The world’s most famous shipwreck has been saved, at least in digital form.

The wreck of the Titanic, which lies almost 4km below the north Atlantic, has been preserved using cutting edge marine mapping. Deep-sea missions have conducted the first ever high definition 3D scan, allowing people to see the shipwreck in crystal clear detail.

It’s by far the cleanest picture of the wreck of the Titanic, which has been submerged in murky Atlantic gloom for over 100 years.

Atlantic Productions, the media partner for the deepsea conservation mission, said they were delighted by the results.

The filmmakers say the mission was to create a “digital twin” in high fidelity of the ship to learn more before the 1912 wreck is lost to rust and wear.

On Wednesday they revealed the results of a six-week expedition that was undertaken by Magellan subsea engineering, over summer 2022. Using two submarines - named Romeo and Juliet - the lidar scanners spent hundreds of hours building up a picture of the 5km wide debris field.

“Through the largest underwater 3D capture project ever undertaken, research scientists have mapped the Titanic in its entirety,” said Atlantic

From almost three quarters of a million images, the detail is astounding.

Astounding detail: The Titanic's digital twin made by holds many details and objects never seen before, down to the serial numbers and passengers' personal items. Photo / Atlantic Productions, Magellan

The 3D model allows viewers to look into the collapsed grand staircase and pick out details such as unopened bottles of champagne and even the serial numbers on one of the propellers.

In the huge search area there are personal items revealed for the first time in the silt. They include dozens of discarded shoes from passengers.

“You have to map every square centimetre,” Magellan’s data manager Gerhard Seiffert told the BBC. “Even uninteresting parts, like on the debris field you have to map mud, but you need this to fill in between all these interesting objects.”

The Titanic has been preserved as a digital, 3D scan after 200 hours of deep-sea work. Photo / Atlantic Productions, Magellan

The novel solution was devised for the Titanic as a designated shipwreck that is protected under US and UK maritime law.

“In accordance with tight regulations in place the wreck was not touched or disturbed, and the entire site treated with the utmost of respect, which included a flower laying ceremony in memory of those who lost their lives,” said Atlantic Productions.

Unable to raise or move the remains, the digital double allows the ship to be preserved indefinitely, long after the original is reduced to rust.

The cost of a visit to the wreck of the Titanic

The RMS Titanic sailed from the port of Southampton in the UK for America in 1912. She is remembered as one of the worst maritime disasters, when she struck an iceberg on April 15and sank. Of the 2224 passengers and crew aboard, more than 1500 are throught to have died.

Despite the dark story it continues to attract a deep interest from the public. James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster movie named for the ship earned 11 Academy awards and renewed attention for the wreck.

Last year adventure tourism company OceanGate began taking paying tourists to the wreck on deep-sea submersibles, charging US$250,000 for the privilege.