Vessel Vanishes on Dive to Titanic Wreck, Setting Off a Search (2023)

The submersible vessel carrying five people slipped into the dark waters of the North Atlantic, heading to what remained of the Titanic, 12,500 feet under the sea. The expedition, like many before it, was a testament to the enduring fascination with the storied ship that struck an iceberg and sank off Newfoundland more than a century ago.

But one hour and 45 minutes into the dive on Sunday morning, the craft went missing, setting off a search by rescue crews from two countries and adding another layer of mystery and intrigue to the Titanic wreck.

Among those on board was Hamish Harding, a British aviation tycoon who took part in Blue Origin’s fifth human spaceflight last year and holds several Guinness World Records, including for the longest time spent traversing the deepest part of the ocean on a single dive.

In social media posts, Mr. Harding, 58, had written excitedly about the upcoming trip. “I am proud to finally announce that I joined @oceangateexped for their RMS TITANIC mission as a mission specialist on the sub going down to the Titanic,” he said on Instagram, adding, “More expedition updates to follow, IF the weather holds.”

But a spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard, Rear Admiral John Mauger, said at a news conference that the people on the vessel, which was designed to survive an emergency for 96 hours, would theoretically have at least 70 to 96 hours of oxygen before the situation became dire.

“We’re using that time making the best use of every moment of that time,” he said.

The Coast Guard was coordinating with the Canadian authorities and commercial vessels to help search an area approximately 900 miles east of Cape Cod, at a depth of roughly 13,000 feet, he said. Sonar buoys were deployed into the water, and the expedition ship was using sonar to try to locate the submersible. Aircraft from the United States and Canada, along with surface vessels, were scanning the waves in case the submersible had surfaced and lost communications, he said.

“We are doing everything we can do,” Admiral Mauger said at the news conference, adding that it was “a challenge to conduct a search in that remote area, but we are deploying all available assets to make sure that we can locate the craft and rescue the people on board.”

Officials have not released the names of those on the craft, but Mr. Harding, chairman of a Dubai-based sales and air operations company, Action Aviation, was confirmed as being on board the missing submersible by Mark Butler, managing director of the company.

Mr. Harding said in another post that Paul Henry Nargeolet, a French expert on the Titanic, had been expected to be on the vessel that disappeared.

The 21-foot craft is operated by OceanGate Expeditions, a company that is based in Washington State and offers tours of shipwrecks and underwater canyons for $250,000 a person. OceanGate calls the Titan the only crewed submersible in the world that can take five people as deep as 4,000 meters — or more than 13,100 feet — enabling it to reach almost 50 percent of the world’s oceans. The vessel usually carries a pilot, three paying guests and a “content expert.”

In a statement on Monday, OceanGate said: “Our entire focus is on the crew members in the submersible and their families. We are deeply thankful for the extensive assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to reestablish contact with the submersible.”

RMS Titanic, a luxury liner and the world’s largest ship when built, struck an iceberg and sank one Sunday in April 1912, on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City. For decades afterward, searchers explored the North Atlantic for the ship’s wreck on the ocean floor.

Finally, in 1985, a team took undersea robots to depths of more than 12,000 feet and verified that the broken hulk it had found less than 400 miles from Newfoundland was, indeed, the Titanic of lore.

The deteriorating ruin of the Titanic lies in waters some two and a half miles deep — far deeper than ordinary submarines can venture. At that depth, the water pressure is hundreds of times as high as it is just below the surface.

A submersible traveling down to the Titanic faces soaring, crushing pressure during its long descent. At the ship’s resting place, the weight of the icy ocean pressing down would be equal to a tower of solid lead overhead rising to the height of the Empire State Building.

Typically, searchers and researchers looking in such inky depths rely on advanced robots that use remote-controlled television, photography and sonar-mapping systems that can survive the crushing pressures and pierce the darkness. But such exploratory work is expensive and often frustrating.

For 111 years, the Titanic shipwreck had garnered intense interest among researchers and treasure hunters captivated by its tragic history: the horror of the accident, the inadequacy of the lifeboats, the supposed hubris of the ship’s builders and operators, the enormous wealth of many and the poverty of others on board, and the deadly indifference of the iceberg and the sea.

Tourists began paying for dives by submersible. Salvage crews were hunting for artifacts to bring back up, over the objections of preservationists who said the wreck should be honored as the graveyard of more than 1,500 people. Researchers said the site was littered with beer and soda bottles and the remains of salvage efforts, including weights, chains and cargo nets.

James Cameron, the award-winning director, reinvigorated interest in the ship with his 1997 film, “Titanic.” Mr. Cameron’s cinematic hit imbued the wreck with a new story of romance and tragedy, renewing interest far beyond those with an interest in famous maritime accidents.

By the early 2000s, scientists were warning that visitors were a threat to the wreck, saying that gaping holes had opened up in the decks, walls had crumpled, and that rusticles — icicle-shaped structures of rust — were spreading all over the ship.

Mr. Cameron, who has repeatedly visited the Titanic, was among those calling for care around the site. He took 3-D cameras there for his 2003 documentary, “Ghosts of the Abyss.”

By the time OceanGate Expeditions, a private company founded in 2009, began offering tours to paying customers, researchers said that the Titanic had little scientific value compared with other sites. But cultural interest in the ship remains extraordinarily high, and the disaster continues to command a fascination online, sometimes at the expense of facts.

Last summer, the president of OceanGate, Stockton Rush, told The New York Times that private exploration was needed to continue feeding public fascination with the wreck site.

OceanGate also shared a one-minute clip of video obtained during one of its trips to the wreck site. Mr. Rush said that the high quality of the footage allowed researchers to get an even closer look at the site without having to go underwater.

He compared the OceanGate trips to space tourism, saying the commercial voyages were the first step to expanding the use of the submersibles for industrial activities, such as inspecting and maintaining underwater oil rigs.

The dives offered by the company last about eight hours, including the estimated 2.5 hours each way it takes to descend and ascend. Scientists and historians provide context on the trip and some conduct research at the site, which has become a reef that is home to many organisms. The team also documents the wreckage with high-definition cameras to monitor its decay and capture it in detail.

In his post on Instagram, Mr. Harding, who boarded the submersible before it lost contact, wrote of the planned dive, “The team on the sub has a couple of legendary explorers, some of which have done over 30 dives to the RMS Titanic since the 1980s.”

He also said, “Due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023.”

Amanda Holpuch, William J. Broad and Andrea Kannapell contributed reporting.