'Very exciting' to see new footage of Titanic wreck, says relative of ship's designer

The great great nephew of the Titanic designer, Thomas Andrews has described how exciting it is to see the new footage of the ship's wreckage.

Until now, we had only seen snippets from when the wreck was discovered in 1986 - however, now, over 80 minutes of footage have been released.

"It's incredible that it's been so well preserved. It's very exciting to see some of the detail," said Johnny Andrews whose great great uncle designed the ship.

"It's extremely interesting to see all the footage and all the detail and to imagine that it was designed by some of my ancestors."

The latest footage was filmed in a landmark expedition in the 1980s led by Dr Robert Ballard.

Johnny told UTV about how he met Dr Ballard in 2005 and discussed with him the need for the wreck to be left to rest in peace.

"We should pay tribute to those who perished on the ship because this is obviously a grave," Johnny said.

"It's very exciting for Belfast and hopefully for tourism as well that this can be shown to the world at large and a lot more detail has gone into this footage than what we have seen before.

"Let's hope that this footage creates some more tourism for Belfast and puts us back on the map like we were a hundred years ago as the centre of entrepreneurial flair and industrial excellence," Johnny added.

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