Billionaire says he’s taking a $20 million submarine to view the wreckage of the Titanic
- Larry Connor wants to reach the site of the Titanic wreckage with his submarine
- According to Connor, the submersible his company builds are safe
- The submersible they’re going to be using cost $20 million to build
Published on May 29, 2024 at 12:11 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis
Last updated on May 31, 2024 at 7:25 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Tom Wood
Ohio billionaire Larry Connor, owner of Triton Subs, wants to build a submersible to get as close as possible to the wreckage of the Titanic.
This has been tried before – as you probably remember – and it ended in tragedy, but Connor says that’s exactly the reason why he wants to try it again.
Because he thinks he can do a lot better.
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Almost a year ago, in June 2023, the OceanGate Titan submersible went missing with five people on board.
A few days later, the outcome that everyone feared materialized and news broke that all five people on board had died after the implosion of the submersible.
Even though this particular expedition resulted in a disaster, it spurred imitators across the globe.
India, for example, is building the Matsya 6000 submarine for this exact reason.
Connor believes that reaching the bottom of the ocean to explore the wreckage of the Titanic is doable.
He seems to think the idea per se isn’t bad, it’s just the execution of the idea on the part of OceanGate that was the issue.
Pictured below, Larry Connor (left) and Patrick Lahey (right)
With his company, Triton Submarines, Connor wants to prove that OceanGate failed simply because they made mistakes and disregarded safety, and not because the expedition is inherently too dangerous.
Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, Triton Submarines’ CEO Patrick Lahey said that OceanGate Titan was a ‘contraption’.
“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 can do that,” Lahey said.
For this trip, the company wants to use the Triton 4000/2 Abyssal Explorer, a $20 million, two-person craft described as the ‘world’s deepest diving acrylic sub’.
According to Triton, it can descend over 13,000 feet or 4,000 meters.
Safely, we hope.
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