‘Like going to another planet’: what it’s like to visit the remains of the Titanic

Five explorers eager to view the Titanic’s underwater wreckage remained lost at sea on Tuesday as a massive search operation continued in the North Atlantic.

OceanGate Expeditions’ underwater hull, named Titan, was heading more than 700 miles off the coast of St. John’s, NL when it lost contact with its support vessel.

The trip was just the latest excursion to a haunted place that has lured adventurers since its discovery in 1985.

A look at the expedition:

WHY VISIT THE TITANIC?

The deadly sinking of the massive ocean liner in 1912 has captured the fascination of historians, scientists and average observers alike. More than a century later, few are aware, it collided with an iceberg on its doomed maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York, drawing more than 1,500 people to a watery grave.

Don Lynch, official historian of the Titanic Historical Society, visited the site twice in 2001 and said from California that the Titanic is “part of our history and folklore. It’s not just a shipwreck.”

Toronto-based physician and deep-sea explorer Joe MacInnis, 86, agreed as he mused on why some adventurous tourists are willing to pay $250,000 to see it up close.

“As young kids growing up, we all listened to that story and it intrigued us because it contains so many deep and profound lessons about courage and about cowardice,” said MacInnis, who dove into the site three times in 1987, 1991 and 2005.

“The question it asks us all is, how would you behave if that happened to you? If the ship was sinking beneath you, how would you react?

HOW DOES A DIP POINT DIFFER FROM A SUBMARINE?

While a submarine is a fully autonomous craft, a submarine must be launched by a surface craft, platform, shore team, or sometimes a larger submarine. In this case, the Titan was supported by a former Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker ship known as the Polar Prince.

A submarine can also renew its own power and breathing air, while a submarine has limited reserves. A spec sheet on the OceanGate website says the Titan can support a crew of five for 96 hours.

The ship began its descent on Sunday morning. That suggests the oxygen supply would last until Thursday morning at the latest.

HOW IS IT IN THE TITAN?

OceanGate says the Titan is made of carbon fiber and titanium. Inside it is only 6.7 x 2.8 x 2.5 m – about the length of a short school bus.

MacInnis, who was unfamiliar with the Titan, said anyone wanting to dive Titanic would also need to be able to handle tight spaces in ships reaching such depths.

“You have to be a little bit claustrophobic, you have to like small places when you dive in the Russian submarine or the French submarine,” he said by comparison.

“Inside the submarine is a kind of nice red glow light, or it could be fully lit, or it could be dark, depending on what’s going on. But the great thing is of course that a lot of light shines from outside (outwards).

WHAT SAFETY MEASURES ARE ON BOARD?

The OceanGate website says the Titan is equipped with a real-time hull health monitoring system that can assess hull integrity during a dive. It uses acoustic sensors and strain gauges to analyze the effects of changing pressure on the vessel as it dives deeper and deeper, and monitors the integrity of the structure.

MacInnis said the possibility of implosion due to a compromised hull is one of three devastating catastrophes he worries about during such dives. The other two are fire and entanglement.

While every scenario is a grim scenario, they don’t have to end in disaster, he said.

“You anticipate those potential dangers and design your way around them. And then you practice and practice and practice and do your best to get them under control.”

HOW IS IT DEEP IN THE OCEAN?

The remains of the Titanic lie 12,000 feet (3,800 meters) deep in the Atlantic Ocean, and while it has been photographed and mapped, nothing beats seeing it in person, MacInnis said.

The journey down is a descent through a “universe of darkness”, as flashing bioluminescent lights – a natural glow emitted by marine species – lead the way.

“The journey down is like going to another planet,” he said. “And then when you see it — oh my God, the scale of it is what’s so impressive. The size of the anchors and also the extent of the damage.”

The ocean liner split in two as it burst and sank, landing on the ocean floor with debris between each piece – thousands of artifacts pouring out of the great ship as it broke apart.

“It’s an extraordinary experience to get down there and look with reverence at what happened, and with an appreciation of the forces of the ocean,” MacInnis said.

“The wind, the waves, the cold, the current, the corrosion and the pressure that bends steel.”

— With files from Morgan Lowrie in Montreal.

This report from The Canadian Press was first published on June 20, 2023.

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