The curse of the Titanic: the loss of the bathyscaphe reminded of the most famous disaster

The submersible that went missing in the North Atlantic was part of an expedition to inspect the wreck of the Titanic, arguably the most famous shipwreck in the world.

More than 100 years after its disastrous maiden voyage, the fate of the luxury liner has long served as a source of fascination and has provided the backdrop for countless books, fiction and non-fiction and, of course, the famous DiCaprio blockbuster.

The estimated cost of building the liner was $7.5 million. At the time, the Titanic was the largest passenger ship afloat. The ship was 882 feet 9 inches long and weighed 46,328 tons. Its maximum speed was 23 knots. The wreck is located about 350 miles off the southeast coast of Newfoundland.

The Titanic sailed from Southampton, England, to New York on April 10, 1912. Then, between April 14 and 15, around midnight, she collided with an iceberg and sank in less than three hours.

A total of 1,517 people died and 706 out of 2,223 passengers and crew survived, according to a US Senate report on the disaster.

The iceberg pierced five of the 16 presumably watertight compartments designed to hold water in the event of a hole in the hull. An investigation at the time blamed the captain. Edward Smith for sailing too fast in dangerous waters, too quick an initial inspection of the ship, not enough space in lifeboats for all passengers, and the failure of a neighboring ship to provide assistance. Many maritime security reforms have been implemented as a result of the results of the investigations. Captain Smith himself sank along with the ship, and his body was never found.

In 1985, scientists from the Woods Hole Deep Sea Laboratory in Massachusetts, headed by Dr. Robert Ballard, and the French Institute for Seabed Research, headed by Jean Jarry, discovered the wreck of the Titanic.

In July 1986, Ballard and his team used the Alvin manned deep-sea research vehicle to examine the wreckage. “Elvin” was accompanied by a remote-controlled vehicle for photography and further checks.

The last known survivor of the Titanic, Milvin Dean, died at the age of 97 on May 31, 2009.

In April 2012, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the first and last voyage of the Titanic, the route of the liner from Southampton to New York was repeated and a memorial service was held over the crash site on April 15.

Summer 2022 Magellan deep sea explorers and filmmakers Atlantic Productions used deep sea mapping for the first time to create an “accurate ‘digital twin’ of the sunken Titanic.”

Well, in the meantime, rescuers are in a “race against time” to find the crew of the now-missing submersible, says David Gallo, senior advisor for strategic initiatives at RMS Titanic, which owns exclusive rights to search for the wreckage of the Titanic.

If the submersible is intact, those on board will face declining oxygen levels and struggle with the cold, Gallo told CNN.

Hypothermia would be a problem “if the sub is still at the bottom because the deep ocean is just above freezing,” Gallo says.

“One of the biggest questions is where is it? Is it at the bottom, is it floating, is it in the middle of the water? That’s something that hasn’t been determined yet… We’ll have to wait and see and hope for the best,” – he said.

Once (or if) the submersible is located, the search team may face even greater difficulties in trying to rescue the crew, CNN notes.

“The water is very deep – more than 2 miles. It’s like being on another planet, it’s not what people think. It’s a sunless, cold environment and high pressure,” says Gallo.

It’s one thing to get there, it’s another to “understand the situation about what the problem is with the submarine and then get to work to try to fix it,” the expert added.

According to David Gallo, the surface ship should have a good idea of ​​where the last known location of the submersible was.

“The submarine will not go very far. If the craft is in trouble on the surface, it can skid a little, but at the bottom it’s moving at 2 miles per hour, something like that. So the search area should be small,” Gallo said. However, that doesn’t mean finding a small submersible in such deep and vast waters will be easy, he admits.

“That means you can focus on a very narrow area and use your sonars, cameras and whatever else you need to do in that area to try to locate the sub,” Gallo said. “So it’s not the same as searching a huge seabed area.

Read also: Strange details have appeared in the case of the missing submersible near the Titanic