Tragedy and lessons learned

Yesterday afternoon, harrowing uncertainty gave place to confirmation of tragedy. The United States Coast Guard confirms the loss of the commercial submersible Titan, off the coast of Newfoundland. She was carrying a pilot and four passengers who wished to tour the wreck of RMS Titanic, which sank in those waters on April 14, 1912. Titan went missing five days ago, and when days went by with no sign of her, speculation centered on the oxygen supply in her single cabin. But oxygen turned out to be of no moment. Quite simply, Titan dived below her crush depth, or made one deep dive too many, and was crushed. The five, one presumes, died instantly. But they did not have to die. They died of negligence – in the vessel’s design, construction, and possible team recruitment for “politically correct” reasons.

Details of a tragedy

The vessel, owned, built and operated by OceanGate Enterprises, went missing on June 18, shortly after she embarked. Her support ship obviously radioed the Coast Guard, who arrived and took charge. Many countries sent ships with undersea rescue equipment. But the most diligent search turned up nothing but some mysterious knocking noises on June 21, according to CNN. OceanGate estimated she carried 96 hours’ worth of oxygen for five adults.

According to the Christian Science Monitor, OceanGate had been reconnoitering the Titanic every year since 2021.

Finally, early yesterday, the Coast Guard’s senior officer-on-scene sent down a Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) to the ocean floor. They picked a spot near where their passive sonar systems picked up the knocking noise. In the late morning, the ROV found the wreckage, according to The Verge. Thus far the search-and-rescue flotilla has found the nosecone, the tailcone, the landing frame, and two other parts of Titan. Rear Admiral John Mauger, commanding the First Coast Guard District, announced that the placement of and damage to the submersible’s parts were consistent with a “catastrophic implosion,” i.e., destruction by crush.

The wreck of the Titanic lies more than 12,000 feet (about 2.3 miles) deep. At that depth the pressure exceeds 6,500 PSI (more than 433 standard atmospheres).

Making of a tragedy – bad decisions

The helmsman and passengers of the Titan are identified as:

• Stockton Rush, co-founder and co-CEO of OceanGate, at the helm;
• Hamish Harding, a wealthy adventurer from the United Kingdom,
• Paul-Henri Nargeolet, French explorer and expert on Titanic,
• Shahzada Dawood, Pakistani businessman, and
• Suleman Dawood, his son.

Tragedy at sea is still common, and especially among undersea explorers. But already people are attributing this tragedy to bad decisions at OceanGate. People are making much of a statement by OceanGate’s co-founder. “We didn’t want some fifty-year-old white guy in charge of our submersible,” he allegedly said.

But more important criticism is centering on the design and construction of Titan. She had a carbon-fiber hull – which, when it fails, shatters without warning. (Incredibly, the designer of the submersible Director James Cameron used to visit the Titanic was not willing to believe that Titan had been crushed, according to The Guardian.) Her control, sensory, and communications systems used literally consumer-grade electronics. (Helmsman Rush used a game controller to steer her!) James Cameron, commenting on this tragedy, told NBC News that many deep submergence engineers had written to OceanGate recently, severely questioning the safety of Titan’s design and construction.

In sharp contrast to Titan, James Cameron traveled in a metal submersible crammed full of custom-built electronics. That we can see from this video by YouTube influencer Legal Mindset.

Reuters reported that OceanGate fired one of its engineers, David Lochridge, after he questioned Titan’s hull integrity.

More speculation – and misplaced schadenfreude

The Los Angeles Times and The Kansas City Star (through Yahoo! News) are already complaining about social media users making fun of the tragedy. Neither the LA Times nor the Star named any names or provided any links or embeds.

Matt Walsh left this brutal tweet:

The Star also called for more regulation. This tragedy happened in international waters, so any search-and-rescue must be a partnership. No one has yet created an agency to set safety standards for the design and construction of submersibles like Titan. And, quite simply, the Star does not believe that the law should even permit wealthy amateurs to pay $250,000 a pop to take such deep dives.

The four passengers each had to sign a lengthy waiver reminding them of the experimental nature of the craft.

Actually, “Legal Mindset” (see above) does not believe the waiver can vitiate the elements of negligence. These include duty and dereliction of duty, and here the attorney believes OceanGate failed miserably.

A metaphor

CNAV joins the LA Times, The Kansas City Star, and Matt Walsh in condemning those who try to find humor – or schadenfreude – in this tragedy. A company built a submersible using largely untried technologies and consumer-grade electronics. They might or might not have made hiring decisions based on “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.” If reports are accurate, they fired at least one engineer who warned them that they were building a death trap. Five people died. That’s not funny – it’s infuriating.

In fact it reminds us of a chapter in Jack London’s classic, The Call of the Wild. That story took place on land, but is no less instructive for all that. In this chapter, Buck, the canine protagonist, is in the hands of a group of rank amateur prospectors. Foolishly they propose to cross an iced-over river. Another, more experienced, prospector tries to dissuade them, but they won’t listen. So the experienced man cuts Buck loose from their dog sled and buys him from them. They go on – and then fall through the ice and die.

The same mentality that led to that fatal mistake, caused the destruction of Titan and the deaths of her crew.

Grounds for regulation

If any grounds exist for the maritime powers to negotiate a treaty to create an international safety agency for deep-submersible exploration vehicles like Titan, they are these. When a crew gets into trouble, those same maritime powers must offer rescue, as they did this time. To declare that such a crew must see to its own salvation is to deny our basic humanity.

But our universe has paired dualities. If the maritime powers are responsible for the safety of amateur deep-sea submariners, then they have authority to try to guarantee that safety. No one has yet calculated the expense of this latest search-and-rescue – or search-and-recovery – operation. But no one supposes that the expense tops out at $250,000 per person! So perhaps the maritime powers, having the requisite naval resources, should negotiate such a regulatory treaty. It might not absolutely prevent such tragedies from recurring, but it can make them rarer. Such regulation should also make clear that certain “politically correct” hiring considerations are irrelevant and must give place to the need for shipwrights – and pilots – of appropriate experience and skill. If that happens, then the pilot and passengers of Titan need not have died in vain.

About the image

The composite frontispiece includes an underwater photograph of Titan, courtesy of OceanGate. CNAV is using the image solely to comment on the circumstances of the tragic loss of its subject.