After the tragedy of the “Titan”, which disappeared at sea and whose five passengers died, according to the American Coast Guard, the question of expeditions to the wreck of the “Titanic” located at a depth of 4000 meters in the Atlantic Ocean laid.
Some already speak of the “curse of the titanic“. The five passengers of the submersible lost since Sunday in the North Atlantic, near the wreck of the titanicmost likely died in the “catastrophic implosion” of this small scientific tourism submarine, announced the United States Coast Guard and the organizer of the expedition.
>>“Titanic”: video game controller, three meters wide, five passengers … A video reveals the interior of the missing submarine
“We now believe that our boss Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, Hamish Harding and Paul-Henri Nargeolet are sadly dead.“, lamented the American company OceanGate Expeditions. “The debris field“found by the search robots near the mythical wreck, by nearly 4,000 meters deep,”is consistent with a catastrophic implosionof the submersible, according to Rear Admiral John Mauger of the U.S. Coast Guard.
This type of expedition around the wreck of the titanic is risky and very expensive. And it’s not the first time it’s happened. The famous liner sank in international waters on the night of April 14 to 15, 1912, in the North Atlantic Ocean, 650 km from the ribs Canadian. The American company, the RMS Titanic Incorporated is the only one to have the right to recover objects from the wreckage. But it can only do so on one condition: these objects are intended to be exhibited in a museum, and not sold to individuals.
A first expedition in 1987
The first expedition to explore the “Titanic” took place between July and September 1987. It was organized by the RMS Titanic Incorporated and the French Research Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea (IFREMER). At the time, some 1,800 objects were brought to the surface by the small submarine “Le Nautile”. With three explorers on board including Paul-Henri Nargeolet, one of the five passengers of the “Titan”.
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American director James Cameron organizes expeditions in the 1990s. Using small remote-controlled submarines, he films the interior of the wreck. Striking images visible in his famous film. Finally, a scientific expedition took place in 2010, the most technologically advanced to date, which made it possible to completely map the wreck.
Tourist missions
These expeditions are organized by private companies such as the French company Apoteosurprise. She offers expeditions for marriage proposals facing the wreck. To the sound of My heart Will Go On, the movie’s theme song titanic released in 1997, for a total cost of one million euros. Other companies also offer formulas halfway between tourist and scientific expeditions such as Oceangate, the company which chartered the missing submarine. The cost is 225,000 euros. It offers its customers to participate in an oceanographic mission around the remains of the liner.
But this mixture of genres”between scientific expedition and tourist is not new“, explains the historian Antoine Reshe, author of The Titanic, from history to myth. He notes that regularly, personalities have thus been able to take part in missions. According to him, this is a way for scientists to finance these very expensive dives.