OceanGate
The OceanGate Titan submersible implosion occurred in mid-June of 2023. The story of the sub and the man who owned it is another tale of hubris ironically similar to that of the Titanic.
OceanGate Inc. is an American privately owned company that provides crewed submersibles for tourism, industry, research, and exploration which was founded in 2009 by Stockton Rush and Guillermo Söhnlein. According to Söhnlein, the intention was “to create a small fleet of work submersibles” that would affirm their original tagline “open the oceans for all of humanity”.
In 2013 the company began to design its own submersibles with unique designs that were allegedly cost effective, Söhnlein quit the company that year saying the company had transitioned to Rush’s specialty of engineering. Rush, who had been interested in aviation as a young child eventually set his sights on exploring the ocean instead of the skies. His belief was that undersea exploration was an underserved market due to the unwarranted reputation of submersibles as dangerous vehicles. He criticized the Passenger Vessel Safety Act of 1993 as “needlessly prioritizing passenger safety over commercial innovation”. The company would go on to “innovate” with new engineering methods and materials which would be a costly decision endangering the lives of tourists on the Titan submersible.
News Coverage & The Families
For multiple days the Coast Guard and Navy insisted that the Titan had as much as 96 hours of breathable air supply and would have until the morning of June 22nd if the submersible was still intact. Officials discussed early rescue operations and the news as a “search and rescue mission 100%, rather than a wreckage recovery mission”. On June 22nd the Coast Guard announced that a debris field had been found and would later confirm it to be part of the submersible. After viewing the wreckage it would be confirmed that the submersible’s pressure chamber had imploded, likely on the 18th.
The public and the families of the victims were left hoping for multiple days that the submersible might still be retrieved with living passengers meanwhile the ship had already been imploded likely only a few hours after it went into the sea. The families suffered not only the loss of their loved ones but also false hope brought by the rescue missions. Nargeolet’s family filed a lawsuit for over $50 million in late 2024 claiming that the crew, Rush, knew earlier in the dive that the submersible was too dangerous, accusing the operator of “persistent carelessness, recklessness, and negligence”.
Investigations and the lawsuit against the company and manufacturers connected to the implosion have not been completed. OceanGate Expeditions has suspended all operations and since July 2023 their websites defaulted to a message advising: “OceanGate has suspended all exploration and commercial operations”. Investigations into the implosion and OceanGate have brought to light many safety concerns.
Memes
The Titan would become its own mini Titanic story. News and social media reactions could be characterized as grimly humorous with a certain ironic, “eat-the-rich attitude”. Some, including former President Barack Obama, criticized the amount of attention the event received. Notably, the disaster in so many ways mimicked the hubris of the initial disaster they came to see which may have been the cause for the media response.
