Back to Titanic: Footage of first images from first dive in 1986 released

It was the first time in 74 years that someone had laid eyes on the Titanic since it sunk in April 1912, and footage from the first manned dive to the massive ship in 1986 is giving a glimpse of the amazing sight.

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The rare video will be released Wednesday evening by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, USA Today reported.

The video was captured by submersibles Alvin, which was occupied by a diver, and “Jason Junior,” which was remotely controlled, during an expedition in July 1986 helmed by oceanographer Robert Ballard.

The organization said most of the footage was never released to the public until now.

The ship was discovered on Sept. 1, 1985, when Ballard was part of the crew from Woods Hole and IFREMER, a French oceanographic research organization. At the time, they were towing an underwater camera more than 12,000 feet below the ocean’s surface, USA Today reported.

Ballard had asked the U.S. Navy to fund an underwater camera that could go as deep as 20,000 feet to help find the Titanic. But the military had other uses for the camera rig, known as the Argo. They wanted to use it to look at the wrecks of two nuclear subs — the U.S.S. Thresher and U.S.S. Scorpion — which had been lost in the Atlantic in the 1960s, History.com reported.

Ballard and the Navy came to a deal: If Ballard would find the subs, then with whatever time he had left, he could look for the Titanic. The mission was under a veil of secrecy during the height of the Cold War, History.com said. While Ballard was technically on active duty as a Navy officer, only the military and those who were part of the search for the subs knew the official mission. Others were told that Ballard was only an oceanographer looking for the doomed liner. That was until the mission’s military side was declassified in the 2000s.

After finding both the Thresher and the Scorpion, and with the deadline to complete the job only 12 days away, the crew started looking for the Titanic. After several days of around-the-clock monitoring a live feed from the Argo, they saw hull plates and the Titanic’s boiler, showing they were close. The next morning, they came across the Titanic’s bow surrounded by the inky darkness of the deep water.

“It was one thing to have won—to have found the ship,” Ballard later wrote about the moment, according to History.com. “It was another thing to be there. That was the spooky part. I could see the Titanic as she slipped nose first into the glassy water. Around me were the ghostly shapes of the lifeboats and the piercing shouts and screams of people freezing to death in the water.”

Less than a year after the discovery, Woods Hole returned to the site with Alvin and Jason Junior to capture video of the ship’s interiors. The Sept. 1, 1985, dive was the first time a person had come face-to-face with the fabled ship since it slid under the ocean’s surface after hitting an iceberg in the North Atlantic, The Associated Press reported.

Fifteen hundred people were killed in the sinking.

Woods Hole will unveil 80 minutes of the Titanic footage at 7:30 p.m. EST on the organization’s YouTube channel.

Earlier this month, the motion picture “Titanic” was remastered and rereleased to celebrate the film’s 25th anniversary.

“More than a century after the loss of Titanic, the human stories embodied in the great ship continue to resonate,” ocean explorer and filmmaker James Cameron said in a statement, according to the 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.”

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Titanic FILE PHOTO: On September 1, 1985, underwater explorer Robert Ballard located the world's most famous shipwreck. The Titanic lay largely intact at a depth of 12,000 feet off the coast of St. John's, Newfoundland. Using a small submersible craft, Ballard explored the wreck in 1986, taking a series of spectacular and haunting pictures and giving the world its first glimpse of the legendary ship in 73 years. (Ralph White/Getty Images)