Nearly 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, the Titanic has rested at the bottom of the ocean for the past 112 years. The “Unsinkable Ship,” infamous for its tragic sinking that killed 1,500 passengers, has been the subject of great interest since its fateful iceberg collision, especially relating to the steps that could have prevented the unfortunate accident.
Unfortunately, last year, the Titanic claimed the lives of five more people: the passengers of the Titan submersible. Unlike the Titanic, the Titan was not on its maiden voyage to the resting place. Yet, the disaster claimed the lives of three billionaires, one of the billionaires’ son, and Stockton Rush, the CEO of Oceangate, the company that operated the Titan. This past week, the Coast Guard released the results of its investigation into the incident, revealing a neglectful company, unaware employees, and lack of safety precautions—a story eerily similar to that of the Titanic.
Before the wreck, the Titan took passengers to the Titanic to get a glimpse of the wreckage that lies at the bottom of the ocean. It was active in this mission for two years, although not very successful. Of the 23 missions to the Titanic, it only made it to the bottom of the ocean for 12 of them. Further, over the course of these 23 missions, the company logged 118 technical failures. The passengers of these trips paid $250,000 each for a 50% chance of seeing the Titanic. On June 18, 2023, the Titan took five passengers down, and 90 minutes later, the submarine imploded, losing communication with those on the surface. The implosion was reportedly instantaneous, so the passengers would not have had time to process the disaster.
The Coast Guard investigation revealed witnesses with incriminating information on OceanGate. Matthew McCoy, an employee at OceanGate for six months before quitting, revealed in a testimony that the OceanGate engineering department was “full of college interns,” noting the lack of professional engineers working on the project. He also informed the hearing panel that, in 2017, when the Titan allegedly lacked a certificate of inspection, the now-deceased Rush told him that he would “buy a congressman” to make the issues go away.
David Lochridge, OceanGate’s former director of marine operations, stated that the Titan was an “abomination.” In 2018, he gave a report to OceanGate stating that the numerous flaws in the Titan were concerning. OceanGate disregarded his concerns, firing him.
In the report, Lochridge explained that the hull was a cylinder shape instead of a sphere, meaning that the surface pressure was not evenly distributed around the entire surface of the sub. The layers of the hull were also made out of a mix of carbon and resin. Carbon fiber was not approved for deep-sea diving because it can fail unpredictably, causing an implosion. It can also weaken easily, meaning it is not safe for repeated trips to the bottom of the sea. Upon examining the wreckage, the National Transportation and Safety Board reported that they found areas where the carbon fibers had separated from each other, as well as inconsistencies in the structure of the submarine. Further, the window of the Titan sub was only certified to be safe at depths of 1,300 meters below sea level. Considering the Titanic is 3,800 meters below sea level, these numerous safety concerns explain the results of the disaster.
Captain Jamie Frederick, who oversaw his first subsurface mission of his 30-year career with the Coast Guard while searching for the Titan, highlighted the lack of information that was given to them in their search and rescue mission for the vessel. He described that “there is so much information that has been discussed over the past two weeks, [yet] we didn’t have a fraction of that.”
The story of the Titan is eerily similar to the sinking of the Titanic itself. OceanGate’s prioritization of efficiency and its mentality of “the show must go on” was the same mentality that caused the flaws in the Titanic itself. Infamously, the Titanic did not have enough lifeboats for their passengers to cut the costs of production, and the ‘first-class passengers’ were prioritized on the lifeboats. This initial observation led to a Senate hearing in the United States about what went wrong in the voyage, leading to an 1,042 page document detailing the flaws. The Titanic ignored the warnings of icebergs ahead, and eye-witness reports even detail how the crew were told to speed up “to get through the patch of ice ahead.” Furthermore, there were numerous structural flaws in the Titanic that resulted in its sinking; the double layer protective hull did not rise high enough on the ship, and the builders used bad rivets to bind the ship together where the iceberg would strike it. The “water-tight compartments” the ship was advertised to have were also far from effective. As new evidence has surfaced in the past century, it is also becoming increasingly likely that there was a coal fire days before departure in the area of the boat where the Titanic was struck, but this was not shared with passengers and the ship set sail according to schedule.
Similar to the Senate in 1912, the US Coast Guard is writing a report to prevent this tragedy from repeating. It is unclear if businesses will take these instances into consideration, or if they will continue to jeopardize the lives of their customers. After the Titanic sank, there were numerous lawsuits levied at the White Star Line, the company that built it. It is unclear what kind of civil and criminal repercussions OceanGate will face—one of the billionaire’s families is currently suing for 50 million dollars—but it is evident that this issue most likely will not come to a close for quite some time.
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