The Titanic is spectacular. even when wrecked. On a dark seafloor at a depth of 3.8 km, it is enticing and draws people to it. Some do respond to its call. They must, of course, have money and a flair for dangerously adventurous activities. And even 111 years after it sank after colliding with an iceberg, people continue to be drawn to it. The Titanic tour has that air of exclusivity. The Behemoth, which was the largest ship of its era and sank in 1912, killing 1,500 people, has only been approached by a small number of individuals.
The Titan, an OceanGate submersible pod that vanished on Sunday, had five personnel on board when that pull occurred. A pull that led to the emergence of Titanic Tourism, or getting up close and personal with one of the greatest engineering marvels currently submerged in the ocean. bacteria that feed on iron are slowly but definitely destroying the remnants.
“When I first saw the bow, I didn’t respond the way I had anticipated. The beauty of the wreck itself mostly surprised me. According to Richard T, a participant in OceanGate’s 2022 trip, on the company’s website, “It’s not just a story from history any more; it’s true and I witnessed it with my own eyes.
The Titanic’s enormous bow is what most people find amazing.
According to National Geographic, the Titanic wreck site is now covered in debris, including beer and soda bottles, weights, shackles, and cargo nets from salvage operations. Plaques and memorials left by visitors are all over the place as well. In 1985, the Titanic shipwreck’s precise position was found. Since then, salvagers and experts have descended to the 12,500-foot depth where the Titanic’s wreckage is. Its final resting site is in the North Atlantic Ocean, around 600 kilometres off the Canadian coast of Newfoundland.
WHAT VISITING THE TITANIC ENTAILS
One of the first companies to offer tickets for a voyage to view the Titanic in 1998 was the British company Deep Ocean Expeditions. The cost of a ticket was $32,500. The Titanic director James Cameron paid a visit to the gloomy shipwreck location as well. The record for a scuba dive is to a depth of 1,090 feet, so that should give you some idea of how deep that is. A sperm whale will probably dive down to about 7,380 feet. The Titan submarine, run by OceanGate, has a 13,000-foot maximum depth.
It is no joke to travel 12,500 feet below the surface. Human divers can descend as little as a few hundred feet using specialized gear and air mixtures rich in helium. On the way up, they have to take a lot of time to relax. At a few hundred feet below the surface, the sun doesn’t shine through the water, and it is chilly and dark. At such depths, the pressure is crushing.
WHAT HAPPENED TO TITAN?
The Titan made the risky flight with four passengers and a pilot. It had done so previously, in 2021 and 2022. Stockton Rush, CEO and pilot of OceanGate Expeditions, British millionaire adventurer Hamish Harding, French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood are all aboard the Titan.
Unlike submarines, which can cruise freely to and from ports, submersibles must be launched and recovered by a ship. The Titan was submerged from its support vessel on Sunday morning. The Titan should have taken eight hours to reach the Titanic. The Titan lost touch with its surface ship, the Canadian research icebreaker Polar Prince, about an hour and 45 minutes later.
The 22-foot-long submersible is a revolutionary concept, or ‘jugaad’ as we call it in India, and it has not been approved by any marine regulatory organization. The submersible carries emergency oxygen for up to 96 hours, however, the amount of oxygen consumed is determined by human activity and metabolism. The oxygen intake of a person sleeping still differs from that of someone exercising or panicking.
The Titan also lacks an escape pod and the hatch cannot be opened from the inside. All of this was known to the passengers, who signed a waiver before embarking on the risky excursion. They also paid $250,000 for it. That is how strong the Titanic’s attraction is. And it appears to be a fatal attraction.