As a kid the Titanic fascinated me. I read every book I could get my hands on, then the James Cameron movie came out in 1997 and OMG! Most people were ogling the actors, me, I was looking at every detail Cameron put into the ship and trying decide if it looked authentic enough.
Fast forward to the present day and many of the facts I could once rattle off to you about the ill fated and magnificent White Star Liner R.M.S. Titanic have faded away and been replaced with new hobbies and information. However, given the current situation with the lost submersible from OceanGate I feel like an eight year old kid again and it's all coming rushing back. As I type the first draft of this blog it's 0132 in the morning and the lost submersible is due to run out of O2 in the next few hours, by about the time the sun rises. Provided that the worst hasn't already happened due to the enormous amount of pressure at the depth the Titanic rests at.
There are multiple state of the art vessels out there on the Atlantic looking for the tiny 21 foot long submersible. Mind you the the wreck of the Titanic lies two and a half miles down on the ocean floor and the search zone for the submersible is larger than the state of Connecticut. With modern technology most people might think finding and recovering the submersible is an easy task, after all it's 2023 not 1912! It must be like looking a needle in a haystack though. Having been on search and recovery operations looking for a weapon, vehicle or human body in local lakes and rivers it often feels that way. No local lake or river begins to compare to the North Atlantic Ocean. The pressure that surrounds local rescue teams to produce results is palpable while an operation is taking place. The weight of all the feelings and emotions the personnel involved trying to recover the lost submersible has to be astronomical as the world watches.
If the five occupants of the submersible are alive they are expected to be freezing cold and could be feeling nausea, confusion, and headaches given the submersibles lack of ability to absorb the carbon dioxide it's occupants are exhaling.
If they are alive and located, which there is no news of, the US Navy's recovery & salvage equipment that has been brought to the North Atlantic needs to undergo about 24 hours of welding to be secured onto a ship before it can be effectively used in the recovery. That doesn't jive with the amount of O2 left in the submersible. If the submersible were to be found at depth it would take time to winch it back up to the surface and time is something the submersible's occupants don't have. Much like the Titanic's passengers awaiting a rescue vessel. Time is everyone's worst enemy.
It brings about an eerie feeling much like I imagine many people were experiencing in April of 1912 when the Titanic disaster originally unfolded. The more I read about safety precautions and concerns that may not have been given their due diligence, it has a familiar ring. I always believed that the original Titanic disaster could have been prevented if Captain Smith and other "important" figures weren't so concerned with making headlines. If so many people hadn't falsely believed the ship was unsinkable due to being an incredible modern marvel ahead of it's time, and the wealthy so selfish, maybe the Titanic would have a drastically different legacy. Those who were in charge were so arrogant they didn't even put enough lifeboats on the Titanic to save half of it's passengers.
All the time that as passed and humans still have not humbled. Humans falsely believing that the technology they have created is infallible. Humans striving for fame, fortune, adventure and losing site of what is reasonable.
More than an hour has gone by since I started writing this blog with no hopeful updates. I feel selfish having adequate air, being comfortable and safe in my living room behind my glowing computer screen thinking about all of the souls that have perished, the souls that are probably about to perish, or recently have, and the toll this situation must be taking on all involved.
May you all find the peace you need in the coming hours and days.
