<P> Only 333 bodies of Titanic victims were recovered, one in five of the over 1500 victims . Some bodies sank with the ship while currents quickly dispersed bodies and wreckage across hundreds of miles making them difficult to recover . By June one of the last search ships reported that life jackets supporting bodies were coming apart and releasing bodies to sink . </P> <P> Titanic was long thought to have sunk in one piece and, over the years, many schemes were put forward for raising the wreck . None came to fruition . The fundamental problem was the sheer difficulty of finding and reaching a wreck that lies over 12,000 feet (3,700 m) below the surface, in a location where the water pressure is over 6,500 pounds per square inch (450 bar). A number of expeditions were mounted to find Titanic but it was not until 1 September 1985 that a Franco - American expedition led by Robert Ballard succeeded . </P> <P> The team discovered that Titanic had in fact split apart, probably near or at the surface, before sinking to the seabed . The separated bow and stern sections lie about a third of a mile (0.6 km) apart in Titanic Canyon off the coast of Newfoundland . They are located 13.2 miles (21.2 km) from the inaccurate coordinates given by Titanic's radio operators on the night of her sinking, and approximately 715 miles (1,151 km) from Halifax and 1,250 miles (2,012 km) from New York . </P> <P> Both sections struck the sea bed at considerable speed, causing the bow to crumple and the stern to collapse entirely . The bow is by far the more intact section and still contains some surprisingly intact interiors . In contrast, the stern is completely wrecked; its decks have pancaked down on top of each other and much of the hull plating was torn off and lies scattered across the sea floor . The much greater level of damage to the stern is probably due to structural damage incurred during the sinking . Thus weakened, the remainder of the stern was flattened by the impact with the sea bed . </P>

How many miles away was the titanic from new york when it sank