Hi Ken!
Welcome back to ET!
Thanks for sharing your recollections of your dives to Titanic.
How very frustrating that the paint of that lifeboat davit bitt was washed off. And it still bore the impression or chafing of a davit fall/rope!
I wonder if the future, some adhesive could be sprayed to such artifacts to retain the paint...
One area of intact paint inside Titanic that amazed me was that small area of intact white painted paneling behind Edith Rosenbalm's mirror...
One thing I mentioned this to you Ken, which others may not be aware of, is that the the Big Piece still had traces of black paint when it arrived in Boston in 1998, but sadly nearlly all that paint washed away after a few weeks of being sprayed.
It stands to reason if the Big Piece had paint, much of the intact area of the hull must retain paint as well..
When one touched the outer hull, ones hand would be covered in black paint flecks, but all of that vanished by the time the exhibit was over.
So i share your frustration Ken, in bearing witness to Titanic paint going down the drain.....
The inboard D deck partition had perfectly intact edge of white paint, but since conservation, the Piece has beeen coated with a dark coat, which has obscured that paint from view...
thanks Ken
regards
Tarn Stephanos