Mark,
I did analysis work on the NOAA images from 2004 and I can assure you that the R&WR alcove is relatively intact (as of last September, anyway). As I mentioned above, the entire frame for the forward window can be seen from above, which would give you an indication of the height of the remaining walls. The Boat Deck sags along the outboard edge in the vicinity of the davit as you described, but the sag is localised and doesn't appear to extend as far inboard as the R&WR.
Since you mentioned it, I can also tell you that the 2nd-class library and entrance are absolutely flattened, as though a big foot stepped on the entire area. The walls have collapsed inward on themselves and lay facing up...a distinct change of the wreck since the original ANGUS imagery. That area of the stern used to have some interesting landmarks, but now a lot of it has settled in on itself. Even the fragment of A Deck that surrounds the base of the mainmast has developed a large sink hole that will, in time, fracture that deck into pieces.
The 2nd-class entrance on Boat deck has also fallen in on itself. It's barely recognisable now. The elevator machinery room is titled alarmingly to port...I expect that its weight will cause it to collapse completely to the deck, fracturing the machinery inside (which can now be viewed because the overhead -- which was planked with cheap pine -- is completely gone). When it goes, it will take the remnants of the entrance housing with it. As it is, it has already pulled the entrance house out of shape, causing one entire wall (with two window openings) to collapse. As far as accessing either the stairwell or the elevator shaft...there's no way.
To what "wagon wheel" chandelier are you referring? The NOAA imagery shows a distorted Smoking Room chandelier in the vicinity of the mainmast, lying entangled around an Elkington silver-plated coffee pot of a style that has never before been imaged. Is that the one you're talking about?
Parks
I did analysis work on the NOAA images from 2004 and I can assure you that the R&WR alcove is relatively intact (as of last September, anyway). As I mentioned above, the entire frame for the forward window can be seen from above, which would give you an indication of the height of the remaining walls. The Boat Deck sags along the outboard edge in the vicinity of the davit as you described, but the sag is localised and doesn't appear to extend as far inboard as the R&WR.
Since you mentioned it, I can also tell you that the 2nd-class library and entrance are absolutely flattened, as though a big foot stepped on the entire area. The walls have collapsed inward on themselves and lay facing up...a distinct change of the wreck since the original ANGUS imagery. That area of the stern used to have some interesting landmarks, but now a lot of it has settled in on itself. Even the fragment of A Deck that surrounds the base of the mainmast has developed a large sink hole that will, in time, fracture that deck into pieces.
The 2nd-class entrance on Boat deck has also fallen in on itself. It's barely recognisable now. The elevator machinery room is titled alarmingly to port...I expect that its weight will cause it to collapse completely to the deck, fracturing the machinery inside (which can now be viewed because the overhead -- which was planked with cheap pine -- is completely gone). When it goes, it will take the remnants of the entrance housing with it. As it is, it has already pulled the entrance house out of shape, causing one entire wall (with two window openings) to collapse. As far as accessing either the stairwell or the elevator shaft...there's no way.
To what "wagon wheel" chandelier are you referring? The NOAA imagery shows a distorted Smoking Room chandelier in the vicinity of the mainmast, lying entangled around an Elkington silver-plated coffee pot of a style that has never before been imaged. Is that the one you're talking about?
Parks