It surprised me this Monday morning to see the OceanGate website still up and functional, still advertising an opportunity to “Explore the world’s most famous shipwreck,” listing the 2023 Titanic expedition as “currently underway,” and showing two missions scheduled for departure in June 2024. Surely there will be no future Titanic excursions offered by this company following the events that unfolded last week.
“95% of the Earth’s ocean is unexplored. You can change that,” reads a note on the site’s homepage. No thanks.
The internet was astir as people across the globe followed the Titan submersible news after its communications ceased and location was lost an hour and 45 minutes following its launch on Sunday, June 18th. What was supposed to be a two-hour descent to tour the 111-year-old shipwreck 13,000 feet below the surface of the Atlantic turned into a nightmare-come-true for the sub’s passengers. When it did not return to the surface as scheduled, the U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards, the U.S. Navy, and other international resources embarked on a days-long search and rescue effort. And the world waited anxiously as the clock dwindled on the Titan’s estimated oxygen supply.
Aboard the sub were OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, prominent Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood, French diver and Titanic researcher Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and British aviation tycoon and space tourist Hamish Harding. While the search was underway, thousands of memes mocking the risk-taking billionaires flooded the internet, juxtaposed alongside thoughts and prayers for the missing from those who didn’t find an ounce of humor in the foiled voyage.
As average citizens struggle to afford basic necessities amid inflation, it’s no surprise folks are poking fun at the 1 percent. These wealthy adventurers paid a quarter-million dollars each to take a voluntary ride in an ill-equipped and poorly tested tube — made with parts from Camping World and steered by a game controller — to the bottom of the ocean to sightsee. They signed a waiver agreeing to risk death for a frivolous trip to an old wrecked ship.
On Thursday, June 22nd, debris including the Titan’s tail cone was found 1,600 feet from the Titanic wreckage. The findings were “consistent with a catastrophic implosion,” according to the U.S. Coast Guard. All passengers were presumed dead.
It’s difficult to feel sympathy for Rush, especially, who for years ignored alarm calls about the safety of his watercraft. In a 2018 lawsuit, the company’s former director of marine operations David Lochridge claimed to have been fired from OceanGate for raising concerns. According to the suit, Lochridge objected to “deviation from an original plan to conduct non-destructive testing and unmanned pressure testing” of the Titan.
A 2018 email exchange between Rush and deep-sea exploration specialist Rob McCallum emerged, in which McCallum urged Rush to consider further safety measures: “Until a sub is classed, tested and proven, it should not be used for commercial deep dive operations,” he wrote, in part. Rush responded: “I have grown tired of industry players who try to use a safety argument to stop innovation. … We have heard the baseless cries of ‘you are going to kill someone’ way too often. I take this as a serious personal insult.”
It makes more sense to mourn the loss of the 19-year-old, who, according to reports, was “terrified” to take the voyage but gave in to appease his father. Personally, I find the ocean — the creatures within, the dark depths, the sheer expanse — horrifying. Simply watching footage of prior Titan dives gave me heart palpitations — crew huddled near the tiny porthole, in a claustrophobic cylinder, staring into the abyss until the bow of the Titanic crept into view, dripping in rusticles. Just looking at photos of the wreckage, a graveyard two and a half miles under the sea, gives me the heebie-jeebies. Would you like to tour an eerie endless void from inside a replica of a bullet blender? That’s a no from me.
So, some very rich people went for a joyride. They knew the risks and used poor judgment. They didn’t make it back. This gripped the attention of the entire world. All while at least 79 people died and hundreds more were feared missing after a migrant ship capsized off the coast of Greece. All while 39.7 million people in the U.S. alone live in poverty.
If you believe conspiracy theories, they either never took the trip in the first place or it was all a distraction. But from what exactly?
There are a quarter-million ways in which a quarter-million dollars could be better spent, and as many injustices that better deserve the world’s attention — mass suffering at which no one blinks an eye. No matter what you believe, I bet we can agree on that.
