On the Titan 5 Tragedy

 Look, I know I'm coming off as rather obsessed with the story of Titan, the submersible lost at sea, but remember, I knew of it before the accident. I followed Oceangate on social media, I watched their YouTube videos, I marveled at the pioneering 8k footage they took of the wreck of the Titanic.  This was, from a distance, personal. 

By now of course you know how it turned out. The craft was found 1600 feet from the bow of Titanic, the victim of an implosion that took the lives of all five men. 

May they rest in peace, and may perpetual light shine upon them. 

What sticks in my mind is a quote from the CEO, who died in the accident. To paraphrase, when speaking of the glass in the porthole, he told the reporter it would crack and spiderweb long before failure. If that glass was the cause of the implosion, did they have that warning? Did they notice? And because of it, did they die after minutes of panic and terror?

I hope not. 

Meanwhile, the jerks of the world continue to barrage the internet with jokes, mockery, and derision. Of the men themselves, as fools or as rich, which to the jealous is synonymous with "worthy of death," or of the craft itself. 

Let's get some things straight. Getting in that craft and descending two miles to the ocean floor, even when you are fully confident of success, is an act of bravery and fortitude that not many people are capable of pulling off. Period. They were certainly braver than the keyboard warriors who mock their deaths. 

And like I told one jerk online that hid behind the claim that "humor is a coping mechanism: it's a coping mechanism if you're actually *coping* with trauma. If you're using jokes merely to mock suffering,  then you're just an asshole. 

Of the craft itself: it was a product of innovation and imagination, not hubris, and designed by a Princeton educated engineer (Stockton Rush, the CEO who died aboard her.)  It wasn't a craft built for billionaires to use on vacation, it was funded and built by their ticket fees and a necessary evil. 

When he said, on camera, that he "broke a few rules" to build it, he wasn't saying the equivalent of "I skimped on putting brakes and seatbelts on the car I built" He was saying that he broke a few cliches of submersible design, by designing a craft capable of holding up to 5 people, and building it with carbon fiber. 

Was he wrong, in retrospect? Maybe. Unless some unknown damaged the Titan and doomed her mid-trip, the engineering failed. 

Yet it's important to note that the Titan had made up to 50 previous dives to varying depths, including successful dives to the Titanic. It would seem that material fatigue, not an overt design blunder, would be the immediate causation for the tragedy. 

[btw, there's been a million jokes about the video game controller that steered the craft. It wouldn't have been my choice, but it IS the choice, from what I've read, of the US Navy when it comes to operating periscopes on our subs. So, much ado about nothing.]

Yet, problems had arisen on prior dives, and the hodge-podge nature of the construction had raised concerns. Should every available minute between dive seasons have been spent reviewing and updating the craft? Yes, a thousand times yes. But God bless the independence, courage, and independence that spawned it in the first place. 

Would I have got on the Titan? Had I the money, yes I would have gone, although I am no daredevil.  A chance to see the Titanic, to be that close to history, how could you pass it up? 

Again, to the Titan 5: Rest in Peace