{"id":109,"date":"2022-12-19T10:45:10","date_gmt":"2022-12-19T15:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/?p=109"},"modified":"2023-10-29T11:38:01","modified_gmt":"2023-10-29T15:38:01","slug":"back-to-titanic-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/2022\/12\/19\/back-to-titanic-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Back to Titanic Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Season 2 \u2022\u00a0Episode 3<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In \u201cBack to Titanic\u201d Part 1, David Pogue told of his invitation to join an expedition to visit the wreck of the Titanic in a custom submersible. The company, OceanGate, ordinarily charges $250,000 per person, as part of a new wave in adventure travel.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bad weather immediately canceled the dive that Pogue and the \u201cCBS Sunday Morning\u201d crew were scheduled to join\u2014but the CEO offered a consolation dive to the Grand Banks. The sights were said to include shark breeding grounds, towering underwater cliffs, and marine species never seen before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Just as the sub was descending beneath the waves, the order to halt came from mission control.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this episode, the story concludes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unsungscience-20221219.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Episode Transcript<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Season 2, Episode 3: Back to the Titanic. Part 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Intro<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Theme begins.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>2021 was a big year for adventure travel. For the first time in history, rich people could pay their way onto rockets for brief joyrides in space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was also the year that a company called OceanGate began taking passengers down to see the wreck of the Titanic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RUSH: I just wanted to do cool things with cool people. And the second objective was I wanted to expand humanity\u2019s understanding of the ocean and ocean awareness.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This summer, I joined one of the OceanGate expeditions in hopes of seeing how it all works. I found out, all right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m David Pogue, and this is \u201cUnsung Science.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, you\u2019ll hear the thrilling conclusion to the story that began in the previous episode of \u201cUnsung Science,\u201d to which I gave the devilishly clever title \u201cBack to the Titanic, Part 1.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In that episode, I described a company called OceanGate, the only outfit in the world still visiting the Titanic. For $250,000, you, too, can be one of the lucky passengers aboard the company\u2019s one-of-a-kind, carbon-fiber submersible, designed by the company\u2019s CEO, Stockton Rush. I\u2019d been lucky enough to be invited along as a reporter. CBS paid room and board for my crew and me, but nothing like a quarter of a million dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019d encourage you to listen to that Part 1 episode before you continue with this one. It\u2019s about 35 minutes long. I\u2019ll wait right here until you get back.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>(4 seconds of silence)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Actually, you know what? If you need to hear that episode, just pause this one, and then come back. Yeah. Much better idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyway, when we were together last, I had been bolted into Stockton Rush\u2019s submersible\u2014from the outside\u2014 with him, my producer, and two passengers.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The sub starts out clipped to a gigantic silver floating platform. Motorboats drag the platform off the back of our surface ship down a huge, bright-orange ramp, foot by foot\u2014until it\u2019s in the water.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: We\u2019re tipping! We are in the water, people!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At this point, scuba divers are supposed to unclip the sub, and then we\u2019re supposed to zoom down and away to our destination. But what actually happened was this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RUSH: They\u2019re bringing us back up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>GUY: They\u2019re bringing us back up?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RUSH: Yup. Something happened.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two sausage-shaped black buoys, about three feet long, had somehow come off the platform. I guess they\u2019re designed to keep the corners of the platform stable\u2014but now they were bobbing away on the waves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RUSH: Topside, Titan\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>KYLE: Go ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RUSH: So we\u2019re scrubbing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>KYLE: Yeah, that\u2019s the consensus up here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RUSH:&nbsp;<em>(On camera)<\/em>&nbsp;Copy that. It\u2019s not an exact science. Everything down to knot-tying!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was crushed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: So that concludes our voyages on the Titan submersible. 37 feet and that\u2019s it. At this point, there are 2 days left of good weather where they\u2019re hoping to do dives to the Titanic, but that\u2019s for paying passengers only and that\u2019s not us. So we\u2019ll do our best to film and record and tell that story, but we will not be on the sub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>My&nbsp;<\/em>submersible adventures were over. I would not be seeing the Titanic in person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I spent about a day bumming out. This was not what I\u2019d hoped for, not what \u201cCBS Sunday Morning\u201d had hoped for. I didn\u2019t even know if we\u2019d still have a story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But when I chatted with Renata Rojas the next day, one of the paying passengers, I realized that maybe I wasn\u2019t so special.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RENATA: Every expedition has its challenges. All of them. I have not been in one expedition where things have to be adjusted, adapted, changed, or cancelled. We\u2019re not a cruise ship. You\u2019re at the mercy of the weather. And taking Titan in the water, you have currents, so you may not necessarily land on top of Titanic. You might land 500 meters away and you have to find it in the bottom of the ocean.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oh dang! I just thought of a great alternate title for this episode\u2014Hell or High Water. Get it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the other hand, to Renata Rojas, getting to dive to&nbsp;<em>any&nbsp;<\/em>depth in the Titan submersible counts as a thrill. She\u2019s very much a believer in the ol\u2019 \u201ccount your blessings\u201d philosophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RENATA: To be honest, just to have the opportunity to get in the submersible and be launched into the water, and see that blue water fill the port\u2026 is just amazing. It\u2019s just a ride in itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I mean\u2026true. Now I was a little ashamed for having felt sorry for myself. I mean, Titanic or no, this was still an incredible adventure. We had the run of a $300 million, state-of-the-art industrial ship, in the middle of the North Atlantic.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s a&nbsp;<em>very&nbsp;<\/em>cool place to be. Which is lucky, because we now had two days of rough seas ahead of us. Beautiful sunny weather, but waves too big to launch the sub. Fortunately, there was a lot to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There was cool sea life, like these dolphin pods that leapt out of water beside the crew\u2019s motorboats, like they were racing us.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At one point, a huge pod of whales swam past our bow, spouting as they went. One of \u2018em even did that classic leap-out-of-the-water-and-splash-down thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another way to spend your time on board: You could hang out with the divers and the ship\u2019s crew. These are people who spend their lives at sea, and have racked up a whoooollllle different set of life experiences.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like, once, I hung out with Blake Reed, one of OceanGate\u2019s scuba divers. He told us about a time he was hired to salvage a rich guy\u2019s sunken yacht in Kodiak, Alaska.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BLAKE: Up in Kodiak, you get quite a diverse group of marine life that comes through\u2026 killer whales being one of them. Orcas. So I went down and was inspecting the hull, Next thing I know, I feel something pulling on my fin. And then I felt my fin strap really stretch, and I turned around and there\u2019s this orca gumming my fin. And this thing just sat there and floated back and forth looking at me, and eventually got bored and took off. It was a really weird experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And it was a really&nbsp;<em>cool&nbsp;<\/em>experience, for me at least, to hang out with our ship\u2019s captain.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gilles: My name is Gilles Poirier, and I\u2019m the captain of the Horizon Arctic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gilles has been at sea since he got out of high school, and man, does he have stories. Like the time in 2004 when his ship got overtopped by a 200-foot wave.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gilles: We were off Sable Island. This gigantic wave came out of nowhere, and went over the whole vessel, and busted two windows on the bridge.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The day before there was a tsunami in Indonesia. That\u2019s the wave that we hit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The glass just imploded, and it just flew everywhere. My poor chief mate had some glass embedded in his scalp. Then we had a cadet on board, and one of the glass punctured one of his arteries in his foot, so the blood was actually spurting up pretty quite high. And it was his first time at sea, so he was panicking extremely bad. So we brought him into a cabin, and we had to pack some flour into his foot to stop the bleeding.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Took us a total of 2 days to get back to Halifax, and it was quite the experience.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once, when nothing was going on on the bridge, the Canadian crewmen taught&nbsp;<em>me<\/em>&nbsp;how to drive the ship. I mean, I was actually at the helm for about 15 minutes, and not a soul on the rest of the ship even knew it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>COLE: Obviously the faster you go, the less you have to turn your rudders. And we\u2019re doing 5 knots, almost, so you can bring it right around to&nbsp;about 15 degrees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pogue: Everyone hold on! It\u2019s gonna be like \u201cSpeed 2!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And speaking of killing those two days at sea\u2014at one point, I broke the journalist\u2019s code. Instead of just observing the story, I affected it. I made a scavenger hunt for the passengers and crew. They had to find rhyming clues that led them to one-word passwords all over the ship\u2014and eventually use them to solve a puzzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: The first two teams to solve the big puzzle will get a 100 dollar discount coupon good toward your next $250,000 dive with Stockton\u2019s company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also. Remember how I said there are scientists on board? You could hang out with them, and ask all the questions you like.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: \/ what makes deep sea research hard to do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MATHER: It\u2019s a very hostile environment. The pressures are enormous.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: And when you say it\u2019s hostile environment, the pressures are tremendous, you\u2019re not just talking about your colleagues, am I right?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ROSS: Right.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MATHER: That\u2019s right, \u2014but that, too!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ROSS: No, this is the hardest place in the world probably to work.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On our expedition, there were three of these guys: deep-sea explorer P.H. Nargeolet, who\u2019s made 37 trips to the Titanic; underwater archaeologist Rod Mather; and deep-sea ecologist Steve Ross, who, in his career, has discovered more than one new species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: Has any species ever been named after you?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ROSS: Yes.&nbsp;So sendos rossi is this little diminutive fish.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: What sort of fish is it?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ROSS: Unfortunately, its common name is snotfish. I was hoping for something more spectacular. It didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The scientists point out that this OceanGate business offers them something virtually no other scientists get: The opportunity to do a&nbsp;<em>longitudinal&nbsp;<\/em>study of the ship\u2019s deterioration, meaning, studying it over time. They come back every year at the same time, taking pictures and shooting video, and then they can compare the results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MATHER: That\u2019s a good thing. I mean, we can study this year, we can come back to study next year and so forth. So that\u2019s unusual, that\u2019s not really getting done at this site before.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: And if it weren\u2019t for this outfit, and you wanted to study the Titanic, what would your options be?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ROSS: Competitive scientific grants. It\u2019s a much harder pathway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MATHER: Yeah. If I was to come up with a proposal to study a merchant ship in a deep water somewhere else, I\u2019d have to come up with $5 million to do it. Here, we get sort of combined funding and opportunities&nbsp;<em>because<\/em>&nbsp;it\u2019s Titanic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: Okay. So what is there to learn about the Titanic that\u2019s been down there for 100 years?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MATHER: One of the things we do as archeologists is look for what we call signatures of human behavior. One of the things I\u2019m interested in is, what else can we find out about what people were doing at the time the Titanic sank? Some of the portholes were left open. Now why you would do that? Any metal doors that were left open, those also give you some idea about people are doing on that fateful night back in 1912.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: I\u2019ve read that the Titanic\u2019s deteriorating, that at some point it\u2019s going to be gone!&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MATHER: Well, it is deteriorating, and it is changing. That\u2019s one of the things that we\u2019re trying to look at. We\u2019re trying to set up a series of stations so that we can measure that deterioration.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: And then what is there marine biolologically to observe down there?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ROSS: Well, Titanic represents an unusual habitat, opportunistic habitat. A lot of animals need a hard substrate, like corals to attach to and that attracts other organisms. So it essentially is an oasis in the deep sea. And we like to study that effect and see what impact it has on the natural ecology of the area.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: While you\u2019re down there, will you look for this giant heart-shaped diamond on a chain?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MATHER: I think that\u2019s not there. It might be in some movie studio somewhere\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Stockton Rush, the founder and CEO of this whole outfit, the fun part is discovering new species\u2014and apparently there are a&nbsp;<em>lot&nbsp;<\/em>yet to find.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RUSH: There is more undiscovered life in the ocean than we\u2019ve discovered. There is more undiscovered life in the ocean than we\u2019ve discovered on the surface. Hundreds of thousands of species.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What we did this year is we also took water samples, and with a thing called environmental DNA, scientists can tell all the species that were around the wreck within a 24-hour roughly period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Every time they go take a sample like these eDNA samples, there are hundreds of DNA in there, they have no idea what they are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: So, it sounds like this isn\u2019t just a shipwreck, just a twisted hunk of metal.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RUSH: Yes. I think there are 300 unique species that have only been found on the Titanic. It is \u2014 it\u2019s gone from being a grave site to being a garden. It\u2019s this substrate that life is able to attach itself to, and it\u2019s going to be this undersea reef for centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, on our fourth day parked over the Titanic, the weather cleared. The first three of the paying passengers were finally going to get their chance to see the Titanic!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They made fantastic time getting to the bottom\u2014about two hours. The GoPros inside the sub recorded everything.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stockton Comin\u2019 up on a mile under water, people! Mile low club!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mile-low club\u2026 get it?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They had a ball during the descent. They put on music, they bantered, they joked, they saw cool bioluminescent critters out the porthole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stockton: You seeing weird stuff there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rory: We\u2019re getting lots of small firefly things, but nothing major. No major light shows. But when the lights are off, we\u2019re seeing more stuff in terms of fluorescence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, I was up at mission control, on the bridge of the ship. That\u2019s where Stockton Rush\u2019s wife Wendy works communication with the sub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>See, radio waves can\u2019t travel through sea water. Fortunately, sound does travel\u2014so the only way for the ship and the sub to communicate is to exchange short text messages through the water column, using acoustical signals, like over a 1990 modem.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A couple of hours into the dive, we on the ship got one of those text messages from the sub. Wendy read us the good news:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>WENDY: Titan sitting at 3742 meters, reports \u201con bottom!\u201d&nbsp;<em>(applause)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The sub had successfully reached the bottom of the ocean! They had&nbsp;<em>not,&nbsp;<\/em>however, located the Titanic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Guy: Well, I\u2019m seeing not a thing out here. Other than starfish\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Turns out that finding the shipwreck itself is easier said than done, according to OceanGate Director of Engineering Phil Brooks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BROOKS: You have this giant ocean and where the Titanic wreck is, is it\u2019s literally a needle in a haystack. And we have to guide them in. And our only reference are those coordinates, the GPS coordinates. So we have to guide them into the wreck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can be, you know, five meters away from the wreck and not know it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That was something I hadn\u2019t really considered: There is no GPS under water. So if you\u2019re the pilot of the sub, how do you know where you are? How do you&nbsp;<em>find&nbsp;<\/em>the wreck of the Titanic?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: Okay. Here\u2019s the situation. The sub is 200 yards that way, and 2.4 miles straight down. And they can\u2019t\u2014 [sneezes] But \u2014[sneezes] the sun makes me sneeze!\u2014They can\u2019t find the Titanic. See, the sub has no GPS location system. Instead, they rely on the ship to tell them \u201cTurn right, turn left, go forward to find the ship.\u201d But the ship\u2019s two GPS systems are not agreeing with each other, so they don\u2019t know what to tell the sub. And it\u2019s coming time that they\u2019re gonna have to start thinking about coming up again.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The sub does have sonar, but its range is pretty limited. So if you\u2019re not even close to the wreck, you have to rely on directions provided by the mission directors at the surface.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s like a game of Battleship. They text you, \u201cForward 50 feet, right 100 feet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>GUY: I said, \u201cDo you know where we are?\u201d 100 meters to the bow, then 470 to the bow. If you are lost, so are we!\u201d I mean, honest to Pete!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But on this occasion, something wasn\u2019t quite making sense.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stockton: How could we be in grid 83 then?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Guy: Correct. I think someone\u2019s reading it backwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wendy Rush continued sending directions to the sub:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>WENDY: Turn 30 degrees right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PHIL: Probably 30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An hour later, in the sub:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>GUY: What\u2019d they say?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RORY: 400 meters due east? That\u2019s gonna take us away!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RUSH: Doesn\u2019t make sense from the map.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RORY: Due east doesn\u2019t make sense!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two hours later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rory: We need to turn 180 degrees! We\u2019re heading northwest!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RUSH: What?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rory: Comms has said we need to turn 180.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RUSH: Hang on. (sighs)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then came the message from the ship that Stockton Rush really didn\u2019t want to receive.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RUSH: \u201cBottom time up. What do you want to do?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBottom time up.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So now what? You\u2019ve got three passengers on your sub who\u2019ve paid a quarter of a million dollars apiece\u2014and all it\u2019s bought them is a glimpse of a boiler, lying in the Titanic\u2019s massive debris field. No shipwreck.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And now HQ, 2.5 miles over you, is telling you to give up. What do you do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After the ads\u2026I\u2019ll tell you what Stockton Rush did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Ad Break<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Before the break, it was almost like we were&nbsp;<em>in&nbsp;<\/em>that submersible with the five frustrated occupants. They\u2019d been underwater for about ten hours, and hadn\u2019t found the shipwreck. And now they were being told to return to the surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, Stockton Rush had to accept defeat: The three paying passengers aboard Dive 79 would not be seeing the great ship\u2014not this year, anyway.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two hours later, the sub was back on the surface.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once the passengers had had a chance to get some food and decompress, I spoke once again to our industry mogul passenger Shrenik Baldota .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SHRENIK: It&nbsp;was beautiful. I mean, it\u2019s going in space with absolutely zero friction, gently descending at 300 feet\u2014beautiful! It\u2019s pitch dark and there\u2019s absolutely zero sound except for the music that you\u2019re playing inside and we\u2019re talking.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: Did you see any cool stuff on the way down, on the way up?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SHRENIK: Yeah, we \u2013 oh, yeah. We had illuminous creatures going down. And when you see out, it was beautiful. Magical.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: Things were glowing at you?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SHRENIK: All glowing.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bottom line, he said that the trip was great. Just maybe not $250,000 great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SHRENIK: We were lost. We were lost for two and a half hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: You didn\u2019t find the bow?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SHRENIK: We didn\u2019t find the bow.&nbsp;There was some communication gap between the ship and the sub pilot, so that\u2019s how we missed it, unfortunately.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rush says he\u2019ll offer those passengers a complimentary do-over next year.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RUSH: If there\u2019s a mechanical delay you get to come, you get a full credit to do it again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: You can try again?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RUSH: Yeah. If there is a weather delay, you get a 50 percent credit, which is better than your heli-skiing or going to your ski resort. So, we\u2019ve sort of looked at different elements of that, things that we can control, things that we can\u2019t control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we studied the map of the sub\u2019s path during that dive, we saw the real heartbreak: the sub had actually been within 100 yards of&nbsp;<em>both&nbsp;<\/em>the bow and the stern at different points in their journey\u2014but never knew it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Time was running out for this expedition. We\u2019d spent four days floating over the Titanic, and the submersible hadn\u2019t succeeded in reaching it even once. Three more paying passengers had yet to set foot inside the sub\u2014and now there was only one more day before we had to head back to Saint John\u2019s. One last chance for them to find the Titanic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And, incredibly, as though we were being rewarded for our patience and understanding, the seas that day were calm, the weather was beautiful, and the sub was fully functional. All systems were go for Dive #80.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This time, the sub\u2019s pilot was Scott Griffith; the scientist on board was our French Titanic expert P.H. Nargeolet. The remaining three mission specialists\u2014that is, paying passengers\u2014rounded out the contingent.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nargeolet gave guidance to pilot Griffith as he peered out the round window at the front of the sub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PH : Slow down, slow down, it\u2019s just in front of us. Just\u2014we are in front of the anchor! The anchor is just here!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SCOTT: We\u2019re right off the bow. Right off the bow now. Bow\u2019s directly in front of us, probably 6 meters off our bow. Directly in front of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RICH: That\u2019s incredible though. Just darkness, darkness, darkness, and then all of a sudden, it comes straight out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MAN: Oh my god. Do you guys see it?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RICHARD: I mean, you came up on it perfectly, too, like\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>People were crammed around the porthole to see the ghostly image of the Titanic as the sub\u2019s lights fell on it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Scott: We\u2019re sitting on the Titanic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Guy: We are on the Titanic!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ship looks really rusty, and parts of it are kind of caved in. But overall, its shape and structures are still surprisingly distinct after 110 years. It\u2019s covered with these rusty sort of icicles called, of course, rusticles. Turns out the ship is not actually rusting away\u2014it\u2019s slowly being eaten by this deep-sea, iron-eating bacteria called Halomonas titanicae.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nargeolet narrated the tour, so the passengers would know what they were seeing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PH : And now, on the right here, we\u2019ll have the mast.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Guy: I don\u2019t see a mast. Oh, it\u2019s on the left?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PH: Yeah, here on the left, and after is broken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PH : And you have the door of the crow nest, just in front of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the sub drifted along the massive wreck, its thrusters sometimes stirred up a little silt, but it never came in contact with the Titanic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On this particular dive, the Titan\u2019s exterior lights were on the fritz. They\u2019d occasionally blink off for a couple of seconds; and man, when they were off, you&nbsp;<em>really&nbsp;<\/em>understood just how dark it is down there. It\u2019s about the darkest place you can be. Sunlight doesn\u2019t come anywhere close to penetrating this far down, 2.4 miles. Makes you realize: Except when there\u2019s a submersible shining its lights, the Titanic lives in pitch blackness all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PH : There are three balcony, and after is the bridge.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RCH: That\u2019s where Jack and Rose first saw each other.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PH: And here is the telemotor. With the plaques? You see all the plaques?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>GUY: Oh, the plaques, yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PH: And the telemotor is just in the middle here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>GUY: Oh, those are plaques laid down there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Guy: Yeah, yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The telemotor is the post that once supported the ship\u2019s wheel. It\u2019s hydraulic device that controlled the ship\u2019s rudder. And why is it open to the water, if it\u2019s supposed to have been inside the bridge where the captain stood? Because the walls of the bridge have long ago disintegrated.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And arrayed on a railing right in front of it is something you don\u2019t expect to see: A row of nine memorial plaques, left behind by previous Titanic submersibles, to commemorate their own visits. Kinda like when they planted the American flag on the moon. It\u2019s this sudden, unexpected reminder that you\u2019re not the first people to visit since 1912.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PH : After that we\u2019ll see the Davit #1.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RCH: Is that for one of the lifeboats?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PH: Yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Davits are these crane-like things they used to lower the lifeboats into the water. They look like old rusty candy canes, maybe ten feet tall.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RICH: So the square is what?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PH : Is the skylight of the Marconi room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Marconi room was the radio room, where operators frantically sent out distress calls as the Titanic was going down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PH : And after that is the grand staircase. The grand staircase is just here, where\u2019s it\u2019s black.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RCH: That\u2019s where it blew out?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>GUY: Wow, I had no idea it was this big.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PH: We can see some chandelier\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>GUY: So that chandelier is in the grand staircase?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PH: Yes, and it\u2019s suspended by the wire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RICH: Is that\u2014oh, yeah, yeah, yeah!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PH: Do you see it? Do you see it?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RICH: Chandeliers on the Titanic\u2014whoof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PH: From the grand staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes, that\u2019s the grand staircase that figures so prominently in the \u201cTitanic\u201d movie. But don\u2019t get all excited\u2014the actual staircase is long gone. What they were seeing was the gaping space where it used to&nbsp;<em>be.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So for the submariners on Dive #80, it was a spectacular couple of hours<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>visiting the great wreck\u2014and then it was time to drop ballast and rise to the surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(And before you email me about the pronunciation of submariners\u2014I looked it up. It\u2019s \u201csubMARiner\u201d \u2014if you\u2019re British. I\u2019m not.)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyway. Once they reached the ship, the mission specialists, the OceanGate staff, and even some of the ship\u2019s crew gathered to welcome the submariners back to the surface, with glasses of bubbly held high.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Crowd: Wooohoooo!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(That would be\u2026Bubbly&nbsp;<em>apple<\/em>&nbsp;juice, by the way. No alcohol whatsoever is allowed on these industrial ships. They\u2019re dangerous enough environments already.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then, that evening, we all gathered at the railing of the ship, and held a little service to the memory of the 1500 people who died when the Titanic sank.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then we all dropped carnations into the sea, directly above the wreck of the Titanic. And with the infinite expanse of ocean before us, with the sun setting, it was incredibly beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I thought at that moment about the OceanGate haters\u2026people who don\u2019t like that anyone\u2019s visiting the Titanic. I asked Stockton Rush about that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: There has been a certain amount of controversy since the Titanic was discovered. You know, are you taking artifacts? Who has the rights and all that stuff?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RUSH: We don\u2019t collect artifacts. We don\u2019t treasure-hunt. We don\u2019t pick things up. On the other side, I don\u2019t see some of the \u2014 I don\u2019t agree with some of the arguments, because the wreck will be gone.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At some point, there will be no Titanic. It will be eaten by the bacteria. It will be a lump of \u2014 it\u2019ll be an artificial reef that doesn\u2019t look like the Titanic. So, if we don\u2019t go and document it, then who is going to do that?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, if we want to preserve the memory of the Titanic and understand the site and how it\u2019s decaying and capture 8K video and things like that so future generations can see it, then you\u2019ve got to let folks go down there. And so, I really see what we do as extending the story of the Titanic, the inspiration of the Titanic.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have a hard time understanding why someone would say, \u201cjust leave it alone.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: Is there anyone like that? Do you have haters?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RUSH: Oh, yes. We get emails all the time. Yes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: And, what\u2019s the argument?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RUSH: It\u2019s a grave site.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: People go to grave sites.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RUSH: Yes. They go to the Tower of London. They go to Gettysburg.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: Taj Mahal.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RUSH: Yes. We don\u2019t even have a gift shop. So, I don\u2019t quite \u2014 I don\u2019t see that argument.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Early on a Sunday morning, our ship pulled back into Saint Johns harbor. I rolled my bag down the long ramp, and set foot on solid ground for the first time in eight days.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: Wow, it\u2019s weird to be back on dry land. I literally feel the whole world tipping under my feet! Just stepped off of the ship for the last time. Never got see the Titanic, never even hit the sea floor. But I feel like the combination of that 30-foot dive, and seeing the 4k video of the one successful dive, gave me a good simulation of how amazing it is to see that wreck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have to say, it was a super cool adventure. That ship? I mean, whoever gets the run of an industrial petroleum-management ship like that? Food was incredible, and above all the people were incredible. We have everyone\u2019s email addresses, and I have a feeling we\u2019ll be in touch for a long time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A couple of weeks later, I sat down with Stockton Rush to get his big-picture thoughts about his venture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: Are you making money on this operation?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RUSH: No, so, not yet. People might say, \u201chey, that\u2019s a lot of money, $250,000.\u201d But, yeah, we\u2019re not making any. It\u2019s very expensive. It is an extremely expensive activity. Ultimately, it will be quite profitable. And we\u2019re right at that real hockey stick point of it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>POGUE: Can I ask how much gas costs this summer?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RUSH: We went through over a million dollars of gas.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You know\u2026this whole story has inspired a lot of reactions, a lot of feelings, in people who saw the \u201cCBS Sunday Morning\u201d story, or listened to part 1 of this show. The commenters on Twitter and YouTube illustrate some of the different ways you can reasonably view the whole thing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Michael Catania: To me, it\u2019s disgusting that people will piss away $250,000 just to see a wrecked ship. Tax the rich already. They have too much money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gary Alpaugh: That\u2019s your takeaway from the segment? Really?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mary Korlaske: Would never go down in that thing! Even if you paid me the 250,000 dollars!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fat baby: That moment when you mortgage your house to go to the titanic in a submersible vehicle controlled by a game controller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As for me\u2026here are my three takeaways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First, I have a new respect for how&nbsp;<em>hard&nbsp;<\/em>it is to reach the Titanic. These mechanical problems and weather problems that OceanGate faced?&nbsp;<em>Every&nbsp;<\/em>Titanic expedition has faced them. Bob Ballard, whose team found the wreck in 1985, faced one technical and weather problem after another. So did James Cameron, when he was trying to make his movie. It\u2019s just&nbsp;<em>hard.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Second, I feel as though OceanGate\u2019s marketing materials could be more transparent about how low the odds are of reaching the Titanic. I mean, we had five days over the wreck, and made it to the Titanic only once. On most of their 8-day excursions, they get to the Titanic only twice\u2026 but sometimes not at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Third, I appreciate that most people would never in a million years pay that kind of money for that kind of trip, whether because of the value proposition, the risk, or the claustrophobia. But a certain percentage of the population does thrive on thrills like this\u2014and has the money, or saved up the money, to fund them. And, having lived with these folks at sea for 8 days, I\u2019m convinced that the ones who do see the Titanic\u2026get what they were looking for.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of them, I\u2019m&nbsp;<em>very&nbsp;<\/em>happy to report, is Renata Rojas. Remember her? The bank executive who\u2019s wanted to visit the Titanic since she was a little girl? Who\u2019d been on three different expeditions with various companies, every single one of which was ultimately canceled?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, after I returned home this summer, OceanGate made one more 8-day expedition. (They do the whole thing five times each summer.) And Renata was aboard. She got one last chance to visit the Titanic.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And believe it or not, the Rojas Curse finally broke. She made it all the way down.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Renata: Suddenly, a big wall starts appearing in front of you that is clearly the bow. It\u2019s so tall! Just to imagine that there\u2019s so much below the sand. It\u2019s just magnificent. It\u2019s just beautiful.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Renata:&nbsp;My initial reaction was \u2026awe. Speechless, of: Oh, my God. We\u2019re here! First of all, we made it\u2014finally made it!! And then the awe of how it stands in the sand. It\u2019s almost like it\u2019s going to keep going! Like it\u2019s navigating still. It just stands still in time.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What surprised her was how&nbsp;<em>colorful<\/em>&nbsp;the wreck was.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Renata:&nbsp;Very colorful. You can see the red colors. You can see the rusticles that are orange, you can almost see the blackness of the paint of the bow. But in combination with the rusticles and some green, I thought she was beautiful.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s only one submersible on the planet still visiting the Titanic\u2014for Renata, the trip to the Titanic\u2019s final resting place was worth the money, the cancellations, and the decades of waiting.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Renata: It\u2019s a sense of completeness. You know, I feel like I was missing something in my life and now it\u2019s not missing. It\u2019s\u2026 I can die happy.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Music ends.\u2026 \u201cUnsung Science\u201d theme begins.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before I read the credits, I just want to let you know that I\u2019ve posted a 12-minute YouTube video of the Titanic footage they captured on that final dive, courtesy of OceanGate. It\u2019s pretty cool. I\u2019ve posted the link in the notes for this episode at UnsungScience.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Don\u2019t forget that the entire library of shows, along with written transcripts, await at unsungscience.com, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This podcast is a joint venture of Simon &amp; Schuster and CBS News, and it\u2019s produced by PRX Productions. Today\u2019s episode was edited and produced by Jamie Benson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Simon &amp; Schuster, the Executive Producers are Richard Rhorer and Chris Lynch.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The PRX production team is Jocelyn Gonzales, Morgan Flannery, Pedro Rafael Rosado and Morgan Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesi Nelson composed the Unsung Science theme music, our fact checker is Kristina Rebelo, and Olivia Noble fixed the transcripts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For more of my stuff, visit davidpogue.com or follow me on Twitter, @pogue. We\u2019d love it if you\u2019d like and follow Unsung Science wherever you get your podcasts. And spread the word, will you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Show Notes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>12-minute OceanGate Titanic footage:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=t_tC0zV-2is&amp;feature=youtu.be\">12 Minutes of Titanic<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_7262\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-109-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unsungscience-20221219.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unsungscience-20221219.mp3\">https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unsungscience-20221219.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unsungscience-20221219.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/?powerpress_pinw=109-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unsungscience-20221219.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"unsungscience-20221219.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In \u201cBack to Titanic\u201d Part 1, David Pogue told of his invitation to join an expedition to visit the wreck of the Titanic in a custom submersible. The company, OceanGate, ordinarily charges $250,000 per person, as part of a new wave in adventure travel.<span class=\"excerpt-more-link\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/2022\/12\/19\/back-to-titanic-part-2\/\">More <svg class=\"svg-icon\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" aria-hidden=\"true\" role=\"img\" focusable=\"false\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path fill-rule=\"evenodd\" clip-rule=\"evenodd\" d=\"M6.96954 10.2804L11.9999 15.3107L17.0302 10.2804L15.9695 9.21973L11.9999 13.1894L8.0302 9.21973L6.96954 10.2804Z\" fill=\"currentColor\"\/><\/svg><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"excerpt-audio-block\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unsungscience-20221219.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126,"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109\/revisions\/126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}