A billionaire and a deep-sea explorer have announced they are hoping to travel in a submersible to explore the sunken Titanic wreckage, less than one year after the ill-fated Oceangate sub imploded on a voyage to the wreck site.
Plans for the voyage began when Larry Connor, a 74-year-old real-estate investor from Ohio, called up Patrick Lahey, the co-founder and CEO of Triton Submarines, urging him to build a submersible that could reliably visit the Titanic’s wreck, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
They hope to travel to the wreck of the Titanic, located off the coast of Newfoundland at 3,810 meters (12,500 feet) deep, and carry out a scientific study of the site.
Along with surveying the wreck, the mission also wants to undo some of the bad PR that accumulated around private deep-sea submersibles since the disaster involving the Titan sub of Oceangate – a rival company that has been controversial in the industry for years.
“He [Connor] 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’,” Lahey told the WSJ.
“I want to show people worldwide that while the ocean is extremely powerful, it can be wonderful and enjoyable and really kind of life-changing if you go about it the right way,” added Connor.
RMS Titanic sunk in the north Atlantic on 15 April 1912 and has remained there ever since.
Image credit: NOAA
On June 18, 2023, Oceangate’s Titan sub imploded while descending to the Titanic wreck site, killing all five people on board: Stockton Rush, the founder and chief executive of OceanGate Expeditions; Hamish Harding, a British businessman and explorer; Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French deep sea explorer; Shahzada Dawood, a British-Pakistani businessman; and his 16-year-old son, Suleman Dawood.
The tragic incident attracted a wave of attention on social media and OceanGate was quickly put under the spotlight with numerous industry experts criticizing its submersible design and safety practices.
One of the most prominent critics was James Cameron, the Hollywood director behind the 1997 movie Titanic who has completed over 30 submersible dives to the ship’s sunken wreck.
“[Oceangate] didn’t get certified because they knew they wouldn’t pass,” Cameron told BBC News last year.
“I was very suspect of the technology that they were using. I wouldn’t have gotten in that sub.”
The upcoming mission by Triton Submarines aims to use totally different technology and organization to the ill-fated Oceangate venture.
The pair plan to command a sub called the Triton 4000/2 Abyssal Explorer, described on their website as “the world’s deepest diving acrylic sub” built to descend to depths of 4,000 meters (13,123 feet). The cutting-edge submersible was used to film parts of Blue Planet II and the Five Deeps Expedition, in which Victor Vescovo visited the deepest points of all of Earth’s five oceans.
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