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Rare video of 1986 dive in Titanic wreckage to be released

The more than 80 minutes of footage on the WHOI's YouTube channel chronicles some of the remarkable achievements of the dive led by Robert Ballard that marked the first time human eyes had seen the giant ocean liner since it struck an iceberg and sank in the frigid North Atlantic in April 1912. About 1,500 people died during the ship's maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City.

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A team from Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, in partnership with the French oceanographic exploration organization Institut français de recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer, discovered the final resting place of the ship in 12,400 feet (3,780 meters) of water on Sept. 1, 1985 using a towed underwater camera. Nine months later, a WHOI team returned to the site in the famous three-person research submersible Alvin and the remotely-operated underwater exploration vehicle Jason Jr., which took iconic images of the ship's interior.