SILENTLY sinking 12,000 feet through black water, the mini-submarine came to a halt on the seabed.

As the sub travelled just above the silt, its torches picked up the silhouette of the behemoth. The salvage team had found that Holy Grail of wrecks, the Titanic.

Diver Dik Barton recalled the moment: "We were confronted by this great wall of metal, rusting and falling apart.

"We rose up and saw the decking, the equipment, then the mast and the crow's-nest where the lookout spotted the iceberg. It was a hugely emotional and sombre moment."

After that fateful first expedition in 1993, Mr Barton, from Carlisle, Cumbria, revisited the wreck 21 times, and collected more than 6,500 artefacts from the vessel.

Amazingly, he discovered hundreds of delicate items still intact.

He said: "Apart from the obvious decay, many of the cabins look as if they were left only yesterday."

The catastrophe brought tremendous forces to bear, as a 23,000-tonne section of the ship broke off and both pieces careered down to the sea bed, striking at 35mph.

Mr Barton said: "Despite all this, there were cut-glass decanters still sat on cabin cupboards. It was extraordinary."

Mr Barton was in Newcastle yesterday to launch an exhibition devoted to the liner, which sank in April 1912 with the death of 1,523 passengers and crew.

Among the most poignant artefacts recovered is a lifejacket picked up by the quartermaster of the Montmagny, one of the ships that responded to the Titanic's distress calls.

There are also moving letters from passengers, which were posted as the ship docked at Cork, in Ireland.

An entire wall of the exhibition is given over to the region's connections with the Titanic.

Little-known links are celebrated, such as the fact that the rudder, steel castings around the propellers and the stern frame of Titanic were all manufactured by the Darlington Forge Company Limited.

The most famous North-East passenger was a former editor of The Northern Echo, William Thomas Stead.

With spine-chilling foresight, he wrote two fictional stories predicting the catastrophe, more than 20 years before it happened.

As the Titanic sank, he sat quietly reading a book in the First Class smoking room.

His body was never recovered, but a memorial stone was erected in his memory in Central Park, New York.

Four crewmen from Tyneside also died.

Roger Powell, of Titanic Exhibitions, the company behind the event, is hoping its North-East links will uncover more stories and artefacts relating to the disaster.

He said: "Everywhere we have been, people who have seen the exhibition have told stories about relatives who were on board, or even lent us pieces to exhibit.

"We expect that Newcastle will bring even more to light."

* Titanic - The World Class Collection is at Milburn House, Dean Street, Newcastle, from today until May 2, from 10am to 5pm. Call (0870) 707 0109.