The 46 carat Hope Diamond on which the fictional Heart of the Ocean is based, is estimated at $200 - $300 million today.
The white gold and zirconia prop used in the movie cost around $8,000 but if it were real at 56 carats, it would be valued at more than twice what the Hope Diamond is. Leave it up to Hollywood to invent fictional jewelry and then assign a value it.
Although, since the diving vessel is directly on top of where the heavy metal necklace would conceivably fall, it might not take too long to locate it on the sea floor:
The original search area for the Titanic was about 150 square miles, and the Titanic is only about 90 feet wide. So, for every Titanic width-sized object, you would need to search about 1.32 million positions.
If the search area for the necklace were 1/4 square mile to allow for drift, and the necklace is effectively 4 inches wide, you would only need to search about 435,000 necklace-width positions. Although, being directly over the Titanic wreck could hamper metal detecting. It would be pretty ironic if the necklace fell back on to the deck of the wreck.
If the search area for the necklace were 1/4 square mile to allow for drift
Your search area is perhaps a bit small.
Where, exactly, was the ship she dropped it from at the exact moment she dropped it? Ships move around quite a bit, even when trying to maintain position over a wreck. And how precisely do you know when she dropped it?
you would only need to search about 435,000 necklace-width positions.
Only, huh? That’s still quite a lot when you’re talking about one of the most difficult places on the planet to get to. And because the necklace would likely sink straight into the soft ocean floor mud immediately upon impact, it’s likely not going to be just sitting there, easily found with a visual search. You will indeed need to use metal detecting.
One issue with metal detecting: the main body of the ship only broke into two large parts, sure, but the entire area is going to be scattered with a debris field of small parts and junk. Pieces that broke off as the ship was breaking up, pieces that drifted away as the ship sank, pieces that broke off when it hit the bottom, pieces that were buoyant enough or interesting enough to sea creatures to drift away over the years of sitting at the bottom… You’re going to be getting a ton of false positives all over the place. A door hinge, a passenger’s pocketwatch, little scraps of broken-off plumbing pipe, a fork, hundreds of little scraps of hull plating…
Searching through all of that will be extremely tedious (and expensive!), with no guarantee of eventual success. For all you know, a fish spotted the shiny, glinting thing as it sank and instinctively swallowed it, and now your multi-million dollar necklace is 50 miles away, giving some fish a stomachache.
All great points. Maybe there’s a metal detecting technology that can sniff specific types of metal? Or, some kind of density scan that could be tuned to the materials in the necklace?
Ostensibly, they would be directly over the Titanic wreck because they were currently diving it, and the time the necklace was dropped as they were standing there when that old crone dropped it in front her middle-class daughter and the crew dedicating their professional lives to finding it. Estimations of the ocean currents and mockups of a necklace falling in seawater might tighten the search area.
The real question is, how long could you comb a sea floor littered with Titanic debris before costs rose to more than the value of the necklace?
By the way: RIP to Bill Paxton: Space Marine, Tornado Chaser, and Shipwreck Archeologist. May you find the Heart of the Ocean in your heavenly dreams. You are missed 😢
When the lady you invited on your ship to find a necklace chucks it overboard:
The white gold and zirconia prop used in the movie cost around $8,000 but if it were real at 56 carats, it would be valued at more than twice what the Hope Diamond is. Leave it up to Hollywood to invent fictional jewelry and then assign a value it.
What does this mean? They had jewelers create a bespoke (non-diamond) necklace, but it had to be good quality because of the close-ups they wanted to do with it. As for “assigning it a value”, isn’t that just what people are willing to pay? $8,000 for a one-of-a-kind piece of jewelry and cinema history doesn’t seem too crazy to me…
The value of the prop used in the movie notwithstanding, a quick search suggested that a real 56 carat diamond with qualities and rarity similar to the Hope Diamond would be worth close to $600 million, but no such thing actually exists.
So what I meant was: of course Hollywood has to come up with the ultimate jewel “worth more than the Hope Diamond”, to quote the movie.
The 46 carat Hope Diamond on which the fictional Heart of the Ocean is based, is estimated at $200 - $300 million today.
The white gold and zirconia prop used in the movie cost around $8,000 but if it were real at 56 carats, it would be valued at more than twice what the Hope Diamond is. Leave it up to Hollywood to invent fictional jewelry and then assign a value it.
Although, since the diving vessel is directly on top of where the heavy metal necklace would conceivably fall, it might not take too long to locate it on the sea floor:
The original search area for the Titanic was about 150 square miles, and the Titanic is only about 90 feet wide. So, for every Titanic width-sized object, you would need to search about 1.32 million positions.
If the search area for the necklace were 1/4 square mile to allow for drift, and the necklace is effectively 4 inches wide, you would only need to search about 435,000 necklace-width positions. Although, being directly over the Titanic wreck could hamper metal detecting. It would be pretty ironic if the necklace fell back on to the deck of the wreck.
So, suck on that ya old entitled bitch!
Your search area is perhaps a bit small.
Where, exactly, was the ship she dropped it from at the exact moment she dropped it? Ships move around quite a bit, even when trying to maintain position over a wreck. And how precisely do you know when she dropped it?
Only, huh? That’s still quite a lot when you’re talking about one of the most difficult places on the planet to get to. And because the necklace would likely sink straight into the soft ocean floor mud immediately upon impact, it’s likely not going to be just sitting there, easily found with a visual search. You will indeed need to use metal detecting.
One issue with metal detecting: the main body of the ship only broke into two large parts, sure, but the entire area is going to be scattered with a debris field of small parts and junk. Pieces that broke off as the ship was breaking up, pieces that drifted away as the ship sank, pieces that broke off when it hit the bottom, pieces that were buoyant enough or interesting enough to sea creatures to drift away over the years of sitting at the bottom… You’re going to be getting a ton of false positives all over the place. A door hinge, a passenger’s pocketwatch, little scraps of broken-off plumbing pipe, a fork, hundreds of little scraps of hull plating…
Searching through all of that will be extremely tedious (and expensive!), with no guarantee of eventual success. For all you know, a fish spotted the shiny, glinting thing as it sank and instinctively swallowed it, and now your multi-million dollar necklace is 50 miles away, giving some fish a stomachache.
All the forks have been reclaimed by the sea.
She probably grabbed the necklace, too, so you’re shit out of luck.
All great points. Maybe there’s a metal detecting technology that can sniff specific types of metal? Or, some kind of density scan that could be tuned to the materials in the necklace?
Ostensibly, they would be directly over the Titanic wreck because they were currently diving it, and the time the necklace was dropped as they were standing there when that old crone dropped it in front her middle-class daughter and the crew dedicating their professional lives to finding it. Estimations of the ocean currents and mockups of a necklace falling in seawater might tighten the search area.
The real question is, how long could you comb a sea floor littered with Titanic debris before costs rose to more than the value of the necklace?
By the way: RIP to Bill Paxton: Space Marine, Tornado Chaser, and Shipwreck Archeologist. May you find the Heart of the Ocean in your heavenly dreams. You are missed 😢
When the lady you invited on your ship to find a necklace chucks it overboard:
What does this mean? They had jewelers create a bespoke (non-diamond) necklace, but it had to be good quality because of the close-ups they wanted to do with it. As for “assigning it a value”, isn’t that just what people are willing to pay? $8,000 for a one-of-a-kind piece of jewelry and cinema history doesn’t seem too crazy to me…
The value of the prop used in the movie notwithstanding, a quick search suggested that a real 56 carat diamond with qualities and rarity similar to the Hope Diamond would be worth close to $600 million, but no such thing actually exists.
So what I meant was: of course Hollywood has to come up with the ultimate jewel “worth more than the Hope Diamond”, to quote the movie.
Could they make a big diamond in a lab?