Rare video of 1986 dive through Titanic wreckage being released

The giant ocean liner struck an iceberg and sank in the frigid North Atlantic in April 1912.

Rare and in some cases never before publicly seen video of the 1986 dive through the wreckage of the Titanic is being released.

The more than 80 minutes of footage on the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s (WHOI) 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.

The bow of the Titanic 12,500ft below the surface of the ocean, 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, in 1986 (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution via AP)

A team from the Massachusetts-based WHOI, in partnership with the French oceanographic exploration organisation Institut francais de recherche pour l’exploitation de la mer, discovered the final resting place of the ship in 12,400 feet (3,780 metres) of water on September 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 images of the ship’s interior.

The release of the footage is in conjunction with the 25th anniversary release on February 10 of the remastered version of the Academy Award-winning film Titanic.

The deck of Titanic 12,500 feet below the surface of the ocean, 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, in 1986 — The deck of the Titanic 12,500ft below the surface of the ocean (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution via AP)

“Like many, I was transfixed when Alvin and Jason Jr ventured down to and inside the wreck. By releasing this footage, WHOI is helping tell an important part of a story that spans generations and circles the globe.”