Tuesday marks one year since the Titan submarine lost contact en route to the Titanic wreck site, spurning a massive rescue operation and media frenzy that ended only when its gruesome fate became clear: the submarine had imploded and all five fatally crushed inside.
The tragedy exposed fatal flaws in the Titan’s design, OceanGate CEO Stockton’s overconfidence in his calculations, and raised a popular question: Is it worth diving 4,000 meters to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to catch a glimpse of the Titanic?
For most, the answer was – and remains – a resounding no. But some of the world’s very wealthy are still willing to spend millions to take a trip to the bottom of the sea, and at least one American is willing to do so in part, simply to prove it can be done safely.
That man is Ohio real estate magnate Larry Connor, who says he’s determined not to let OceanGate’s fatal failure completely destroy the niche underwater craft industry. He is the same billionaire who, at the age of 74, has already taken a submarine to the Mariana Trench and visited the International Space Station.
While others with deep pockets canceled their personal underwater orders with Florida-based Triton Submarines last summer, co-founder Patrick Lahey said The Wall Street Journal that Connor called him within days of the Titan tragedy with various plans. He said he wanted a new submarine that could do what the Titan couldn’t: reach the Titanic and back safely repeatedly.
“I want to show people around the world that although the ocean is extremely powerful, it can be beautiful, enjoyable and truly life-changing if you treat it right,” Connor told the BBC. log.
To get there, Lahey said Connor plans to load into the Triton 4000/2 Abyssal Explorer, which is believed to be safe for diving to depths of about 13,000 feet. Although the promises are similar to what OceanGate once claimed about the Titan, Connor and Lahey insist that their submarine is capable of making a safe journey to the depths. And you’d think it should, considering its hefty $20 million price tag to produce — 80 times more expensive than the $250,000 per ticket Rush charged for a one-way Titan trip.
The Titanic submarine was cheaply made and may have sealed its fate
A spokesperson for Triton told CNN on Tuesday that the Titanic voyage is still in the early planning stages and no timeline is available. The company did not respond to questions from The Daily Beast about capacity and whether tickets would be available for purchase.
Triton has emphasized that it operates with much higher standards than OceanGate, which went bankrupt a year ago after its founder died along with a Pakistani millionaire, his teenage son, an airline executive and a world-renowned oceanographer. The submarines listed on the website appear much more comfortable than the Titan, many of which have panoramic windows and good seats – a far cry from the notoriously cold and crowded Titan, which was controlled by an Xbox controller.
Adding to Lahey’s credibility is a long list of receipts showing how long he considered Rush and OceanGate to be dangerous players in the submarine world. He joined others, including Rob McCallum, founder of ultra-high-end freight forwarding company Eyos, to express their concerns.
In 2018, McCallum emailed Rush to reprimand him for continuing to travel to the Titanic with unclassified technology.
“You want to use a prototype of unclassified technology in a very hostile location,” McCallum wrote to Rush, according to the BBC. “As much as I appreciate entrepreneurship and innovation, you are potentially putting an entire industry at risk.”
After Titan imploded, Lahey was equally critical of OceanGate. In an interview with The Sunday times, he called Rush “predatory.” More recently, he told the log that OceanGate’s problems were self-inflicted, and not because submarines themselves are inherently dangerous.
“This tragedy had a chilling effect on people’s interest in these vehicles,” Lahey told the newspaper log. “It revived the old myths that only a crazy person would get into one of these things.”
First, Lahey said the Triton 4000/2 Abyssal Explorer is made primarily of acrylic and has been “classified” by third-party marine classification societies. The Titan was infamous for being unclassified.
While Connor has shown a willingness to dump millions on recurring dives to the Titanic wreck site, more casual underwater fans seem to have become more hesitant in the wake of the Titan disaster.
Officials at Triton’s biggest competitor, U-Boat Worx, have laid off 40 of its 85 employees since the implosion, reportedly caused by a significant drop in interest in personal-use submarines.
Chilling stories about previous dives to the wreck of the Titanic continue to pile up
Possibly contributing to potential buyers’ discomfort is the unfamiliar environment as to what exactly caused the Titan to implode. Although many speculate that the accident was caused by a tear in the carbon fiber, an official investigation by the U.S. Coast Guard remained ongoing Tuesday, a spokesperson told The Daily Beast.
“The investigation into the Titan submarine implosion is a complex and ongoing effort,” the Coast Guard said in a statement. “We are working closely with our domestic and international partners to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the incident.”
Guardsman initially said they would need just a year to complete their investigation, but said Tuesday there have been “necessary delays” due to complications surrounding the recovery of evidence from the implosion site in the mid-North Atlantic Ocean.
The Coast Guard said Tuesday it plans to “hold a public hearing by the end of the year,” with two months’ notice.
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