It was about a year ago when the world held its breath, anxiously counting the hours remaining for the Titanic submersible to be found. Hoping that the five people inside would somehow make it home, away from the ocean’s uncertainties, we learned that the vessel likely imploded due to the immense pressure of the deep sea.
Navigating the Titanic’s wreckage has always been an extraordinary challenge, almost like attempting the impossible. However, despite the well-documented dangers, another billionaire is willing to take the risk.
Fearing that no one would trust such expeditions once more, Patrick Lahey, co-founder and president of Triton Submarines, told the Wall Street Journal that days after the incident with OceanGate, a client expressed interest in building a submersible that would explore the remains of the Titanic.
“He called me up and said, ‘You know, what we need to do is build a sub that can dive to [Titanic-level depths] repeatedly and safely and demonstrate to the world that you guys can do that,'” he said, “and that Titan was a contraption.”
Said client was the leader of the luxury apartment building investor Connor Group, Larry Connor, who is based in Dayton, Ohio. Reports suggest that the $2 billion billionaire is into expeditions and was, in fact, someone who had experience venturing into the Mariana Trench in 2021 and went to the International Space Station just a year after.
Although there is still no exact date for when the voyage will happen, Connor plans to take in a $20 million deep-sea submersible that can explore the “Titanic-level depths.”
“I want to show people worldwide that while the ocean is extremely powerful, it can be wonderful and enjoyable and really kind of life-changing if you go about it the right way,” Connor stated.
Connor and Lahey will try to go to the depths of the ocean floor where the Titanic wreck lay, which is about 12,500 feet underwater, with a two-person submersible known as the Triton 4000/2 Abyssal Explorer. Triton claims that the vessel is a “high-performance, flexible platform designed specifically for professional applications.”
The Triton 4000/2 Abyssal Explorer is commercially certified for dives exceeding 13,000 feet, making it a more reliable vessel compared to the Titan sub, which was only certified for depths up to 1,300 meters.
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