# Do skeletons still exist in the deep , deep hulls of the Titanic?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-skeletons-still-exist-in-the-deep-deep-hulls-of-the-titanic/699831
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 29, 2014, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-skeletons-still-exist-in-the-deep-deep-hulls-of-the-titanic/699831 "2014-09-29T03:57:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2014, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-skeletons-still-exist-in-the-deep-deep-hulls-of-the-titanic/699831/21 "2014-09-30T00:27:12Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#):
>
> What’s the oldest shipwreck on which human remains have been found? E.g. are there any Ancient Greek or Roman wrecks that were rediscovered in the 1940’s and found to contain bodies?
Dunno about Ancient Greek or Roman (though it wouldn’t surprise me - they sunk an awful lot of triremes back in the day…) but I do know a [16th century English ship was found](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Rose) off the coast of the Isle of Wight, with lots of Tudor skellies still in it. Notably longbowmen, whose skeleton had been all distorted by their job (i.e. bone spurs on the left wrist, right arm noticeably stronger than the left etc…)
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### Author:  [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2014, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-skeletons-still-exist-in-the-deep-deep-hulls-of-the-titanic/699831/22 "2014-09-30T00:43:53Z")
> [@Habeed](#):
>
> Deep sea creatures eat bones? Why would they do that?
[Boneworms](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osedax) secrete acid that dissolves bones to release nutrients enclosed in the bones. Their symbiotic bacteria digest proteins and lipids and release nutrients the worms can absorb. They’re mostly associated with the bones of whales that fall into abyssal zone depths, but experiments have shown that they won’t turn up their tendrils at the bones of terrestrial mammals.
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### Author:  [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2014, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-skeletons-still-exist-in-the-deep-deep-hulls-of-the-titanic/699831/23 "2014-09-30T21:19:33Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#):
>
> Yes, but it is still the same axe.
Someone let us slow kids in on the joke?:o
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### Author:  [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2014, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-skeletons-still-exist-in-the-deep-deep-hulls-of-the-titanic/699831/24 "2014-09-30T21:28:29Z")
> [@Ruken](#):
>
> Someone let us slow kids in on the joke?:o
> **[Ship of Theseus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus)**
>
> The Ship of Theseus, also known as Theseus's Paradox, is a paradox and a common thought experiment about whether an object is the same object after having all of its original components replaced over time, typically one after the other.
> In Greek mythology, Theseus, the mythical king of the city of Athens, rescued the children of Athens from King Minos after slaying the minotaur and then escaped onto a ship going to Delos. Each year, the Athenians would commemorate this by taking the ship on a ...
“The ship of Theseus, also known as Theseus’ paradox, is a thought experiment that raises the question of whether an object which has had all its components replaced remains fundamentally the same object. The paradox is most notably recorded by Plutarch in Life of Theseus from the late 1st century. **Plutarch asked whether a ship which was restored by replacing each and every one of its wooden parts remained the same ship.** ”
Updated to;
“as in the case of the owner of George Washington’s axe which has three times had its handle replaced and twice had its head replaced!”
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### Author:  [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2014, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-skeletons-still-exist-in-the-deep-deep-hulls-of-the-titanic/699831/25 "2014-09-30T23:25:16Z")
> [@Chimera](#):
>
> “as in the case of the owner of George Washington’s axe which has three times had its handle replaced and twice had its head replaced!”
I took it as a Pratchett joke/reference - his dwarves put forward the very same philosophical question in… hmm was in _The Fifth Elephant_ or \*Thud \*? T5E presumably, since it echoes with the whole Scone of Stone issue.
Anyway, their answer was yes, btw. It \*\*is \*\*my granfather’s axe even though both its handle and head have been replaced, as the spirit of the thing transcends the thing itself. On Discworld, to the point that it still is an axe and still can kill, even when it has no handle \*or \*head any more.
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### Author:  [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2014, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-skeletons-still-exist-in-the-deep-deep-hulls-of-the-titanic/699831/26 "2014-10-01T01:00:38Z")
Thanks. I know of a few cars of Theseus driving around with welded on VINs being the only original parts.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2014, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-skeletons-still-exist-in-the-deep-deep-hulls-of-the-titanic/699831/27 "2014-10-01T01:26:48Z")
> [@Chimera](#):
>
> [Ship of Theseus - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus)
>
> “The ship of Theseus, also known as Theseus’ paradox, is a thought experiment that raises the question of whether an object which has had all its components replaced remains fundamentally the same object. The paradox is most notably recorded by Plutarch in Life of Theseus from the late 1st century. **Plutarch asked whether a ship which was restored by replacing each and every one of its wooden parts remained the same ship.** ”
Look at commercial aircraft.
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### Author:  [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2014, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-skeletons-still-exist-in-the-deep-deep-hulls-of-the-titanic/699831/28 "2014-10-01T13:47:44Z")
Ship of Theseus paradox on [Only Fools and Horses](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUl6PooveJE).
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2014, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-skeletons-still-exist-in-the-deep-deep-hulls-of-the-titanic/699831/29 "2014-10-01T21:37:27Z")
> [@user\_hostile](#):
>
> Fuzzy memory tells me that had Robert Ballard declared the wreck as “his” when he rediscovered the Titanic, it would have been off-limits to others w/o Ballard’s permission (re: PBS episode of NOVA).
>
> There’s more to this, right?
IIRC, he’s said that he regrets not doing so, because he’s against people bringing up artifacts from the wreck.
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### Author:  [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2014, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-skeletons-still-exist-in-the-deep-deep-hulls-of-the-titanic/699831/30 "2014-10-02T00:06:46Z")
[I seriously doubt that there’re any sealed compartments left in the stern section of the Titanic’s remains.](http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Titanic+Stern+Wreck&FORM=RESTAB#view=detail&id=B1EFF227D4C0AC2885916BE9696CABC0C64C2480&selectedIndex=3)
[The bow section isn’t looking so hot, either.](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CM-t91E-Hk8/T1XE-k7PR7I/AAAAAAAABfo/wh9UdZA67t4/s640/titanic-mightyships.jpg)
Any structural (read: watertight) integrity left _after_ the break up probably didn’t survive past 300 feet of depth below the surface\* before pressure differential ruptured something, somewhere, and let water in.
Don’t know about bones or microorganisms.
\*Based, roughly, on the L-class submarine’s Test Depth of 200 feet/Design Depth of 300 feet.
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