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As U.S. and Canadian rescue teams search Monday for a five-person submersible, missing in the North Atlantic, it is the ongoing fascination with the wreckage of the Titanic more than a century later that lured them to the deep dive. Photo courtesy of OceanGate
June 19 (UPI) — As U.S. and Canadian rescue teams search Monday for a five-person submersible, missing in the Atlantic Ocean during a deep dive, it is the ill-fated Titanic — a source of fascination for more than 100 years since its sinking — that enticed the adventurous to spend $250,000 for a glimpse of history.
Ever since the “unsinkable” Titanic collided with an iceberg in the North Atlantic on April 14, 1912, during its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, and sank in the early hours on April 15, 1912, the tragedy has captured imaginations worldwide and across generations.
Out of the roughly 2,200 people aboard the ship, more than 1,500 people died. Most of the 706 survivors were women and children who were put onto the limited number of lifeboats and rafts. Many of those killed were third-class passengers or members of the crew. A number of well-known wealthy men also were among the dead, including Colonel John Jacob Astor; Major Archie Butt, President Taft’s aide; Benjamin Guggenheim; and Wm. T. Stead.
Survivors’ stories
Detailed accounts from 1912 and afterward, such as the one told by Col. Archibald Gracie, of Washington, D.C., began to draw the public in to what happened that night on the ship and are among the hundreds of stories detailing terror, survival and sorrow.
“I jumped into the sea just as the Titanic went down,” Col. Gracie explained in 1912. “I managed to grasp a rail on the deck above as she settled, but when she plunged down I was forced to let go and I was whirled around and around for what seemed like an interminable time.”
“Eventually I came to the surface to fine the sea a mass of tangled wreckage. I seized a wooden grating and later found a big cork life raft floating nearby.”
“When dawn broke there were about 20 of us on that raft,” Gracie added. “The hours on that raft were hours of horror. We could not even turn to see if a steamer was passing and when the Carpathia hove in sight one of the men went into hysterical delirium.”
The allure of the wreckage
While survivors’ stories, books and movies from Titanic’s sinking captured the imagination of the public and historians since its sinking, it was the discovery of its wreckage nearly four decades ago at the bottom of the North Atlantic that renewed interest in the ship for new generations.
After Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution discovered the ship’s wreckage in 1985, ocean explorers, movie producers and those who could pay the steep price began to make the deep-sea pilgrimage to view Titanic’s final resting place.
“Become one of the few to see the Titanic with your own eyes,” OceanGate Expeditions, the company which operates the submersible tour, advertised.
According to OceanGate’s Titanic Survey Expedition page on its website, the Titan — which is the missing submersible currently carrying five people and 96 hours of oxygen — is scheduled for 18 dives for “Summer 2023 and beyond.”
The July 1986 exploration led by WHOI’s Robert Ballard revealed the first images of the wreckage, sitting more than two miles deep and 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland,
“To finally put those souls to rest was a very nice feeling,” Ballard said in an interview with CTV network the same year.
Artifacts, art, human stories
Thousands of physical artifacts from Titanic were brought up from the ocean floor and put on touring exhibitions. Those artifacts are now being preserved as NFTs through digitization to allow millions more people to view and interact with the historical pieces.
And as recently as February, 80 minutes of rare video footage was released showing the shipwreck as it was discovered in the 1980s.
The video’s release coincided with the 25th anniversary of the 1997 blockbuster film Titanic, which chronicled the disaster through historical and fictional characterizations of passengers who survived and died in the sinking. The movie won 11 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for James Cameron.
“More than a century after the loss of Titanic, the human stories embodied in the great ship continue to resonate,” Cameron said on the film’s anniversary.
“Like many, I was transfixed when the vessels Alvin and Jason Jr., ventured down to and inside the wreck,” he added. “WHOI is helping tell an important part of a story that spans generations and circles the globe.”
