Can We Talk About The Titanic Submersible?

The actual name of the vessel was the Oceangate Titan Submersible. As I type this, the Oceangate website is down. I can’t imagine why.

If you have been anywhere near the news, you now know that the Oceangate submersible unfortunately experienced a ‘catastrophic implosion’ and everyone in the vehicle died…likely instantly. Prior to that moment, a group of 5 individuals, one of them being the CEO of Oceangate Stockton Rush, traveled approximately 13,000 in the North Atlantic Ocean to visit the wreckage of the Titanic. As a side note, Stockton’s wife, Wendy Rush, is the great-great-granddaughter of a couple who died on the Titanic, ABC News reports. Her great-great-grandparents were Isidor and Ida Strauss. Source

Everyday, people do an amazing array of things that probably when looked at objectively aren’t smart. People climb mountains in the most unhospitable of conditions, they bike, skate, and roll off ramps that no human being is probably meant to roll off of, and of course dive to great depths in oceans around the world, most often simply for the thrill of the adventure or bragging rights…so why is everyone in a craw about this particular expedition and this particular submersible?

The care for safety given to the endeavor to minimize loss of life is the difference in this case.

I don’t have live TV in my home. No CNN, no BBC, no MSNBC…I consume all of my news electronically via my computer or phone, and it did not take long to hear about this submersible being lost somewhere at sea. The coverage of this vessel was immense, and I was hard-pressed to understand why.

Who was in the Titan? Popularly, their being categorized as a group of billionaire/millionaires, and one of the passengers was a teenager. From what I can gather, each of these folks paid $250,000 to crawl into a submersible the size of a cargo van, and go down…far, far down into the ocean, to see the remnants of one of the oldest, largest, and certainly most legendary maritime disasters in American history.

Now, I don’t know any of the people who were on the Titan. They could have all been amazing people. However, the reason that this situation has everyone aflame is because of the blatant disregard shown by Stockton Rush in not only creating his submersible without the utmost care for safety, but then coaxing people to get into it, and put themselves in what any layman could immediately recognize as an exceptionally dangerous situation.

In fact, there is at least one interview in which Stockton Rush says “At some point, safety is just pure waste.”

You don’t say?

I’m in awe of people who are willing to risk their lives to push their bodies and minds to the limit. Because of that awe, I have an inkling of understanding of how dangerous it is to go that deep into the ocean. 13,000 miles below surface in the ocean is akin to another planet. Cold, dark, with pressures that the human body wouldn’t be able to withstand unprotected. In many of the documentaries I’ve watched, I’ve heard a common refrain “Diving to those depths is dangerous. Attempting a rescue at those depths is even worse.”

Yes, you know that if something goes wrong at 13,000 feet below the surface, death is fairly imminent. However, putting minimal effort into such an undertaking is the worst kind of hubris.

Hubris…excessive pride or self confidence. Coincidentally, hubris is ultimately what brought down the Titanic. It was a ship that was virtually unsinkable, so much so that we won’t equip it with the proper safety equipment to make sure in the event of a catastrophic emergency, everyone on the ship could be guaranteed survival.

111 years later…hubris brought down a group of men, whom obviously thought that their money and status offered them some sense of invincibility.

Some have criticized them for going down there at all.

I don’t.

I get it.

I would absolutely love to see the Titanic with my own naked eyes. However, it would be in a vessel that had every safety bell and whistle possible. Mistakes happen. Accidents happen…but this wasn’t that. This was flouting common sense. This, from the untrained eye, is laughable, and this, ultimately, is why these men, and this company have been laughed at.

Now, as a counterpoint, A fishing boat crowded with migrants traveling from Libya to Italy sank in Greek waters last week. Over 300 people were killed; men , women and children. These were people who had to flee their homes and their homeland in search of safety. I used to think American mass media just cared about the body count, but apparently 300 bodies weren’t sexy enough for them. However, put the lives of 5 one-percenters in peril, and it’s wall to wall, bell to bell news.

To quote Judith Sunderland of Human Rights Watch:

”The willingness to allow certain people to die while every effort is made to save others ... it’s a, you know, really dark reflection on humanity.”

Now, go back and read that sentence like three more times and let it sink in .

So, after reading a little on the Titan submersible, and the amazing amount of coverage that was going into this situation, I reflected on it for a little bit. From there, I took a look at my Facebook feed, and there was post after post making refernce to the submersible…mostly about the litany of memes making fun of the submersible, and people commenting about the lack of empathy being shown to the situation, ad nauseum, ad nausem..so I posted on Facebook:

Can we keep it a 💯…

Folks want to find the farthest reaches of sympathy for a bunch of rich folks in a metal tube at the bottom of the sea.

Keep that same energy for people in far less advantageous positions who struggle every day.

We’ll be watching.

I challenge you to imagine a world in which a boatful of migrant folks sinks, or get on the water to being with, and mass media channels pour that into your home…and I’m not talking in the disaster-porn style that media seems to wallow in today, but with real information, including context for why these people are in the situation they are in, and going even further, offer you information on what steps could positively impact their position, whether that is letter writing, or going into the voting booth, or standing in a square and protesting, or donating to local organizations who are supporting.

We have a lot of people in this city, in this country, and around the world who are in real peril. People whom you know nothing about, because their peril, their struggle, their story isn’t sexy enough for primetime news. They don’t deserve a spotlight because they’re the wrong color, or in the wrong financial strata, or don’t speak the right language.

This Oceangate story reminded me of how I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired. On a positive note, I am glad that there are local news sources like Block Club Chicago and The Triibe who work so very hard to do all the things I just mentioned. Support them, and turn off CNN, MSNBC and especially that trashy as hell Fox News.

So what are your thoughts on the Titan submersible? Was too much attention paid by media on this story? Am I completely wrong? Let me know down below. Comments are open!