An intensive search is underway for the missing tourist submarine Titan.
Swedish Titanic expert Claes-Göran Wetterholm has two friends on board. Among others “Mr Titanic” – the Frenchman Paul Henry Nargeolet.
– When I first heard about it, I thought: Shouldn’t he be there.
The fascination with the story of the Titanic brought them together, and after a joint expedition some 30 years ago, they became good friends.
– We went on an expedition together for six weeks in 1994. He called me ‘monsieur pourquoi’, because I always had so many questions for him.
Met in November
Claes-Göran Wetterholm is an ethnologist and ship historian with a particular interest in the Titanic. He has organized several exhibitions about the sunken ship.
– I last met Paul Henry in New York in November when our exhibition opened.
– He is one of the most knowledgeable and experienced people in the world who has dived on the Titanic. He is still so alive to me.
In conjunction with the New York exhibition, Claes-Göran Wetterholm also worked closely with Stockton Rush, founder and director of Oceangate, which owns the mini-sub. He is also on board the submarine, which has now disappeared at a depth of nearly 4,000 meters in the Atlantic.
A total of five people are on the submarine. In addition to Paul Henry Nargeolet and Stockton Rush, there is also British billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his teenage son Suleman Dawood.
Dreamed of a submarine trip
About five years ago, Claes-Göran Wetterholm told us about his dream of being able to make a trip with the submarine down to the wreck in connection with the traveling exhibition about the Titanic coming to Gothenburg. Then it was the price tag that stopped it.
– Now that desire has almost ceased. This is so nasty. We’ve talked about it a little cautiously with Oceangate, but it hasn’t come off.
He assesses the probability that his two friends will come out of the incident alive.
– I am realistic. I know how big the Atlantic is and have no hopes that they will find the craft just like that.
Facts: Two of the people on board
Facts: Paul Henry Nargeolet
The Frenchman Paul Henry Nargeolet was an officer in the French navy for 25 years. Among other things, he served as a deep-sea diver and driver of mini-submarines – similar to the one that has now disappeared.
After his service in the navy, he joined the French Institute of Marine Research (Ifremer). Nargeolet has led several expeditions to the wreck of the Titanic and has been involved in several scientific expeditions around the world.
Nargeolet has, among other things, been the commander of the submarine Deep Submersible Nautile, a craft that can go down to 6,000 meters.
His many visits to the wreck of the Titanic have earned him the nickname “Mr Titanic” in some quarters. Source: Five deeps expedition, in which Nargeolet was a participant.
Facts: Stockton Rush
American and aeronautical engineer Stockton Rush is CEO and founder of Oceangate, owner of the missing submarine.
Rush became a pilot at the age of 19 and flew, among other things, as first pilot on long-haul routes to the Middle East for several different airlines. In 1989 he built his own small experimental aircraft, the Glasair, which he still owns and flies.
In the last 20 years he has been involved in several projects related to underwater technology, sonar systems, remote control and the like. In 2009 he founded the company Oceangate.
Rush has also written several articles about manned mini-submarines and the possibilities they have for operating at great depths. Source: Oceangate