We’re just coming up on one year since the OceanGate Titan submersible tragedy, which makes the timing of this new announcement a touch callous. Last June, five passengers (including OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush) took a fatal trip to visit the Titanic wreckage site on the Atlantic ocean floor. The submersible, which some experts later likened to a tin can, imploded, and days later the Coast Guard confirmed sighting of debris and that all the men had perished. And this week’s news is… an Ohio billionaire is partnering with Triton Submarines to build a sub that can safely take people 12,500 feet (2,100 fathoms!) below sea level. What could go wrong?
The Titanic wreckage will have visitors once again.
Nearly one year after the OceanGate submersible imploded, billionaire real estate investor Larry Connor and Triton Submarines co-founder Patrick Lahey are developing a new vessel to visit the shipwreck.
“I want to show people worldwide that while the ocean is extremely powerful,” Connor told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published May 26, “it can be wonderful and enjoyable and really kind of life-changing if you go about it the right way.”
After the harrowing search for the Titan submersible last June captivated the world — which faced a tragic ending when the wreckage indicated none of the five passengers aboard had survived the implosion — the personal-sub industry took a major hit.
“This tragedy had a chilling effect on people’s interest in these vehicles,” Lahey explained. “It reignited old myths that only a crazy person would dive in one of these things.”
So, it surprised Lahey when Connor reached out with a business proposition.
“We had a client, a wonderful man,” Lahey recalled of Connor. “He called me up and said, ‘You know, what we need to do is build a sub that can dive to [Titanic-level depths] repeatedly and safely and demonstrate to the world that you guys can do that, and that Titan was a contraption.’”
The pair are planning a journey to the Titanic in a two-person submersible, which they named the Triton 4000/2 Abyssal Explorer. The vessel, which is listed on the company’s website for $20 million, can dive up to 4,000 meters — 200 meters deeper than the Titanic’s site.
“Patrick has been thinking about and designing this for over a decade,” Connor noted. “But we didn’t have the materials and technology. You couldn’t have built this sub five years ago.”
The OceanGate implosion — which took the lives of Hamish Harding, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood, as well as the company’s CEO Stockton Rush — rattled the industry. But experts didn’t see the company’s problems as broader submersible problems.
Instead, Lahey took aim at Rush for his experimental designs and materials, such as carbon fiber, which was used in the Titan.
“He could even convince someone who knew and understood the risks,” he told The Times in June, “it was really quite predatory.”
Am I really out of the loop (don’t answer that), or is there actually a big “personal-sub industry” for $20 million, two-person ships? If so, then yes of course that industry must be saved! Look, I wholeheartedly support scientific research. (Sidenote: did you see the video last week of a giant, deep sea squid going after the camera? I inked myself a little watching it, eeks!) But this venture, as described by the billionaires spearheading it, is for recreation, not study. At the very least, I’m holding out for a comment from filmmaker-cum-deep sea explorer James Cameron. He certainly didn’t mince his words about the quality of OceanGate’s machinery (or lack thereof). I know everyone has to have a hobby, but is this the best way a billionaire like Larry Connor could be spending his wealth? There’s so much work to be done at ground level.
There are vessels that can do this. We have the tech and the know how. There is always a huge risk though so why? This isn’t for the betterment of humanity, it’s for ego. If this happens I want a guarantee that no tax payer funded support will be issued in case of an emergency.
Great point @steph they should have to put up a $ bond for rescue costs and/or have a filed rescue plan with their own resources to be able to dive like this.
🎯
Co-sign @Noo
@Steph, there is always a risk, but Stockton Rush, CEO of Oceangate, took more serious risks, most famously by using material — carbon fiber — that is not approved for deep-sea submersible use. He operated his company in waters that the US doesn’t control to avoid a number of regulations. He ignored the laws of physicals by using carbon fiber. As others have noted, submersibles have gone deeper than the Titanic. It is possible to go to the bottom of the ocean safely, but not with carbon fiber, which he was warned about many times.
The Ohio billionaire is trying to show the submersible industry is safe because Rush’s actions really damaged its reputation and all the efforts that have been made leading up to Oceangate. Rush also flew experimental aircraft and if he had crashed his plane, the airline industry wouldn’t have suffered a similar hit to its reputation because the public is much more familiar with airline travel than it is with the submersible industry. Finally, we know much more about space than we know about the ocean, so there are scientific reasons to continue exploring it.
@tna yeah, Stockton was an egotistical ass. He failed bc he cut corners and wanted to be “the first.” Like I said, I know this can be done. But I still don’t think tax payers should be on hook if something goes wrong. This expedition will do nothing for us as a whole.
Science needs money, too. I don’t think it matters if this billionaire’s reason is recreational. If a workable and safe submersible is developed, then scientists will be able to use that technology, as well.
Yeah, I agree with this. Deep sea exploration is still an emerging field and it doesn’t really matter if people are throwing money at it for selfish reasons. Plus this is 10x better than him buying another yacht or something.
Billionaires channeling money into science = totally fine.
All I’m seeing is Darwnism being played out on the oceanic stage. How about we start taxing billionaires more harshly to keep them from making stupid decisions?
Absolutely! I question whether this man is from generational wealth or self made. Nonetheless, he’s breathtakingly foolish.
Let’s tax them to stop them being billionaires!
I mean, you do you, personally i couldnt think of anything scarier than getting submerged into deep sea in a tiny can. But i have allways been a little iffy about sea so , theres that.
The ocean is trully terrifying and we haven’t explored half of it so who knows what’s down there. Surely there are better ways to use your money when you have so much.
The leopards won’t eat my face!
Just goes to show how billionaires are not like us. Or rather, they have a dangerous compulsion to test the limits of humanity. Just pay your taxes, man, and stop ruining the surface of the earth. The surface is beautiful enough, or it would be if we weren’t ruining it. But sure, go pollute the ocean floor with more wreckage and human sacrifices to pride.
It doesn’t sound like he’s planning on charging people for rides after telling people how safe carbon fiber is so whatever. Couldn’t be me though. Diving down once wasn’t the issue. It was the degradation of the vessel after multiple dives.
If anything happens, his estate or he should be billed for the search and rescue. Why not go down in one of the subs that has actually been used before? Oh , then your ego won’t be strioked. Boy, bye!
You can make all the stupid decisions you want but with the clear understanding that no one else is going to bail you out/fix it for you. Go down at your own risk and have your own search and rescue that you can pay for with your billions .
It’s Darwin’s Survival of the Fitest for billionaires.
This is why billionaires shouldn’t exist.
The billionaires are board.
Look. If some more billionaires want to take themselves out, who are we to stand in their way?
My brain read the name of the submersible as the “Abysmal” Explorer, and I thought “that tracks”.
There’s a pod of orcas cheering him on. Go on, dive in…
I came here to say that!! Has someone informed the Orcas?
Rich people stuff..
Another proof that there’s no God. Please. In state with so many poor people, children going to bed hungry; one of Satan’s own has money for a joy ride down below to see the remnants of a long ago disaster. Yeah, come at me with your, because, science.
I’m okay with one less billionaire on the planet. Go chase that bliss homie.
Nothing like the risk of death to spice up a bored billionaire”s life. 🙄
Why can’t billionaires save the planet, sole homelessness, cure cancer or literally do ANYTHING but this shit.
TAX THE RICH.
All of this space and oceanic rich guy foolishness is coming off very phallic. What are they compensating for?
There should be a stupidity tax for billionaires.
Ahhh yes Ohio the state which produces the most astronauts. They’re trying so hard to get away from Ohio that space and the depths of the ocean are just some of the places they’re willing to go. I say that in jest however since billionaires are all about exploitation it tracks that this guy wants to “explore” so that he can exploit an untapped natural resource for his benefit and gain.
Why? There ARE several (at least 3 that I know of) deep-dive submersibles have done deep sea exploration with human on board, and some even went deeper than the Titanic (grave yard).
Lahey was in the ABC Documentary “Truth & Lies: Fatal Dive to the Titanic”. These billionaire men/women-child spent quarter million per person to went on Titan to see Titanic. It was just luck they didn’t die down there. They are risk seekers out there, rich or poor, willing to get the next trill.
P.S. Just watched a show about JFK Jr’s plan crash. His new plane was equipped with auto-pilot function (!!!), but John either didn’t know how to use it or forgot/not aware of this function because he’s still learning to fly this advanced new model. Had he used auto-pilot, they would’ve lived.
The millionaires and billionaires of the 19th/20th century were awful people, but at least they built libraries and universities and contributed something to the public good. This isn’t about improving ocean exploration and our understanding of it. It’s just showing off. Don’t they understand the level of public acclaim and adoration they would receive by doing anything else that might benefit people? Instead when it goes wrong, we’ll be expected to foot the bill.
Interesting how another woman announced donating billions to help others and a man announced spending billions on travel. Spaceships and deep-sea ships, oh my!
Now why did they have to bring Etta into this with that Insta ad?! LOL
Leave her out of this nonsense.
It is a graveyard. Leave it the hell alone.
It should literally be a no dive/exploration area let the dead rest in peace. (They do have these over shipwrecks in the Great Lakes where lives were lost)
Agree. Someone made a good point above that at least this man is putting his money into scientific exploration. And I thought, yes. But then, why this site, continually? There are other things to dive into; lots of ocean as yet unexplored. It is, as you say, a graveyard, and one that’s falling to pieces. Leave it be. I sometimes think this about archaeological digs of burial sites, as well. Where is the dignity? I know there’s so much to learn, but it just seems to bypass respect somehow.
Plenty of people visit graveyards to see the tombs of famous people, or visit memorials, or see interesting architecture, or read unusual inscriptions on tombstones, etc. As long as you’re not disturbing anything (or taking anything, in the case of wrecks), visiting itself isn’t disrespectful.
There is nothing respectful about this man’s visit. He isn’t going there to honor the people who died or gain knowledge from the wreck. He’s doing this for an ego trip. There are lots of other deep places in the ocean. Pick one that isn’t where 100s of people drowned or froze to death.
Yes, very important first world dilemma
Natural selection at its finest.
39 years ago, Commander Robert Ballard (former Naval Commander – from the Wood’s Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts) found Titanic. Many tried, but Ballard found it.
Pevious searches were based on the reported latitude and longitude of the sinking, without result.
Based on his own research, searching for naval submarines and ships lost, Ballard chose to create a large grid to search NOT for the Titanic itself, but for debris that fell from the ship as it sank. Once a few pieces of debris had been found in a sweeping scan, discovery was made in a
straight line, simply following the line of debris. (I remember seeing a small ladies shoe in the footage they captured – a little boot sort of shoe that you’d need a hook
to lace.)
Ballard designed the Argo – a small unmanned camera operated submersible and the footage they captured is breathtaking. Ballard also designed an even smaller submersible – small enough to enter into the ship – and captured similarly compelling images.
Afterward, he and his fellow scientists and sailors felt that this should be the end of Titanic visits. They saw and felt that it was a graveyard, and that the ship would be plagued by everyone from pirates and plunderers, to tourists and thrill seekers.
I got to meet him and interview him. He’s an absolutely lovely man.
I think he was (and is) right.
The Titanic wreck is a graveyard and should be respected as such. Extreme tourism to this site should not be allowed not only because of the danger, but also out of respect for all of the men, women and children who lost their lives on that frigid night.
– Ahem – Musk, Zuckerberg, and Bezos are way too chicken to visit the Titanic. They know there’s no possible way they could build a better sub. They’re not cool enough. Bawk bawk bawk!
Sir. Ugh. I speak for your family when I say this: make sure your affairs are in order before you do this, please. It will make our lives much easier when this ultimately ends in your demise. Of course it won’t be easy because – well – BILLIONS, but a little easier anyway if we at least have legally filed documents as a roadmap as to what to do with our estate.
xoxo, your family