Global Courant
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HALIFAX — On Monday, a search was underway off the coast of Newfoundland for a small submarine reported missing near the wreckage of the Titanic.
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The Joint Rescue Coordination Center in Halifax confirmed in an email that a research submarine was overdue at about 9:13 p.m. Sunday, about 430 miles south of St. John’s, NL
Lieutenant Cmdr. Len Hickey said an Aurora military plane and the Canadian Coast Guard ship Kopit Hopson assisted in the search, which was led by the US Coast Guard in Boston. The US Coast Guard said in a tweet that it has involved a C-130 Hercules aircraft in the search, along with a P-8 Poseidon aircraft, which has underwater detection capabilities.
The head of a Newfoundland and Labrador First Nation that co-owns the vessel from which the small submarine is launched confirmed that the vessel is operated by US-based OceanGate Expeditions. Ship tracking sites show that the ship, a former Coast Guard icebreaker named the Polar Prince, departed from St. John’s on Friday.
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Miawpukek Chief Mi’sel Joe could not say how many people were on board the submarine, which can hold up to five people.
“They are waiting for a submarine to arrive (to help) from the United States,” he said. “All I can offer at this stage is prayers and more prayers that the people on board will surface and be safe.”
Andrew Furey, Prime Minister of Newfoundland and Labrador, tweeted that he is thinking of those affected and hopes the US Coast Guard “finds the submarine and those on it very quickly.”
“Newfoundland and Labrador have a long-standing connection to the Titanic wreck, with tourists leaving our port to visit the site off our coast,” the prime minister said.
In 2021, OceanGate Expeditions embarked on what it expected to become an annual journey to chronicle the decline of the ocean liner that struck an iceberg in 1912 and sank, killing all but 700 of its approximately 2,200 passengers and crew. Since the wreck’s discovery in 1985, it has been slowly succumbing to metal-eating bacteria, and some have predicted that the ship could disappear within a few decades.
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In describing the first expedition, OceanGate said that in addition to archaeologists and marine biologists, the expeditions would include about 40 paid tourists who would take turns operating sonar equipment and performing other tasks in the submarine.
The first group of tourists funded the expedition by spending anywhere from $100,000 to $150,000 each.
According to the company’s website, the tours are eight-day missions with the money raised from the fees going to Titanic research. The submarine dives to a maximum depth of 3,800 meters, the site says.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on June 19, 2023.
— With files from The Associated Press
