PORTLAND, Maine — The company that owns the salvage rights to the Titanic is making its first expedition to the ship’s wreck in years. Those involved in the mission say they are setting out with heavy hearts but also with great ambitions, a year after a submarine disaster involving another company killed five people.
RMS Titanic Inc., a Georgia company, has legal rights to salvage the wreck of the ship, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in 1912. The company’s first expedition to the site since 2010 left Providence, Rhode Island, on Friday.
The voyage comes as the global community of underwater explorers is still reeling from the deadly implosion of an experimental submarine en route to the Titanic in June 2023. The Titan submarine disaster killed all five people on board, including Paul Henri Nargeoletwho was director of underwater research for the RMS Titanic.
This summer’s mission to Titanic “is even more meaningful with the passing” of Nargeolet, nicknamed “Mr. Titanic” by many, said Jessica Sanders, president of RMST Inc.
The expedition will use modern imaging technology and remotely operated vehicles to capture detailed images of the Titanic, the wreck site and the debris field, RMST Inc. representatives said.
“This monumental undertaking will allow us to document Titanic in unprecedented detail and share new discoveries from the wreck site with the public, continuing the extraordinary work and passion of PH,” Sanders said.
The vessel heading to the site, the Dino Chouest, will take several days to reach the location and is expected to return around Aug. 13, said Jon Hammond, a spokesman for RMST Inc.
The work will allow the company to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the current condition of the Titanic wreck and make a detailed assessment of which artifacts can be safely recovered for future salvage, RMST Inc. representatives said.
Nargeolet made more than 35 dives to the Titanic in his lifetime. implosion also killed Titan operator Stockton Rush; two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood; and British adventurer Hamish Harding.
OceanGate, a company co-founded by Rush and which owns the submarine, suspended operations a year ago. The U.S. Coast Guard called a high-level research into what happened, but it is taking longer than expected and it is unclear when the investigation will be completed.
Undersea researchers await the results of the survey and RMST Inc.’s trip to the Titanic site is a major milestone in the site’s exploration, said Katy Croff Bell, founder of the Ocean Discovery League.
“The Coast Guard investigation is still ongoing and they haven’t released their findings yet, so the final chapter in this episode has yet to come out,” Bell said. “One thing that has come up is that there may be more interest.”
This month’s voyage to the Titanic will also allow for comparisons with images taken in 2010, according to representatives of RMST Inc. The mission could also result in the discovery of new areas of the debris field, previously unknown marine life and new areas of degradation that could provide unobstructed access to the ship’s interior, the company said on its website.
The vessel making the voyage is equipped with two remotely operated vehicles that will be used to create the first end-to-end mapping image of the wreck field and debris location, RMST Inc. said.
The expedition will use “the highest-resolution camera systems ever deployed at the site to provide the community with new insights about the ship,” said Evan Kovacs, an underwater cinematographer working on the mission.