Chilling reason there are no human remains on Titanic despite hundreds of people dying

As told by James Cameron's 1997 box-office smash, in 1912, the RMS Titanic sank during its maiden voyage, claiming the lives of around 1,500 people.

But no bones or skeletons were ever discovered in the wreck, and the reason for this is rather unsettling.

On 10 April 1912, the RMS Titanic set off from Southampton, UK on its maiden voyage to New York City, carrying an array of passengers from the super wealthy to working-class immigrants heading to the US for a better life.

At the time, it was the largest ocean liner in the world, carrying 2,240 people during its first and only trip. However, it's estimated that it could have carried up to 1,100 more.

Mere days into its journey, in the early hours of 15 April, the Titanic sank due to hitting an iceberg the previous evening.

The US committee investigating the sinking estimated that a staggering 1,517 lives were lost, while its British counterpart determined that 1,503 died.

It was the crew who suffered the most casualties, however, with around 700 deaths. Third class took a massive hit too, with only 174 of its approximately 710 passengers surviving.

However, even with the extremely high death toll, there aren't actually any human remains in the Titanic, and the reason is pretty interesting.

Throughout the years, experts researching the wreckage site - which was first discovered in 1985 by oceanographer Robert Ballard - have found a whole bunch of historical relics, but no skeletons or bones were ever found in the ruins of the 'unsinkable' ship.

Around 1,517 lives were lost in the 1912 sinking of the Titanic (20th Century)

James Cameron, the director of Titanic who has visited and explored the wreck some 33 times, told the New York Times back in 2012: "I’ve seen zero human remains.

"We’ve seen clothing. We’ve seen pairs of shoes, which would strongly suggest there was a body there at one point. But we’ve never seen any human remains."

This is pretty bizarre, considering human remains have been discovered in shipwrecks far older than the Titanic.

So, what's the reason?

Well, according to IFL Science, there's a pretty scientific explanation and it's apparently all to do with how deep the ship is.

Pairs of shoes are all that's left of the deceased passengers (CNN)

"The issue you have to deal with is, at depths below about 3,000 feet (around 914 metres), you pass below what's called the calcium carbonate compensation depth," founder of the wreckage Ballard explained to NPR back in 2009.

The former Naval Reserve commanding officer continued: "And the water in the deep sea is under saturated in calcium carbonate, which is mostly, you know, what bones are made of.

"For example, on the Titanic and on the Bismarck, those ships are below the calcium carbonate compensation depth, so once the critters eat their flesh and expose the bones, the bones dissolve."

We almost wish we hadn't asked.

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