A deep sea explorer has said trips to the Titanic wreck in submarines should continue - but under one condition.
Former collaborator of James Cameron and an experienced deep-sea explorer who dived the Titanic, Parks Stephenson, has expressed his view on tourist trips to the wreck site, after the tragedy that cost the lives of five people.
Mr Stephenson, who provided technical expertise for Cameron's film "Ghosts of the Abyss" and co-authored a book with him titled "Exploring the Deep," has personally visited the Titanic wreck on two occasions and participated in expeditions alongside Paul-Henri Nargeolet, who tragically passed away recently in the implosion of Oceangate's Titan sub.
Despite the unfortunate incident, Mr Stephenson believes that expeditions to the Titanic wreck should continue. However, he emphasizes that there is one crucial condition that must be met for future trips.
Addressing the question of whether dives to the Titanic should persist following the OceanGate submersible disaster, Mr Stephenson firmly asserts his opinion with a resounding "yes." However, he adds an important qualifier to this affirmation.
He continued: “I have made the argument that dives to Titanic for scientific or technical purposes should continue, despite the recent submersible disaster.
“But should the so-called tourist dives? They serve the primary purpose of taking ordinary people to see the world’s most famous shipwreck for a price.
“Every dive to Titanic brings back some information. This could be a casual update on the progress of deterioration or, in the best case, the capture of some genuinely new information.
“Submersible technology would also be advanced by the need to take additional tourists to the wreck. Therefore, even tourist dives have worth, in my opinion, and should continue.”
However, he said any vehicles used to dive the wreck must be certified. “My previous statement comes with an important qualifier,” he said.
“The submersible community voluntarily follows very stringent safety precautions and certification requirements in order to operate safely in the deep ocean.
“These precautions and requirements have been built over time, based on a thorough application of physics, good engineering, experience, and careful trial-and-error – all with a very healthy respect for the dangers of the deep ocean.
“Yes, I believe that all non-destructive dives to the Titanic wreck should be encouraged to continue. But not before the imposition of a mandatory requirement – a law, if you will – that all passenger-carrying submersibles must be class-rated.
“Every submersible that I have dived in has been class-rated – in effect, thoroughly tested and certified to safely operate at the intended depths.”
Mr Stephenson dived Titanic aboard the Russian Mir-1 in 2005, and the American Limiting Factor in 2019. He is the only man on Earth to have dived in Mir 1, Limiting Factor, and Pisces V.
These days he’s executive director of the USS Kidd Veterans Museum in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and he switched his focus to wrecks from the Pacific theatre of the Second World War.
But he still believes the Titanic has secrets left to reveal.
He said: “I passionately disagree with those who claim that there is nothing more that the wreck can teach us about the history of the disaster. Interest in her has not abated in over a century since the original disaster.
“This interest sparks investment, investment leads to innovation, which in turn leads to more knowledge and better understanding – not just of Titanic but also of her deep-ocean environment.”
He added: “Money has been put into new technology, designed initially to exploit the wreck, but which has far-reaching use in the advancement of undersea exploration as a whole.
“The race to produce a digital twin of Titanic has caused accelerated investment into the underwater photogrammetry process, a valuable tool.
“Experiments positioned on and around the Titanic wreck have yielded valuable information on the breakdown of steel structures in the marine environment.
“Titanic has served as an underwater attraction for investment like no other and therefore is directly contributing to the advancement of our exploration of the next frontier.”
