Deepest sympathies.

As the global hysteria has now settled two months after those five people were lost in the Titan submersible I feel it is time to talk about the Titanic wreck site.

I was honestly quite surprised when I first heard the news report of the missing submersible. Call me naive but I had absolutely no idea that commercial trips to the wreck of the Titanic was even a thing for people to do. Having then learned the price for a ticket it soon became apparent it was a thing exclusively for a super-rich clientele.

The world sees the Titanic is the greatest maritime story of all time. Over a century after sinking it should be primarily remembered that over 1,500 souls perished that night and it will forever be their watery grave on the deep ocean floor.

What I have learned since the Titan accident has troubled me.

Those who have since spoken of their own trip speak about witnessing something that very few human eyes have ever seen. It’s the ultimate one-upmanship isn’t it?

I find it abhorrent that ghoulish trips go to this mass grave. Yes we all visit graves, but these billionaires have no personal connections to the passengers or builders of the ship. They are not visiting to pay their respects to ancestors. Secondly this grave lies in one of the most inaccessible and inhospitable part of our planet. The challenge and risk is monumental.

Since the Titanic wreck discovery back in 1985, millions of dollars have been made from it. I was dismayed to learn that over 6,500 artefacts have been removed from the wreck and surrounding debris field. Certain people have profited hugely because the item removed from what should have been their final tragic resting place have ended up at auctions fetching prices only the ultra-rich’s pockets can afford.

Of course, some try to justify these dives as deep-water ocean exploration. That is a different matter and I do not object to that but the Titan was not that. Its billionaires going to see a specific wreck to come back with ultimate bragging rights. Trying to make out they are ‘working crew’ researching and exploring is just rubbish.

A journalist told how his trip almost ended in disaster when their capsule got caught because they were stuck in the propeller blade. Hitting the wreck is disrespectful of the site and demonstrates the irresponsible attitude to the site some pilots have. They are trying to impress the paying customers with an up-close experience.

It’s time to leave the Titanic site and the remaining artefacts alone down there. There have been 40 years on dives, almost a million images taken of the entire area. The world now has a complete and full size high definition digital scan of the entire wreck site and debris field.

The Titanic has been explored in those murky depths and shared whatever it has with us. Surely, it is time to leave the site and respect the losses.

RIP Titanic.