History is a pendulum.
As if little more than a century had passed since those days in 1912 and GPS and artificial intelligence had not been invented, the US Coast Guard, based in Boston, Massachusetts, returned to plow the waters to the rescue of a submarine with tourists that went out to explore the sunken remains of the Titanic in the North Atlantic, undoubtedly the most famous shipwreck in contemporary society, a myth of the vulnerability of progress.
A spokesman for the coastal institution confirmed that there were five people in the small submersible, weighing 1,043 kilograms. Communication was lost on Sunday, less than two hours after submerging, near the location of the ship’s wreckage, which is about 3,800 meters deep, 600 kilometers off the coast of Newfoundland ( Canada ).
A spokesman for the Canadian Coast Guard explained that they are participating in the rescue work, although he clarified that it is up to their colleagues in Boston to lead the operation. “It is technically in its waters”, he indicated.
A ship carrying the submersible (unlike a submarine, it is not an autonomous vessel) departed on Saturday from St. John’s ), capital of the province of Newfoundland, as indicated in a post on social networks by the 59-year-old billionaire businessman and British explorer Hamish Harding, so it is concluded that he was on board. He wrote that they were heading to the area of ??the famous shipwreck, about 900 nautical miles off Cape Cod, where the sub was due to leave for an exploratory dive.
On his Facebook he indicated that the dive would be on Sunday: “A meteorological window has just opened”.
Hamish, holder of Guinness records for the longest time crossing the deepest part of the ocean in a single dive, has already taken part as a space tourist in a commercial flight of Blue Origin, aeronautics owned by Jeff Bezos.
The device is managed by OceanGates Expeditions, a company that, among others, offers this adventure towards the legend. In previous tours, travelers had to pay $250,000 for the experience, which lasts eight days. “We are exploring and mobilizing all options to bring the crew safe and sound,” the firm said in a statement. Stock Rush, the company’s president, told The New York Times a few months ago that private exploration was necessary to continue fueling public fascination with the remains of the famous disaster. “No public entity will finance returning to the Titanic,” he said.
The Titanic was the ultimate in navigation, described as an unsinkable ship, until it collided with a block of ice on its way from Southampton (England), to New York. 1,500 people died there and the legend was born.
For decades, the area where the Titanic sank was investigated with the best technology at every moment. The remains were found in 1985, which created a fever for the event.
The submersible, which is used for tourism, video and photography or for scientific missions, has an autonomy of 96 hours of oxygen. This gave a margin of hope in the rescue tasks when contact had been lost a day ago.
While the countdown did not stop, another reason for confidence appeared. News of the lost submersible recalled a trip organized by OceanGates that became a CBS news story. Journalist David Pogue reported that communication was lost and the device was missing for several hours. Pogue took the opportunity on Monday to recall this anecdote and spread his work. There he is seen reading what appears to be a disclaimer describing the submersible as an “experimental vessel”. It continues that “it has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body and may result in physical injury, disability, emotional trauma or death.” Then, looking at the camera and smiling, he asks: “Where should I sign?”.
