What is the Titanic tourist submersible?
The Titanic tourist submersible, named Titan, is a small underwater vehicle used to explore the famous Titanic wreckage. The ship Titanic sank a long time ago. The Titan can hold up to five people and take them to see the sunk Titanic in the Atlantic Ocean.
Submersibles are different from submarines because they have limited power. So, submersibles need a support ship on the surface to launch and retrieve them. They can't stay underwater as long as submarines. Titan is very small and designed to reach depths of 2.5 miles (4 km). It has a special window that allows two people to look outside together.
Underwater, there's no GPS, so the Titan is guided by text messages from the support ship. This submersible belongs to a company called OceanGate. Since 2021, the company has been offering tours of the Titanic wreckage. Unfortunately, the submersible has recently gone missing in the North Atlantic Ocean (oh no!).
When did this submersible go missing?
Reports say the support ship for the submersible, named the Polar Prince, lost contact with it on 18th June 2023. The submersible went missing with five people on board.
It's still unclear what happened to the Titan, why communication was lost, or how close it was to the Titanic when it disappeared. Search operations are currently being carried out to find and rescue the passengers.
What search operations are being carried out?
Many organisations from the United States of America (USA) and Canada are working together to look for the missing submersible. They are using boats, planes, and special equipment to search the ocean's surface. They also have tools to listen for sounds underwater.
France has sent a ship with a special underwater robot fitted to it to help in the search. So far, they haven't found any signs of the missing vessel. The authorities are worried because they think the submersible may have only about 30 hours of oxygen left. They are trying their best to find and rescue the people on board as fast as possible.
Who are the people on board the vessel?
The five people on board the Titan submersible are:-
- Stockton Rush, OceanGate’s founder.
- Hamish Harding, a British businessman and explorer
- Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman. They belong to one of Pakistan's wealthiest families
- Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French maritime expert.
Let’s hope they are found and rescued soon.
What do we know about the Titanic?
The R.M.S. Titanic was a really big and famous ship that sailed a long time ago. It had lots of rooms, restaurants, and even a swimming pool. On 10th April 1912, the Titanic started its trip from Southampton, England, going to New York City, USA.
There were about 2,200 people on the ship. On the night of 14th April 1912, the ship hit a big piece of ice in the water, which made a huge hole in the Titanic's side. Water rushed in, and the ship sank in the North Atlantic Ocean at around 2:40 am on 15th April 1912.
Out of all the people on the ship, only 705 survived. Sadly, 1500 people lost their lives in that terrible event. In 1985, deep-sea explorers found the remains of the Titanic really deep underwater near an island called Newfoundland in Canada.
