See the Titanic in Remarkable Detail With a 3D Scan That Reveals New Secrets of the Doomed Ship’s Final Moments A documentary called “Titanic: The Digital Resurrection” will unveil the most detailed digital reconstruction of the shipwreck ever created. Experts are using the model to study the vessel’s demise The bow of the Titanic Atlantic Productions / Magellan A few years ago, researchers sent robots to the wreck of the RMS Titanic, which is located 12,500 feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. Using underwater scanning technology, the deep-sea investigation company Magellan spent three weeks collecting 16 terabytes of data, including 715,000 photos and 4K video footage. The team used these images to assemble the most detailed digital reconstruction of the shipwreck to date. Filmmakers followed the Magellan crew as they surveyed the doomed ship—and now, a documentary by National Geographic and Atlantic Productions is detailing the Titanic’s final moments. The film will unveil the digital model, which captures the ship “down to the rivet,” according to a statement. Using Magellan’s detailed 3D scan, as well as input from historians and maritime experts, Titanic: The Digital Resurrection brings the ship’s final hours to life. It premieres on National Geographic on April 11 and will be available for streaming the following day on Hulu and Disney+. After hitting an iceberg, the ship split violently into two pieces. Atlantic Productions / Magellan The Titanic departed from Southampton, England, on April 10, 1912. But four days later, about 400 miles off the coast of Canada, the ship struck an iceberg, broke in half and sank. More than 1,500 people died, and about 700 were rescued. The reconstruction has helped confirm some key details about the Titanic’s demise. After digitally reassembling pieces of the ship’s hull, researchers determined that the vessel didn’t split cleanly in half. Instead, it was “violently torn” into two pieces, ripping apart first-class cabins, per the statement. “We actually now find out from these simulations that the time it took for the Titanic to collide with the iceberg was 6.3 seconds,” Simon Benson, a naval architect at the University of Newcastle, tells David Muir of ABC’s “World News Tonight.” Titanic: The Digital Resurrection | Official Trailer | National Geographic Watch on They also found that one of the boat’s steam valves was left open, which supports eyewitness accounts that the engineers remained in the boiler room for more than two hours after the ship hit the iceberg—nearly until the end. These 35 men kept the electricity running, allowing the ship to send out distress signals, which may have ultimately saved hundreds of lives. “They kept the lights and the power working to the end, to give the crew time to launch the lifeboats safely with some light instead of in absolute darkness,” Parks Stephenson, a Titanic analyst, tells BBC News’ Rebecca Morelle and Alison Francis. Additionally, the digital scan has complicated a controversial narrative about a first officer on the Titanic: William Murdoch, who has long been accused of abandoning his post. In James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster, Murdoch’s character shoots at passengers before shooting himself. But according to the new documentary, the high-resolution scans corroborate the account of Titanic survivor Charles Lightoller, who said Murdoch was swept out to sea while preparing to launch a lifeboat. The Titanic's stern engines Atlantic Productions / Magellan Researchers also mapped 15 square miles of the ocean floor surrounding the sunken ship, which is scattered with the personal effects of passengers—purses, gold coins, pocket watches, combs and shoes. In the documentary, Yasmin Khan, a historian at the University of Oxford, connects some of these artifacts to their owners. After more than a century at the bottom of the North Atlantic, the Titanic has deteriorated. But even as its condition worsens, the detailed digital reconstruction will allow researchers to continue examining it indefinitely. As experts tell “World News Tonight,” “The level of detail we’ve achieved allows us to examine the wreckage as if we were walking through the ship itself.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.