going <\/em>to the Titanic anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPOGUE: What other institutions are doing this regular visit thing to the Titanic? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
RUSH: No one is doing it to the Titanic. So, it\u2019s nobody. The last time anybody went to the Titanic was a brief trip in 2019. And, before that, the last time anybody went in a submersible, I think, was 2005, 2007. So, no one has been down there and no one is planning to go back, except us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
POGUE: Wow. Why isn\u2019t it the most studied, visited archaeological site in the world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RUSH: Well, I mean, it\u2019s very difficult to do. It costs a lot to get that ship out there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The other thing we found interesting was that this isn\u2019t just a tourism outfit. Every OceanGate expedition to the Titanic also brings scientists aboard, doing actual research. In effect, the paying passengers are subsidizing the science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
POGUE: Are these scientific expeditions or are they adventure travel expeditions? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
RUSH: So, they are a blend. They are technically adventure travel with a science component or a research component or an exploration component. Every dive has a scientific purpose or a research or an exploration purpose, but it is funded by somebody who is looking for an adventure travel experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, OceanGate insists on addressing its paying customers with the clumsy five-syllable term \u201cmission specialist.\u201d Before our shoot this summer, they even emailed me a document that basically said, In thy news reporting, thou shalt not use the terms \u201ctourists,\u201d \u201ccustomers,\u201d or \u201cpassengers.\u201d The term is \u201cmission specialists.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, whatever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is true that these people are invited to do actual work on the sub all week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
POGUE: And, how real are the jobs being done by those folks? I mean, is it keep your \u2014 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
RUSH: Makework or not? Yes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
POGUE: Yes, makework. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
RUSH: No. It can be \u2014 there are things that are maybe less critical, for example, reviewing video content. You know, you\u2019re not going to hurt anybody if you mess that up. We\u2019ve sort of identified what those things are: cleaning out the sub when it comes back. We got to put new supplies in. Closing the dome, you can double check that easily. So, a lot of those things are easy to do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Titanic lies 400 miles southeast of St Johns, Newfoundland, Canada. And yes, that\u2019s how they say it: NEWfoundland. Not newFOUNDland, and not NEWfoundlund. It\u2019s NEWfoundland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And what\u2019s so special about St Johns? This town happens to sit at the easternmost tippy-tip of all of North America. If you want to sail to the Titanic efficiently, you start there, because that\u2019s as close as land gets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
David Pogue self-video: Welcome to St. Johns. A place so special, it\u2019s got its own time zone: 90 minutes ahead of New York City. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s the third banjo player I\u2019ve seen today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our home for the next nine days was going to be a gigantic, blue, industrial ship called the Horizon Arctic, which is ordinarily used for hauling around floating oil rigs and sometimes icebergs. Stockton Rush had rented it and its crew for the summer, to carry us and his experimental submersible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, the back of the ship is a huge, flat, open deck. It\u2019s ordinarily filled with enormous oil-rig components. And the front is the ship part, and it\u2019s 8 decks tall. So the whole ship looks kind of front-heavy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But on that back deck, shining in the summer sun, there it was: Stockton Rush\u2019s submersible. It\u2019s one of only five subs in the world capable of reaching Titanic depths without imploding\u2014and the one that I\u2019d be spending 12 hours in myself, if I got lucky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sub is called the Titan. The main, center section looks like a shiny white tube, about minivan length. It\u2019s made of five-inch-thick carbon fiber\u2014which nobody\u2019s ever used in a submersible before. I asked Rush about that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
POGUE: And surely, there were some pushback when you\u2019re, like, \u201cI\u2019m going to design my sub to take non-scientists to the Titanic out of a material that hasn\u2019t been used before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RUSH: Yes. When you\u2019re trying something outside the box, people inside the box think you\u2019re nuts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
POGUE: And, what\u2019s the virtue of the carbon fiber? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
RUSH: It\u2019s three times better on a strength-to-buoyancy basis than titanium. And so, that\u2019s in underwater. That\u2019s what you care about. \/By having a light hull, you have a smaller vessel, therefore you can have a smaller ship, everything starts to get not easier, but it\u2019s different and a little bit easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At each end of the white tube is a shiny silver dome. They\u2019re like end caps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
KYLE: We\u2019ve got the forward dome, three and a quarter-inch thick titanium. Another hemisphere in the back, another titanium hemisphere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is mission director Kyle Bingham, giving me a tour. There\u2019s also a weird-looking stub mounted to the back dome, which he calls the rear cage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
KYLE: This rear cage holds the batteries, the electronics, these spears, which are the brains, and a little bit of foam in the back to trim the whole thing up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The front end cap has a 22-inch round window, made of seven-inch-thick Plexiglas, so you can see out. When you get to the bottom of the ocean, that\u2019s your view of the Titanic. That, and whatever the exterior cameras are showing you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stockton gave me a tour of the inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RUSH: Shoes off. That\u2019s customary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
POGUE: Okay. Thank you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
POGUE: Wow. It\u2019s like\u2026It\u2019s like a minivan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
RUSH: Yeah, it\u2019s a Suburban. It\u2019s a little bigger than you would think. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
POGUE: It\u2019s a good size. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
RUSH: So this is not your grandfather\u2019s submersible. Most of the deep diving subs were made with a purpose. It\u2019s a science tool, so there wasn\u2019t a lot of thought given to creature comforts, which tend to be spheres. They\u2019re small, they\u2019re cramped. They don\u2019t have a toilet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
POGUE: Toilet? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
RUSH: We have a toilet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, kind of. If you have to go to the bathroom during the dive, you can crawl into the window end of the sub and hang up a black cloth for privacy. There\u2019s an 18-inch square box on the floor that contains Zip-lock bags\u2014and that\u2019s your toilet. Stockton promises that they turn up the music really loud while you\u2019re in the\u2026bathroom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are a couple of touchscreen PC monitors on the floor of the sub, but otherwise, there are no controls <\/em>in this thing!<\/p>\n\n\n\nPOGUE: Wait a minute. I\u2019ve seen submersibles, and they are banks of controls, cockpit after cockpit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RUSH: Exactly. Yeah. It\u2019s like, yeah, you can have a lot of buttons and things like that. Or you can use modern technology to make it simple. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
POGUE: So how do you drive it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RUSH: Um, we run the whole thing with this game controller. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
POGUE: Come on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
RUSH: This thing is made for a 16 year old to throw it around, and we keep a couple of spares. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m not kidding. He drives his multimillion-dollar sub with a white plastic Xbox game controller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that\u2019s not the only part of this sub that seemed kind of\u2026jerry-rigged. Take, for example, the ceiling lights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RUSH: So yes, I got these from Camper World and they are LED lights in here. And um, a nice little decorative feature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then there are the cameras:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RUSH: We have a number of cameras that are actually security cameras. A lot of subs have custom made video capture systems because it gives them a lot of flexibility. But we got rid of that and just saying, look, we just want to capture the image. No, we are\u2013 we can use these off the shelf components. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later, when I interviewed Rush at his headquarters near Seattle, I asked him about that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
POGUE: It seems like this submersible has some elements of MacGyvery jerryriggedness . You\u2019re like, \u201cwe bought these handles off camperworld.com\u201d. You\u2019re like, \u201cthese thrusters are modified from some other purpose.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
RUSH: I don\u2019t know if I\u2019d use that description of it. But, there are certain things that you want to be buttoned down, and that\u2019s the pressure vessel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pressure vessel is the carbon-fiber tube\u2014the part that keeps the human beings alive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
RUSH: (cont\u2019d) So, the pressure vessel is not MacGyver at all, because that\u2019s where we work with Boeing and NASA and the University of Washington. That part, once the pressure vessel is \u2014 you\u2019re certain it\u2019s not going to collapse on everybody, everything else can fail. It doesn\u2019t matter. Your thrusters can go. Your lights can go. All these things can fail. You\u2019re still going to be safe. And so, that allows you to do what you call MacGyver stuff. You just have to be very careful that the life support system, the sub itself, the oxygen system, the carbon dioxide scrubbing, all that stuff that needs to be buttoned down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
POGUE: But, surely, I\u2019m not the first layperson to say, \u201cI can\u2019t believe this isn\u2019t a more finished solid state-of-the-art NASA electronic.\u201d I mean, you\u2019re putting construction pipes as ballast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RUSH: People are surprised by it, and not people in the industry, because that\u2019s what they do. I mean, the French had bags of stuff they dropped. The Russians used just steel shot with a little magnetic release and they drop it. All deep diving subs are prototypes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Please remember that line: All deep-diving subs are prototypes. That should be a T-shirt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
POGUE: Are there ever clients who are taken aback and expected something more\u2026polished? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
RUSH: Oh, yes. Yes. When we started out, we did have cases where a travel agent or a travel consultant would lead them to believe this was like going to the Four Seasons and booking a zip lining trip, and we\u2019ll never be like that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, I\u2019ve been the host of 20 \u201cNOVA\u201d science specials on PBS. And I\u2019ve done a lot of shenanigans to make science telegenic. I\u2019ve gone hang gliding, I\u2019ve been given electric shocks, I\u2019ve been subjected to extreme temperatures, I\u2019ve pet 13-foot sharks in the Bahamas. But I\u2019ve never <\/em>feared for my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\nGotta tell you\u2014this was different. I mean, here are just a few choice excerpts from the waiver you have to sign:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ll bet there\u2019s some hilarious music you could add\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cThe experimental submersible vessel has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body. Any failure could cause severe injury or death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The support vessel is an industrial vessel not designed for passenger operations and present many hazards, including\u2026property damage, injury, disability, or death. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If I choose to assist in the servicing of the submersible, I will be exposed to high-pressure gases, high-voltage electrical systems, and other dangers that could lead to property damage, injury, disability, and death. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I hereby assume full responsibility for the risk of bodily injury, disability, death.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oh, great. Where do I sign?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I mean, I was actually scared. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n* last year<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nLast year, at the end of a Titanic dive, OceanGate had trouble getting the sub back onto the ship. Those poor mission specialists \u2026they wound up spending 27 hours in the sub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Granted, the company says the sub has 96 hours\u2019 worth of oxygen and power.<\/strong> And Stockton isn\u2019t exactly an amateur. As a young man, he designed and built his own fiberglass airplane, which he still flies. Titan isn\u2019t even his first submersible.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut it sure doesn\u2019t help your anxiety much when someone says stuff like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RUSH: You know, there\u2019s a limit. You know, at some point, safety just is pure waste. I mean, if you just want to be safe, don\u2019t get out of bed. Don\u2019t get in your car. Don\u2019t do anything. At some point, you\u2019re going to take some risk, and it really is a risk\/reward question. I think I can do this just as safely by breaking the rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bottom line, the last couple of nights before the expedition, I didn\u2019t sleep AT ALL. Did I want to die for a TV story\u2014and a really great podcast episode?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I mainly worried about three things. First, I worried that the sub would collapse under the pressure\u20146,000 pounds per square inch. That\u2019s about the pressure you\u2019d feel on your chest if 46 school buses parked on your sternum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Rush reminded me that the deeper you go, the tighter the water presses those titanium endcaps onto the carbon-fiber tube. The whole thing becomes more waterproof the deeper it goes. OH! Ok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Second, I worried about running out of air. The Titan uses the same kind of oxygen scrubbers that they use on submarines and spacecraft\u2014they convert carbon dioxide back into oxygen\u2014but what if that system breaks down? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, I learned that the Titan also carries chemical scrubber strips <\/em>that you can break out and hang from the ceiling in an emergency. And as a backup backup, it\u2019s got plain old scuba oxygen tanks in storage under the floor. Oh really?<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut I also worried about getting back to the surface. Exactly what kind of ballast did this thing have? According to Kyle Bingham, a LOT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, there are three enormous, heavy, black, beat-up lead construction pipes on each side of the sub. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
KYLE: These triple weights, we call \u2018em, are hydraulically driven. So we operate \u2018em inside, doesn\u2019t take any electricity, can be done manually, and those drop away and gain us a lot of buoyancy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dropping that much weight onto the sea floor means the sub starts rising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But what if the hydraulic system breaks? Well, then they have roll weights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
KYLE: Ah, so, we\u2019ve got these weights here on the side, these are roll weights, we can actually roll the sub and those come off, and that gains us some buoyancy to come back to the surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These are pipes that sit on a shelf that juts out from either side of the sub, held in place only by gravity. If everyone inside the sub shifts their weight to one side, the sub tips enough to let these pipes roll off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If that <\/em>doesn\u2019t work, there are ballast bags, full of metal shot, hanging below the sub.<\/p>\n\n\n\nKYLE: These bags down below, we drop those off using motors and electric fingers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
OK. But what if the electronics go out, and the hydraulics fail, and <\/em>everyone inside has passed out unconscious? <\/p>\n\n\n\nKYLE: There\u2019s fusible links within these that actually can dissolve and come back in time if it\u2019s drop off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fusible links are self-dissolving bonds. After 16 hours in seawater<\/strong>, those bonds disintegrate, the weight bags drop off automatically, and you go back to the surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnd even those four systems aren\u2019t the end of it. The sub\u2019s thrusters can also push it up; the pilot can jettison the sub\u2019s legs as dead weight; and there\u2019s even an airbag they can inflate to provide buoyancy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
All told, that\u2019s seven different ways to get the sub back up to the surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
POGUE: Wow. Those are a lot of backups of backups. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
KYLE: Yes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
POGUE: I guess you really don\u2019t want to be stuck down there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
KYLE: Going home is required. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I asked Stockton Rush about the whole danger thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
POGUE: How dangerous is it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RUSH: I don\u2019t think it\u2019s very dangerous. \/ if you look at submersible activity over the last three decades, there hasn\u2019t even been a major injury, let alone a fatality.<\/strong> What worries us is not once you\u2019re underwater. What worries me is when I\u2019m getting you there, when you\u2019re on the ship in icy states with big doors that can crush your hands and people who may not have the best balance who fall down, bang their head. That\u2019s, to me, the dangerous part. But, the scary part for most people is going down to 6,000 PSI. <\/p>\n\n\n\nPOGUE: Yes. It\u2019s counterintuitive. I would certainly not expect life on the surface ship to be the dangerous part. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
RUSH: Yes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
POGUE: So, once we\u2019re down there, what ARE the things to worry about? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
RUSH: What I worry about most are things that will stop me from being able to get to the surface. Overhangs, fish nets, entanglement hazards. And, that\u2019s just a technique, piloting technique. It\u2019s pretty clear\u2014 if it\u2019s an overhang, don\u2019t go under it. If there is a net, don\u2019t go near it. So, you can avoid those if you are just slow and steady.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of our fellow expeditioners were rich people seeking adventure, like a hedge-fund guy with his son, an artificial-intelligence pioneer who\u2019d sold a bunch of companies, and Shrenik Baldota, who runs a massive industrial conglomerate in India. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2026use whichever you think sounds best!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nPOGUE: And you have a nickname? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
SHRENIK: Yeah, they call me the wild monk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
POGUE: The wild monk? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
SHRENIK: Yeah, because I look like a monk. I\u2019m very calm, but I have these extreme interests that I do. Going into a live volcano in Vanuatu, two times to Antarctica, on an edge of space flight at 70,000 feet on a MiG-29, swimming with the blue whales, catching crocodiles in Botswana with National Geographic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
POGUE: You\u2019ve done all this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SHRENIK: Yeah<\/p>\n\n\n\n
POGUE: You\u2019ve witnessed this week, and previous weeks, many dives getting canceled. Have you talked your brain through what will happen if you don\u2019t get to go down at all?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SHRENIK: I\u2019ll come back again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ha! Fateful words, as you\u2019ll see in a bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then\u2026there was Renata Rojas. She is not a hedge-fund dude or owner of a major industrial complex. She works in a bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
POGUE: You don\u2019t strike me as a multimillionaire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RENATA: I am not a multimillionaire. I\u2019ve been saving to do this my entire life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
POGUE: When you told people that you were spending almost the price of a small house to do this one-day trip, did you get any reactions?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RENATA: Most people think I\u2019m crazy by spending all this money and trying to go down to see Titanic. My response is, \u201cDreams don\u2019t have a price.\u201d Some people want a Ferrari. Some people have children. Some people buy a house. I wanted to go to Titanic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She\u2019s not kidding. She really <\/em>wants to see the Titanic.<\/p>\n\n\n\nRENTA: I\u2019m trying to fulfill a dream. A quest that I\u2019ve had since I\u2019m a child. I saw the movie \u201cA Night to Remember\u201d in black and white, and the mystery of Titanic having vanished. Something so large and magnificent, having vanished from the face of the earth and nobody knew where it was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA Night to Remember\u201d is a famous 1934 movie about the sinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RENATA: So I started to do a little bit of investigation of how I could go to Titanic. Back then, it was only $40,000, which I do not have. So I started saving my money. And by the time I got to the $40,000, it was $60,000, and then it became $80,000. And I just kept saving up and trying to get into an expedition. Finally, in 2010, I got into the deep ocean expeditions, uh, bicentennial dives. But those expeditions were not only postponed twice, but then canceled. Then the Mirs were retired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Mirs were a pair of Russian submersibles\u2014the same ones that James Cameron rode down to the Titanic when he filmed scenes for his movie. The Mirs are no longer in service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RENATA: (cond\u2019td) So the quest became trying to find a private submersible company that would be willing to go to Titanic. And I stumbled into Ocean Gate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She was the company\u2019s very first customer. She joined the very first two expeditions, the first two weeks of operation in 2021. But the Titan had mechanical problems the first week, and never made it down to the Titanic. And the second week, the weather was too bad to dive. Of course, she could <\/em>have stayed on board for a third week\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\nPOGUE: But you didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RENATA: I had to leave. I had to leave. My father at the time got sick, so I wanted to go down to Mexico to, to, uh, to see how he was. And so I went back home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A year went by. Since she\u2019d missed her chance the first year, OceanGate gave her a free do-over this <\/em>summer. Renata Rojas was finally <\/em>going to achieve her dream! Except\u2026her bad luck struck again, this time in the form of air-travel hell.<\/p>\n\n\n\nRENATA: Well, there was 4th of July weekend and Canada Day. I got stuck in the airports, my flights got cancelled, and I ended up landing in St John\u2019s too late to meet the boat. Almost seems like the universe wants to tell you something, and for a second, you just want to give up. You do think, all this effort for what? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
POGUE: That\u2019s why I wanted to talk to you. Because you have been wanting to do this for\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RENATA: 40 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
POGUE: And at least twice now it\u2019s been in your grasp and then taken away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RENATA: At least three times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
POGUE: Three times\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RENATA: \u2026has been in my grasp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
POGUE: So psychologically, what do you chant to yourself? What do you tell yourself? To not lose your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RENATA: You just cry a lot. And just keep the dream alive because it\u2019s something that I have I have to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
POGUE: I think it\u2019s next week, Renata.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RENATA: I hope so. If it\u2019s not next week, it will happen. Next year\u2014maybe it\u2019s next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Would Renata ever <\/em>get to see the darned shipwreck? Would I? Will you? The answers to those questions and more\u2014after the ads!<\/p>\n\n\n\n