Wyoming photographer recalls 'otherworldly' visit to Titanic

“It was a complete surprise when (renowned cinematographer) Ralph White said ‘You’ve got 20 minutes to get ready for your dive,’ ” Jahiel recalled.

And there he was, breathless with excitement, encased in a 6-foot titanium shell with the Nautile’s pilot and co-pilot, suspended in the inky dark of the deep sea. Each voyage to the seabed took two hours, as did each ascent, leaving six hours of bottom time, he said.

The only illumination in the craft was a small cabin light so the crew members could see their equipment and each other.

“The lights were kept off as much as possible to conserve as much electricity as you can,” Jahiel said. “Electricity is bottom time.”

With the deepening gloom, the temperature inside the submersible plummeted.

At bottom, the submersible’s outside lights were turned on, piercing the black landscape.

“The bow of the ship kind of appeared out of nowhere,” he said. “I was kind of speechless. My jaw just dropped for 10 minutes.”

Nautile hovered around the wreck — it had been 75 years under the sea at that time — while Jahiel marveled at the hulk of the doomed luxury liner.

“You just look and shoot,” he said. “You could pretty much see everything you want to see. It’s kind of like driving around with your headlights on.”

The submersible crept along the ghost of a ship.

“It was very otherworldly,” Jahiel said. “It’s nothing you could relate to in normal life. It was quiet and peaceful. I had a feeling of being amazed that (the) Titanic and I were an arm’s length apart.”

Titanic’s bow and stern went to the bottom separately. Between the two pieces on the sea floor stretched a debris field, cluttered with artifacts large and small that tumbled out of the severed pieces of the ship.

“The debris field was pretty fascinating,” Jahiel said. “There is no current down there so the artifacts stayed where they fell and they didn’t get covered up by shifting sands.”

Clearly visible were bottles, cups, shoes, hats, a suitcase, perfume bottles, as well as larger pieces of the ship he could not identify.

“There was a bowler hat sitting on the bottom,” Jahiel recalled. “It was perfectly intact, so I said let’s pick up the hat. But the minute the arm touched it, it disintegrated into a pile of dust. That kind of represented the fragility of the whole Titanic saga.”

This was the first expedition that brought items up from the Titanic and the decision was not without controversy. There are many who say the wreck is a grave site and should remain undisturbed.

Jahiel said the Titanic and its sinking have a story to tell and lessons to teach about overconfidence in the powers of technology. Bringing artifacts to the surface has allowed millions of people to know and better understand the scope of the disaster, he said.

Artifacts retrieved from the deep in the 1987 expedition included the ship’s bell, dishes, glass decanters, silverware, a small purser’s safe, a nearly complete stained-glass window, ship telegraphs, a jar of cold cream, a cherub that had been at the base of Titanic’s famed grand staircase.

“For me, I thought the cherub was a really beautiful object to bring up,” he said.

The most poignant object he photographed was a hair brush and mirror. The hairbrush had lost its bristles and the glass in the mirror was gone.

“You realize someone was holding the brush with one hand and the mirror in the other and looking at her hair,” he said. “It just kind of adds to the humanity.”