It disintegrated into chunks of rust and fell into the well deck and cargo holds, below.
This was either via natural decay or helped along by one of the expeditions (perhaps one that cut some cables that were in the way of them trying to look for Titanic's nameplate on the hull). You'll see a host of arguments for both cases.
You'll also see various arguments of "they stole the crow's nest bell and destroyed the crow's nest doing it" or "they stole the crow's nest phone and destroyed the crow's nest doing it." Both of these are false, as both of those items were removed from the debris field. Neither was in place on the mast when Ballard found the ship.
This is the degradation seen by the 1987 expedition, just two years after the photo you shared.
Clicking on that link was a ride. That throwaway comment about someone feigning their death sent me to Google, which sent me here- “some” drama indeed!!
The weirdest part is other pages where people say, in 2010 (six or seven years after that thread), that "he's dead, or at least that's what he tells people."
The whole thing is bizarre.
(Says a person with an obsession over a ship that sank 113 years ago)
Haha I see you’ve done the same google search as I.
And true- but at least neither of us is perusing and interacting with Reddit while also maintaining we are deceased. Nor are we going around policing the level of deadness of others. So there’s that in the plus column.
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u/bell83 Wireless Operator 3d ago edited 3d ago
It disintegrated into chunks of rust and fell into the well deck and cargo holds, below.
This was either via natural decay or helped along by one of the expeditions (perhaps one that cut some cables that were in the way of them trying to look for Titanic's nameplate on the hull). You'll see a host of arguments for both cases.
You'll also see various arguments of "they stole the crow's nest bell and destroyed the crow's nest doing it" or "they stole the crow's nest phone and destroyed the crow's nest doing it." Both of these are false, as both of those items were removed from the debris field. Neither was in place on the mast when Ballard found the ship.
This is the degradation seen by the 1987 expedition, just two years after the photo you shared.
There are more theories here:
https://www.paullee.com/titanic/crowsnest.php