Photo: OceanGate Expeditions/National Geographic Channels International (Composite)
Stockton Rush, the late co-founder and CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, who built and piloted Titan, the submersible that was supposed to usher in a new era of undersea exploration, has transformed himself into a better version of Elon Musk, a disruptor and a pioneer. His legacy is not what he imagined.
On June 18, 2023, Titan made its first dive of the year to the wreck of the Titanic. Although it had only begun manned dives two years earlier and had been plagued by problems and delays for much longer, Titan was dubbed the world's deepest dive and greatest submersible, primarily by Stockton Rush himself. It was the only way (wealthy) tourists could see the Titanic with their own eyes, which marked only the first step in Rush's vision for a new form of underwater tourism and exploration.
Titan was the beginning of a new business model but also, Rush hoped, the first step toward colonizing the great Deep Blue. He envisioned underwater bunkers for billionaire preppers, with Titan copies serving as public transportation to and between their vaults. Along the way, Titan would help map the oceans and advance research, a noble sentiment, even if to Rush it was just an afterthought.
On June 18, 2023, the Titan imploded directly on top of the Titanic, killing all five people on board: Rush, who also served as the pilot, crew member Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and three paying customers. The Titan was an unclassified, uncertified, and reportedly untested submersible that managed to use a legal loophole to transport people to the depths of the Titanic, and those same people ultimately paid the price.
Photo: OceanGate Expeditions
The official investigation into the cause of the accident is ongoing, but the family of one person on board has already decided who is responsible. Nargeolet's estate has filed a lawsuit against OceanGate Expeditions, seeking more than $50 million in damages and accusing the now-defunct company of deliberately withholding information.
Nargeolet was officially a member of the Titan's crew, but he was also the man who gave the submarine credibility when it needed it most. The French explorer had been on the Titanic 37 times and was a certified Titanic expert. Film director James Cameron, himself a Titanic expert and a good friend of Nargeolet's, used to call him “Mr. Titanic,” as did most of the exploration community.
As Cameron himself stated in an interview earlier this year, Nargeolet would not have agreed to dive to Titan if he had been informed of the numerous problems with the submarine or of Rush’s cost-cutting measures during its testing and construction. That is also the claim in the wrongful death lawsuit his family filed in King County, Seattle, Washington.
Photo: OceanGate Expeditions
The lawsuit alleges gross negligence and strict product liability by OceanGate, which repeatedly failed to report problems with previous Titan units and failed to conduct adequate testing.
“If Stockton Rush had been transparent about all the problems encountered with the Titan, as well as with previous similar models, someone as knowledgeable and competent as Paul Henri-Nargeolet would not have participated,” Matt Shaffer, another attorney representing the Nargeolet family, said in a statement. “The record states that Stockton Rush simply was not truthful with the crew and passengers about the dangers he and others knew about, but the passengers and crew did not.”
Recently leaked documents show that Rush was careful to stifle any criticism of how he ran his company and built his submarine. He also revealed the kinds of cost-cutting measures he employed in building the Titan, ranging from ordering a hull after a prototype exploded instead of doing more testing, to the decision to use carbon fiber instead of the more expensive (but durable) titanium for the hull, and the refusal to perform structural tests after each dive.
Photo: OceanGate Expeditions
Because of all of these factors (and countless others), the Titan's hull cracked when repeatedly subjected to pressure of 6,500 psi at Titanic depths.
The wreck itself lies 3,800 metres/12,500 feet below the ocean floor, and the Titan has managed to reach it safely several times and come back up in one piece. The reason carbon fibre is not used in submarines is that the material tends to crack with repeated exposure to this type of pressure. Rush's refusal to do post-dive testing meant that the moment the five passengers inside realised the hull was cracking was right before the fatal implosion.
The lawsuit states that the five men aboard knew what fate awaited them just before Rush dropped the weights in an attempt to abort the descent. That occurred 90 minutes into the dive, when the submarine lost communication with the mother ship and all power.
Photo: OceanGate Expeditions
“Common sense suggests that the crew knew they were going to die, before they died,” he claims. “By the experts' calculations, they would have continued to descend, well aware of the ship's irreversible failures, experiencing terror and mental anguish before the Titan finally imploded.”
Nargeolet’s family also helped lead an investigation that exposed Rush’s (and OceanGate’s) shady business practices earlier this year, so the lawsuit shouldn’t be a surprise. That’s also when Cameron said Nargeolet wouldn’t have gotten involved if he’d known the company’s history, but he doesn’t appear to be directly involved in the lawsuit.
