Incredible new colourised images have offered an insight into what life on the Titanic was really like.
This week sees the airing of Channel 4’s new documentary Titanic In Colour, which brings to life the stories of the passengers aboard the famous doomed ship.
The RMS Titanic famously sank on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York on April 15, 1912, with approximately 2,224 people on board.
The “unsinkable” ship hit an iceberg shortly before midnight and as there were only 20 lifeboats on board, 1,500 people lost their lives.
In the programme, relatives of those on board tell their untold stories, while colour photographs and film footage offer a unique insight into daily life aboard the super cruise ship.
New colour images show what life was really like on board the RMS Titanic, as revealed in a new Channel 4 documentary
The documentary includes photographs taken by Francis Browne, the best record of what life on board would have been like. Pictured: A first class boy plays with a spinning top
The documentary features the only known existing film footage of the Titanic, dated February 3, 1912, before the finishing touches were added.
Before setting sail, the Titanic was actually in the shadow of its sister ship, the Olympic, of which historians have a much more complete photographic and film record.
In the images, the Titanic is not fully painted, looking dirty and unfinished, in a very different condition from the famous images the public is used to seeing.
Historian Dr Lesley-Anne Beadles comments on the programme: ‘It feels very unofficial, very behind the scenes, like something is being done.’
‘The White Star line was completely focused on looks, so it has that feeling of being something we maybe weren’t supposed to see.’
After nearly a century in the archives, the minute-long clip is damaged, including scratches, and looks grainy.
Experts have now restored the images, repairing damage and adding colour, bringing the Titanic to life in motion for the first time.
The amazing clip shows the ship sailing in action, while tiny men can be seen on board the deck, showing off their impressive size.
Browne also took photographs of the ship’s gym, which was even open to children on some afternoons.
He also showed his first-class cabin, but disembarked in Ireland, before the Titanic resumed its journey to New York.
The colour images also reveal that, unlike the rest of the ship, the wheelhouse has been painted white.
The best-known account of the Titanic comes from Jesuit theology student Francis Browne, who was one of seven passengers who disembarked from the ship at Cobh, Ireland, known at the time as Queenstown.
Francis carried a camera with him and in just a couple of days he managed to capture a vivid sense of what life on board was like.
His photographs included the ship’s gym and wooden chairs on the deck, which passengers could rent for the trip.
He captured six-year-old New Yorker Douglas playing with a spinning top in first class, and showed off his own extravagant first-class cabin.
Browne himself was lucky to escape the Titanic tragedy: an American couple offered to pay for him to continue on the ship to New York, but his boss at work ordered him to get off the ship in Queenstown as planned.
Over the years, the RMS Titanic became the focus of countless films, documentaries and newspaper reports.
Despite this, 112 years have passed and there are still many unanswered questions about how the tragedy unfolded.
The bodies of around 1,160 passengers were never found and their whereabouts remain a mystery to this day.
Another question that many people have tried to find an answer to is whether the ship really sank because of an iceberg and why the crew did not see it.
Experts have restored images of the Titanic, repairing damage and adding colour, bringing a moving Titanic to life for the first time.
Images of a man standing next to the Titanic reveal the ship’s enormous scale
As is well known, the Titanic did not have enough lifeboats to accommodate the 2,224 people on board. If it had, many hundreds more lives (if not all) of those lost that night could have been saved.
The Titanic had a total of 20 lifeboats, which together could accommodate 1,178 people, just over half the total (although two of these boats were not launched when the ship sank).
Captain Edward Smith died on the night the Titanic sank, but what exactly happened to him remains a mystery as there are several different accounts of his final moments.
The first episode of Titanic In Colour airs at 8pm on Channel 4 this Sunday.
