Lost necklace from wreckage of RMS Titanic discovered by Guernsey-based firm after 111 years

• ITV Channel's Alex Spiceley reports on the discovery...

A necklace that has not been worn or seen since the sinking of the RMS Titanic has been discovered in the ship's wreckage.

Guernsey-based firm Magellan has produced the first full-sized digital scan of the luxury passenger liner which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg.

In the largest underwater scanning project in history, the deep-water investigation specialist used two submarines to produce 700,000 images of the wreck, which were then made into a moving scan.

The images picked up a necklace made from the tooth of a Megalodon, a pre-historic shark, with gold jewellery built into it.

An agreement between the UK and the US prevents members of the public from removing artefacts from the wreck and surrounding bed.

The team from Magellan were therefore not allowed to touch the wreckage on the seabed and had to leave the necklace at the site.

In a bid to seek out the jewellery's owner, Magellan is using artificial intelligence to contact the family members of the 2,200 passengers onboard the Titanic when it sank.

Footage of passengers boarding the ship will be analysed with the technology, including facial recognition and the clothes that they were wearing.

• Magellan produced the following digital scan of the RMS Titanic which sank in 1912 after striking an iceberg

Source: Magellan

A necklace plays a key part in the 1997 film, Titanic, starring Leonardo di Caprio and Kate Winslet.

Whilst the artefact found is not the same famous necklace - which was created for the film - the discovery of the Megalodon tooth necklace is poignant.

Richard Parkinson, CEO of Magellan, describes the find as "astonishing, beautiful and breathtaking."

• The first full-sized digital scan of the luxury passenger liner by Magellan

Source: Magellan

Mr Parkinson said: "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."

Jan Eliassen captained the MV Freja, on which the scans were taken. He says it was emotional to play a part in the project.

"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," he said.

There were 29 Channel Islanders on board the Titanic when it sank, 19 from Guernsey and 10 from Jersey.

Local Titanic researcher, Mandy Le Boutillier, says the quality of the images created has never been seen before.

She said: "It is chilling when you see objects like a pair of shoes because there was once a body there.

"It makes you think, everybody talks about how the Titanic was a wonderful ship of dreams, but ultimately it's a grave."

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