Race to find Titanic tourist submarine with British billionaire and four others aboard that has vanished

Grampa Don said:
I served on a diesel sub in the mid 60's. I didn't have a death wish. Sure, there are risks, like any military service. But, we were trained to know how to handle them. You trust your shipmates to do the right thing.

Once, we picked up some Marines from Camp Pendleton for a practice beach landing. I could see that some of them were nervous, and I didn't blame them. We surfaced and let them off in rubber boats at night. A couple Seals went along as life guards. When they returned, we snagged a line between the boats with our periscope and brought them the back aboard. The only damage was that one of the boats somehow got punctured. I was happy to stay in my nice warm boat.

Our test depth was just 400 ft to the keel. We had a buoy in the forward deck with a line that led to the escape hatch. It could be released if necessary, but it was only good for about 300ft. Theoretically, a rescue ship could lower a diving bell along that line. But, the chance of being stuck in water that shallow is really slim. And, when we were deployed to the far East they welded the buoy to the deck so that it couldn't accidently be released. They also painted over our hull numbers.

I've been in air so thin you couldn't keep a cigarette lit, and I can tell you it is uncomfortable. It's the build up of CO2 that you feel. You can take deep breaths and it doesn't do any good.
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I remember those practices for beach landings. Thank God that I never had to participate in any. Have you ever seen the movie K19-The Widowmaker? The story about the Russian nuclear sub that became disabled due to an issue with the reactor and a few of the men took turns going inside the casement in an attempt to repair it and did so enough to get the sub back to port. Those also were very brave men. They all came out with radiation poisoning and eventually died.
 

hollydolly said:
I'm a little older now and I don't have the money or in fact the best health that I would need for adventures any more.. but I kinda understand where these people are coming from. Both my daughter and I are /were very into trying any adventurous thing at least once... she more than me because she could afford it more than me back in the day... but from jumping out of Planes, sky diving, .. Parasailing ( my favourite) ..... scuba diving in the Australia at the great Barrier reef..bungee jumping in South Africa .... Mountain hiking in Spain... F1 motor racing in the UK... ..you get the Gist... it's just a lot of fun.. but even if I'd had the money there are things I wouldn't have tried, and this fated Titan trip would have been one of them
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In some ways, I wish that I had been a more adventurous spirit but, I couldn't even get on a fairground ride! I do admire people who have a sense of adventure though.

It may be that the danger was part of the attraction although, I can't imagine that any of them ever thought it would cost them their lives.
 
I just value my life too much right now to ever even think of going down in that tourist submarine. I am and have been a bit of a risk taker throughout my life...just not on that level.

My heart goes out to the families of those lost just the same.
 
Avon said:
I am lost of late. In May, a UK Father decided to cross the Atlantic in a 3-foot-long boat which never lasted a day. Perhaps folk believe they are immortal.
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yes true..but we mustn't forget there are a lot of incredibly stupid and gullible people around.. quite scary tbh
 
PeppermintPatty said:
I didn’t realize this was a true story. Did this man never see the size of the waves the Atlantic sea gets in a severe storm? He’s lucky he only lasted a day .
Scary! 😳
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...y-dream-sail-Atlantic-homemade-boat-ends.html
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Well, he probably did save himself one big headache.

My life long dream to singlehand a sailboat across an ocean was inspired by a book (The Tinkerbell) that I read in high school, about a guy who made the same trip as above in a 13 ft sailboat, but I wasn't that adventurous. My boat was 42 ft, and loaded with redundant safety gear. My goal was only to sail as far west as Hawaii, and when I told some friends I met there that I always wanted to sail across an ocean, one of them, a merchant seaman, replied, "You know, Hawaii is not even half way across the Pacific." OK, he made a good point, but semantics aside, I did what I wanted to do, and 2200 miles of open water was satisfying enough. Then I crossed about that same amount of blue water the next year when I sailed from Hawaii to Sitka, Alaska.
 
JustDave said:
Well, he probably did save himself one big headache.

My life long dream to singlehand a sailboat across an ocean was inspired by a book (The Tinkerbell) that I read in high school, about a guy who made the same trip as above in a 13 ft sailboat, but I wasn't that adventurous. My boat was 42 ft, and loaded with redundant safety gear. My goal was only to sail as far west as Hawaii, and when I told some friends I met there that I always wanted to sail across an ocean, one of them, a merchant seaman, replied, "You know, Hawaii is not even half way across the Pacific." OK, he made a good point, but semantics aside, I did what I wanted to do, and 2200 miles of open water was satisfying enough. Then I crossed about that same amount of blue water the next year when I sailed from Hawaii to Sitka, Alaska.
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What? Are you serious?
You sailed 2200 miles in the ocean in a 42 foot sailboat?😱 OMG! Did you sail with others? A friend? A relative?
How long did it take you?
Did you run into any problems?
Meet any sharks or whales?
Any cool stories you could share?
 
The university student who was killed in the tragic Titanic submarine 'implosion' was 'terrified' about the trip and only joined the crew to please his dad for Father's Day, his heartbroken aunt has revealed.

Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, 19, were two of the five victims killed instantly when the OceanGate submersible suffered a 'catastrophic implosion' just 1,600ft from the bow of the Titanic, according to the US Coast Guard.

The other victims were OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, French Navy veteran Paul-Henri (PH) Nargeolet and British billionaire Hamish Harding. They had been missing since the Titan sub vanished on Sunday, prompting a nail-biting search for the crew.

Tragically, Azmeh Dawood told NBC News that her nephew informed a relative he 'wasn't very up for it' but felt compelled to please his father, who was very passionate about the 1912 shipwreck.

72370719-12224919-Shahzada_Dawood_and_his_son_Suleman-m-22_1687472861686.jpg
 
PeppermintPatty said:
What? Are you serious?
You sailed 2200 miles in the ocean in a 42 foot sailboat?😱 OMG! Did you sail with others? A friend? A relative?
How long did it take you?
Did you run into any problems?
Meet any sharks or whales?
Any cool stories you could share?
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Los Angles to Hawaii was by myself. Four days out, my autopilot stopped working, and I had to steer manually. So at night I put the ship to sleep so to speak and only averaged less than 100 miles a day. I have diary somewhere, but as I recall, that leg took about 24 days.

From Hawaii to Alaska, I had a friend from Seattle aboard. He went back to Seattle after we made landfall, and I wintered in Petersburg, Alaska, and then I sailed the SW Alaskan coast the next summer. Then in August, friends from Montana joined me, and we left Petersburg and spent a couple of weeks sailing down to Ketchikan, where they caught a plane back to Montana, and I headed down the Inland Passage by myself. Whales were abundant in Alaska. I probably saw somewhere around 100 Humpback Whales that summer. I also saw grizzly bears and all kinds of wildlife. Those same whales migrate to Hawaii for the winter, but I didn't encounter any out on the open water, just in channels. Never saw a shark, they don't come to the surface, but Dophins played in my bow wake many times, both in channels and in the open sea.

In September, my sister and her husband from Chicago joined me for two weeks poking around in Southern British Columbia, and that winter I spent in Victoria, BC. Then I sold the boat in the Spring.

I don't want to sidetrack this active thread too much, so I'll cut this off for now.
 
That’s an extraordinary adventure. Thank you for sharing it with me. I’ve deleted my original post since I’m the one who has taken this serious thread off course.
Hopefully JustDave, you have a journal or thread somewhere about this. If not, maybe you might.
 
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hollydolly said:
The university student who was killed in the tragic Titanic submarine 'implosion' was 'terrified' about the trip and only joined the crew to please his dad for Father's Day, his heartbroken aunt has revealed.

Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, 19, were two of the five victims killed instantly when the OceanGate submersible suffered a 'catastrophic implosion' just 1,600ft from the bow of the Titanic, according to the US Coast Guard.

The other victims were OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, French Navy veteran Paul-Henri (PH) Nargeolet and British billionaire Hamish Harding. They had been missing since the Titan sub vanished on Sunday, prompting a nail-biting search for the crew.

Tragically, Azmeh Dawood told NBC News that her nephew informed a relative he 'wasn't very up for it' but felt compelled to please his father, who was very passionate about the 1912 shipwreck.

72370719-12224919-Shahzada_Dawood_and_his_son_Suleman-m-22_1687472861686.jpg
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What a tragedy that his father insisted he go, and now his mother has lost her husband and son. Adults can make their own decisions, but a father that insists that his son participate in something dangerous... I have no words. RIP Suleman. You had your whole life ahead of you. :(
 
This incident brings me a great deal of sorrow. With the ending now fairly well confirmed, been thinking about what I could offer anyone contemplating an adventure such as this for themselves, their families and/or friends.

Consider taking time to conduct what is know as a 'Dedicated Risk Assessment.' Doing an on-line search will bring up a number of formats for risk assessments and risk matrixes. Most are military and may not fit the needs of civilian adventure planning. But perhaps they may serve as a guide in determining how to prepare one's assessment for personal adventure.

Think I'm talking to the choir here, as it were. Most of us are seniors and have been doing our own informal risk assessments our entire lives, or likely we wouldn't be here now. Still it might be of benefit to pass along to friends or family. Or, as many of us are doing now, working down our bucket list. Sometimes in the zeal of working out an adventure, the inherent risks get set aside. A risk assessment is a good tool to keep one's planning at a safe and sane level.

Again, much sorrow over the loss of these five souls and for the eternal hurt their families will endure.
 
God what are we talking about now!! - RIP pf course - crazy crazy peoples - I think they may or should be some investigations into the org who built this sub as I understand certain staff were either sacked or left after speaking out about safety concerns. Would they have taken the same risk if they knew of these safety concerns? and with a young son as well? Perhaps this 'adventure' should have been stopped before it started legally. Yes many questions to ask ??? RIP
 
May those whose lives were lost RIP. My heart goes out to their families & friends also. It's not the answer they wanted, but at least they know what's happened to them.

I understand why scientists went down there to study the wreck to learn what happened & attempt to answer questions from over the years. But to me, everyone else was only a tourist who was gawking at the wreck of a tragedy. I couldn't have made a trip like that because I would have been afraid that I was tempting fate. I guess I'm just superstitious about certain things, like disrespecting what is actually an underwater cemetery.

The scientists, IMO, has made it possible for those lost from the sinking to have their story told after all of these years. It would be sad if they forgotten after what they went through.
 

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