Georgia-based company's Titanic expedition yields lost bronze statue, high-res photos and other discoveries

The Dino Chouest, an offshore supply ship, is docked at the Port of Providence, Wednesday, July 10, 2024, in Providence, R.I. The vessel is to be part of an expedition by Georgia-based firm RMS Titanic, Inc., to the wreckage of the RMS Titanic, the British ocean liner that sank in April of 1912. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

A bronze statue from the Titanic — not seen in decades and feared to be lost for good — is among the discoveries made by the company with salvage rights to the wreck site on its first expedition there in many years.

RMS Titanic Inc., a Georgia-based company that holds the legal rights to the 112-year-old wreck, has completed its first trip since 2010 and released images from the expedition on Monday. The pictures show a site that continues to change more than a century later.

The trip to the remote corner of the North Atlantic Ocean where the Titanic sank happened as the U.S. Coast Guard investigates the June 2023 implosion of the Titan, an experimental submersible owned by a different company. The Titan submersible disaster killed all five people on board, including Paul-Henri Nargeolet, who was director of underwater research for RMS Titanic.