First photos from the discovery of the Titanic

The first evidence that researchers aboard the R/V Knorr had found the RMS Titanic came on September 1, 1985, from this mundane-looking photo of what turned out to be one of the ship's boilers. Excitement over the discovery among the crew and scientists was tempered by the knowledge that they floated above the final resting place of more than 1,500 people who were lost at sea 73 years earlier. (©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

A Titanic boiler in the debris field. (©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Port side of the Titanic bow, the two capstans and the port and starboard anchor chains are visible. (©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

The crow's nest appears on the right, where the iceberg that sank the ship was first spotted. (©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Port and starboard cargo cranes lie across the ship's bow just forward of the bridge. A luggage hold is visible below the cranes. (©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Conditions in the deep sea have preserved Titanic fairly well. Little sedimentation or marine growth covers the ship, exposing the deck planking. A rattail fish, about three feet long, swims over the bow. A twisted piece of the railing and two bollards, to which mooring lines were secured, are visible. (©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Entrance to the forecastle, used to house stores or machinery for crew quarters. The mast with crow's nest, where the iceberg was first spotted, once stood just off the photograph at lower right. (©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

A section of collapsed bulkhead from the captain's quarters lies near a steel lifeboat davit (upper left). (©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Part of the starboard quarter of the ship's stern, which separated from the rest of the ship. (©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Wine bottles litter the ocean floor near Titanic, more than 12,000 feet below the surface of the ocean. Other unidentified debris from the ship is also visible. (©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Lumps of coal, which fueled the ship's boilers, surround a serving tray at top center. (©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)