The Titanic's iconic bow was forever immortalized when Leonardo DiCaprio held Kate Winslet's waist in front of it in the 1997 Hollywood movie about its sinking.
But new pictures show the iconic structure has now crumbled due to decay , with a large section of it now on the seafloor. The loss of the railing was discovered during a series of dives by underwater robots earlier this summer - 112 years after it hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic.
Tomasina Ray, director of collections at RMS Titanic Inc, the company that carried out the expedition, said: “The bow of Titanic is just iconic - you have all these moments in pop culture - and that's what you think of when you think of the shipwreck. And it doesn't look like that anymore.
“It's just another reminder of the deterioration that's happening every day. People ask all the time: ‘How long is Titanic going to be there?’ We just don't know, but we're watching it in real time.”
The vast liner slipped beneath the waves in the early hours of April 15, 1912, leading to the deaths of 1,500 passengers and crew, before sinking more than 12,500ft onto a section of the sea floor off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada .
Searchers believe the section of railing, which is almost 15ft long, fell off at some point in the last two years. Images and a digital scan from a 2022 expedition, carried out by deep-sea mapping company Magellan and documentary makers Atlantic Productions, had shown the railing still attached - though it was starting to buckle.
Tomasina said: "At some point the metal gave way and it fell away."
It is not the only part of the ship, which lies 3,800m below sea level, that is being lost. The metal structure is also being eaten away by microbes, creating stalactites of rust called rusticles.
Dives led by explorer Victor Vescovo in 2019 showed that the starboard side of the officer’s quarters were collapsing, destroying state rooms and obliterating features like the captain’s bath from view.
In an Instagram post, RMS Titanic Inc. wrote: "From films to literature, TITANIC's looming hull has become a staple in the story and imagery of the great liner. For decades, the bow was a testament to the resilience of her strength and pride.
"The drastic change in the celebrated image is a reminder that TITANIC is deteriorating, advancing our resolve to preserve her legacy."
This summer’s RMS Titanic Inc. expedition took place over July and August. Two remotely operated vehicles captured more than two million images and 24 hours of high-definition footage of both the wreck, which split apart as it sank with the bow and stern lying about 800m apart, and the debris field surrounding it.
The company is now carefully reviewing the footage to catalog the finds and will eventually create a highly detailed digital 3D scan of the entire wreck site. More images from the dives will be revealed over the coming months.
The team has also announced another discovery of an artifact they were hoping to find against all the odds. In 1986, a bronze statue called the Diana of Versailles was spotted and photographed by Robert Ballard, who had found the wreck of the Titanic a year earlier.
Its location was not known and the 60cm-tall figure, which was once on display to the Titanic’s first-class passengers, was not documented again. However, it has now been rediscovered lying face up in sediment.
James Penca, a Titanic researcher and presenter of the Witness Titanic podcast, said: "It was like finding a needle in a haystack, and to rediscover this year was momentous. The first-class lounge was the most beautiful, and unbelievably detailed, room on the ship. And the centerpiece of that room was the Diana of Versailles.
"But unfortunately, when Titanic split in two during the sinking, the lounge got ripped open. And in the chaos and the destruction, Diana got ripped off her mantle and she landed in the darkness of the debris field."
Searchers plan to return next year to recover more artefacts and hope to bring the Diana statue back to the surface, despite criticism from some, who say the shipwreck is a grave site that should be left untouched.
Addressing concerns, Mr Penca said: "This rediscovery of the Diana statue is the perfect argument against leaving Titanic alone. This was a piece of art that was meant to be viewed and appreciated. And now that beautiful piece of art is on the ocean floor... in pitch black darkness where she has been for 112 years.
"To bring Diana back so people can see her with their own eyes - the value in that, to spark a love of history, of diving, of conservation, of shipwrecks, of sculpture, I could never leave that on the ocean floor."
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