When most people think of the Titanic, they think of a massive cruise ship.
But, while it was the world’s largest passenger liner at the time in 1912, the famous ship was actually significantly smaller than the cruise ships we know today.
The Titanic was 10 decks high, 269m long and 28m beam, which is the widest part of the vessel.
Meanwhile the current largest cruise liner in the world, Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, which is due to make its maiden voyage in 2024, is 20 decks high, 365m long and 65m beam.
The Titanic was making headlines again this week, 111 years after it sank into the North Atlantic, as the first complete digital scan of the legendary shipwreck was unveiled.
Among the conversation on social media, other facts, graphics and images began to emerge, including size comparisons of the Titanic and modern cruise ships, which came as a shock to many.
One edited image on Twitter which showed the Titanic sailing in front of a huge modern day cruise ship was retweeted almost 25,000 times.
The comparison was described as “wild”, “insane”, “scary” and “amazing”.
One person described the knowledge as somehow “creepy and comforting” at the same time.
“That [modern] cruise ship would have picked up the iceberg for cocktails,” joked one person.
“Between the size and climate change, them icebergs don’t stand a chance now,” wrote another.
Since the discovery of the wreckage in 1985, extensive efforts have been made to investigate the Titanic, yet images have been poor until now.
The newly unveiled digital scan provides an all-encompassing view of the ship, unveiling its complete state.
It is resting at a depth of 3800m in the Atlantic Ocean and broken into two sections, with the bow and stern separated by approximately 800m, enveloped by an extensive debris field.
Parks Stephenson, a prominent Titanic analyst, emphasised that the new digital model represents a crucial step towards evidence-based research, steering the Titanic’s narrative away from speculation and to factual exploration.