Never-before-seen footage of Titanic wreck site released to public: Watch live

Wyatte Grantham-Philips, USA TODAY
·2 min read
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Rare video capturing the 1986 dive through the wreckage of the Titanic at the bottom of the North Atlantic is scheduled to be released Wednesday evening, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution announced.

Most of the footage – which was captured by cameras on the human-occupied submersible Alvin and the remotely-operated "Jason Junior" in July 1986 – "has never been released to the public," the institution writes.

The 1986 dive led by famed oceanographer Robert Ballard marked "the first time humans had set eyes on the ill-fated ship since 1912," the institution says.

On the ship's maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank in April 1912. More than 1,500 people died, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica.

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This image provided by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution shows the bow of the Titanic 12,500 feet below the North Atlantic, 400 miles off Newfoundland, Canada, in 1986.
This image provided by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution shows the bow of the Titanic 12,500 feet below the North Atlantic, 400 miles off Newfoundland, Canada, in 1986.

The ship's final resting placewas discovered on Sept. 1, 1985, when a team from Massachusetts-based Woods Hole and IFREMER, a French oceanographic research organization, found the wreck using a towed underwater camera 12,400 feet beneath the surface.

In July 1986, a Woods Hole team returned to the site with the human-operated Alvin and the remotely operated Jason Junior, which captured famous images of the Titanic's interior – as well as the new footage.

Preview of Titanic wreck footage

The full footage of the Titanic wreckage site measures more than an hour in length, but USA TODAY obtained a preview video showing some of the newly released scenes. Watch here:

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Full-length Titanic wreck footage

The more than 80 minutes of footage will premiere at 7:30 p.m. EST on the Woods Hole YouTube channel.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Titanic wreck video: Watch rare footage of 1986 dive live