section of the railing on the ship’s bow having fallen off in recent years during a recent inspection, the BBC reports.
“The bow of Titanic is just iconic – you have all these moments in pop culture – and that’s what you think of when you think of the shipwreck. And it doesn’t look like that any more,” said Tomasina Ray, director of collections at RMS Titanic Inc, the company that carried out the expedition. “It’s just another reminder of the deterioration that’s happening every day. People ask all the time: ‘How long is Titanic going to be there?’ We just don’t know but we’re watching it in real time.”
It’s not clear what if anything can be done to prevent the further deterioration of the wreck. Even if applying a fresh coat of paint would be the least impractical option it would still be pretty goddamned impractical given the extreme hostility of the environment where the ship lies.