More than 1,500 people – around 70 per cent of the passengers onboard – tragically perished after the Titanic hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic in April 1912.
But the bodies of around 1,160 passengers were never found.
So, what happened to them?
As new photos of the shipwreck show shoes and champagne bottles belonging to those on board, MailOnline spoke to experts for their take on the missing passengers.
James Delgado, a maritime archaeologist and historian who has dived to the wreck himself, said there could be ‘some semblance of human remains’ still inside what’s left of the luxury liner.
‘Scientists think that could be a possibility, but this is a science we don’t know much about, particularly in the deep ocean,’ Delgado told MailOnline.
Of the 2,224 people on board the Titanic, an estimated 1,517 lost their lives when the ship sank in the early hours of April 15, less than three hours after hitting the iceberg.
Around 340 bodies with lifejackets still on them were recovered from the ocean’s surface, but 1,160 bodies were unaccounted for and never seen again.
Among them were US businessman Benjamin Guggenheim, Liverpool-born ship steward Thomas Peter O’Connor and the ship’s captain, Edward Smith.
Speaking to MailOnline from Washington DC, Delgado said that ‘even teeth dissolve’ after sustained periods on the ocean floor, which is mostly populated by microbial life such as bacteria.
He has made two expeditions down to the Titanic’s remains, in 2000 and in 2010, and called it a ‘very sobering and powerful place’.
‘What you see which is very compelling is pairs of shoes splayed, suggesting this is where they ultimately came to rest,’ said Delgado, who is senior vice president of archaeology firm SEARCH Inc.
‘It’s a tangible reminder of the loss of these lives.’
A haunting photo of a boot lying next to what’s thought to be a coat, surrounded by crockery, was released in 2004, and is just one example of the personal property in the debris that no longer has an owner.
Delgado said such physical items should be treated with respect as if they themselves are the human parts.
In the 111 years that have followed the disaster, expeditions to the Titanic have not found any human remains, according to RMS Titanic Inc, the company that owns rights to the wreckage.
James Cameron, who directed the 1997 blockbuster film, has made more than 30 dives to Titanic, logging more hours at the ship than Captain Smith himself.
He previously told the New York Times: ‘We’ve seen clothing, we’ve seen shoes, we’ve seen pairs of shoes, which would strongly suggest there was a body there at one point, but we’ve never seen any human remains.
The Titanic’s wreck lies around 13,000 feet at the bottom of the Atlantic.
Bodies would have decomposed or been eaten away by the marine life at this depth, including fish and crustaceans such as shrimp, as well as bacteria.
The creatures adapted to this unique underwater ecosystem would have consumed human skin and tissue – but what about bone?
Professor John Cassella, a forensic scientist at Atlantic Technological University Sligo in Ireland, said bone degrades quickly in salty water.
‘Bone is made from a mineral called hydroxyapatite, made up of calcium and phosphate primarily but lots of other smaller molecules,’ he told MailOnline.
‘The water will assist in the dissolution or the dissolving of this bone mineral and of course the fragile organic proteins that help glue the bone together.’
Professor Cassella said there could be human bones that still remain in the ruins even after 100 years, but this depends on salt water levels, the pH of the water and effects of microorganisms.
‘There may well be many bones left but they are so widely dispersed in and around the wreck and covered in silt that it would be very hard to identify them.’
Professor Dame Sue Black, a forensic anthropologist and President of St John’s College at Oxford University, said bones ‘don’t like to be underwater’.
‘In reality it is the damage done by predation that causes the destruction,’ she told MailOnline. ‘Marine life see bones as a calcium reservoir to be tapped.’
The Titanic’s wreck wasn’t found until September 1985, over 73 years after the sinking.
Even in a cold and low oxygen environment such as the bottom of the ocean, the decomposition of the bodies would have been slowed down but not stopped, according to Professor Cassella.
Whether they’re there or not, finding human remnants at the Titanic site will likely require underwater research vessels to disturb parts of the wreck – something they are prohibited from doing.
Titanic is already in a fragile state, as bacteria are eating iron in the ship’s hull and will eventually consume the entire ship.
What’s left of the ship is deteriorating so rapidly underwater that it could disappear completely within the next 40 years.
At this point after the ship itself is gone, some personal possessions may still remain, which Delgado said could potentially be brought to land – but only if they’re put in a museum rather than sold and traded for personal gain.
‘One does not go to a graveyard to put things up for auction,’ Delgado told MailOnline.
Unfortunately, the story of the 340 bodies that were recovered from the water back in 1912 is just as devastating.
In the days following the disaster, a ship called the Mackay Bennett was sent out to the Atlantic to recover the bodies of people wearing life jackets, and so were left bobbing on the ocean’s surface.
In all, Mackay Bennett recovered 306 bodies, of which 190 were brought into port and transferred to the ice rink of the Mayflower Curling Club in Halifax, many unidentified, while the other 116 were buried at sea.
Other boats continued to find corpses; on May 13, almost a month after the disaster, crew on the RMS Oceanic found the Collapsible A lifeboat with three bodies aboard.
Shane Leslie, who was onboard the Oceanic, recalled: ‘The three bodies were stuffed into duffel bags with a steel bar at the bottom each.
‘Then, one after another, they were wrapped in the Union Jack, a sermon was read, and thrown into the sea.’