Why are we still fascinated by the Titanic ... 100 years later?

Over 100 years ago, the RMS Titanic was deemed the largest ship in the world, destined to travel across the Atlantic. Its demise on its first and final voyage has captured the cultural imagination ever since.

Meghan Rathbun, executive director of Battleship Cove, America’s Fleet Museum and home of the Maritime Museum in Fall River, said she knows why.

It was “one of the first shipwrecks that we knew about before the survivors had even come back,” she said. “The wireless signals were able to transmit to New York that this shipwreck had happened before the Carpathia even brought the survivors back.”

The exhibit “The Birth and Death of a Titan: The Story of the Titanic,” on display at Battleship Cove explores the Titanic tragedy with one of the world's largest collections devoted to Titanic and nautical history. Rathbun said the museum also sheds light on why so many people are interested in seeing and learning about the Titanic disaster.

Last month, five passengers who had paid $250,000 each to ride a submersible called the OceanGate Titan to visit the Titanic wreckage died when the submarine suffered a catastrophic implosion.

Rathbun said people remain fascinated by the sheer luxury of the vessel and other opulent ships built by the White Star Line. And she said locals often visit the museum because many guests aboard the Titanic were from the greater New England area, including many families with Massachusetts connections.

The sinking of the Titanic was also one of the first times in history a large maritime disaster was photographed.

"We have so much detail about everyone who was on the ship that you could pick any of the 2,000 passengers and find rich details about their life," she said.

Rathbun said the urge to visit the Titanic's wreckage is also likely driven by people's desire for a direct connection to history, however tragic.

"If you really go and see something first hand, you have that connection to whatever historic event occurred,” she said.

At Battleship Cove, she said, visitors can experience that connection without having to travel to the bottom of the ocean.