For the first time in 20 years, a manned submersible descended 240 feet to explore Andrea Doria, and sonar images suggest the famous wreck has substantially deteriorated.

This past June, the Washington state-based exploration company OceanGate began its survey of the 697-foot former luxury liner aboard the Cyclops 1 submersible. Planned as a weeklong project, the research mission off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, was cut short due to bad weather.

Despite the short-lived bottom time, the OceanGate team captured dozens of sonar images of the ship, some of which were still being processed at press time. A preliminary assessment of the images revealed that Andrea Doria’s bow has nearly broken off.

“It looks so dramatically different,” OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush said during a press conference. “When you look at the shape of the hull, it appears a lot has come off.”

The 1956 collision of Andrea Doria with M/S Stockholm was one of the worst maritime disasters ever, killing 46 of the Doria’s 1,700 passengers and five of Stockholm’s. Since the sinking, Doria has gained even more notoriety among divers. Aptly nicknamed “the Mount Everest of scuba diving,” the ship’s ­treacherous conditions have limited previous exploration. Rush says the team will revisit the wreck in 2017, weather permitting.

“What you can control is your equipment and your people,” says Rush. “Mother Nature can then make up her own mind.”