Imagine the iconic scene from Titanic where Rose throws the stunning, sparkling, and immensely valuable necklace into the ocean. Well, hold on to your seat because that necklace is not just a movie prop—it’s real! Sort of. And guess what? It has been discovered.
Now, this real-life necklace may not boast an enormous blue diamond, but it is undeniably sizable and worth a fortune. Constructed from the tooth of a Megalodon shark and embellished with gold jewelry, this accessory shares a remarkable resemblance to the one depicted in the film. Interestingly, it once belonged to a passenger aboard the ill-fated Titanic, which tragically sank to the depths of the Atlantic in 1912.
For an astounding 111 years, this necklace remained lost amidst the wreckage, concealed from both wearers and onlookers. But thanks to advancements in technology and the largest underwater scanning project ever undertaken, it has finally been unearthed.
Guernsey-based company Magellan has shared captivating images of the necklace, acquired through the utilization of two submarines that captured a staggering 700,000 images of the shipwreck. These images were then transformed into a dynamic scan.
Within the captured images, amidst the remnants of the ship’s structure, furnishings, and other debris resting on the ocean floor, the sharp tip of the tooth that forms the necklace’s centerpiece was revealed.
Richard Parkinson, the CEO of Magellan, expressed his astonishment, describing the find as “astonishing, beautiful, and breathtaking,” according to ITV reports. He further explained, “What is not widely understood is that the Titanic is in two parts, and there’s a three-square-mile debris field between the bow and the stern. The team mapped the field in such detail that we could pick out those details.”
Regrettably, due to an agreement between the United Kingdom and the United States, which prohibits the public from removing artifacts from the site, the necklace could not be retrieved from the wreck for a closer examination.
Nevertheless, Magellan is now embarking on a quest to locate the rightful owners of the jewelry, with the aid of artificial intelligence. They plan to analyze footage of the 2,200 passengers who boarded the Titanic, utilizing facial recognition and focusing on their clothing in hopes of identifying the necklace’s owner.
Jan Eliassen, the captain of the MV Freja ship from which the scans were captured, had an enlightening experience upon observing the area where the Titanic met its watery grave. Reflecting on the encounter, he expressed, “I don’t think that one can really understand how that would have felt in the darkness of night when the ship you were on is sinking underneath you and entering the water.”
