Last chance to see 'Titanic': for the first time, tourists will be allowed to see a vanishing ship - ForumDaily
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Last chance to see the 'Titanic': for the first time tourists will be allowed to see the disappearing ship

Underwater bacteria are quickly devouring the Titanic. It risks disappearing in 20 years. But you can buy a ticket for 100 thousand dollars and go on a journey to the seabed to see the famous steamship for the last time - and at the same time appreciate the full scale of what the ocean water has done to it, writes BBC Russian Service.

Фото: Depositphotos

Renate Rojas was five years old when her father first took her with him to swim underwater. They sailed in the clear waters near the shore of the Mexican Cozumel, and suddenly her father grabbed her hand and pointed down.

There, at the bottom, lit by the rays of the sun, lay a drowned plane, spreading its wings on the white sand. Excitement, Renata caught her breath, and she gasped intensely into the phone.

It was then that she woke up the love of the ocean.

“This is a whole space. It opens up to you and you see how big and serene and peaceful it is,” she recalls now, decades after that childhood moment.

Having gained vast experience in scuba diving and saved up money, Rojas is going to fulfill his most cherished dream: to visit the Titanic in 2019.

Experts predict that Titanic has 20 years left to live. This means that enthusiasts who, like Rojas, paid for taking part in an underwater expedition, will not only be the first after 2005 of the year to see the famous ship, but also, judging by everything, will be the last.

While the expedition is a commercial undertaking, there is also a scientific element to it: participants will use state-of-the-art 3D modeling tools to analyze the condition of the liner and preserve the memory of the Titanic for future generations.

A huge steamer collided with an 14 iceberg on April 1912, when it crossed the Atlantic on its way from Southampton to New York. From a blow, it split in two and sank at a depth of 3,8 km, 600 km from the shores of Canadian Newfoundland.

At least 1500 people died then. Since then, the liner, plunging into the dark depths of the sea, has been mercilessly corroded by rust bacteria, gnawing strange holes in the hull and forming “rust spots.”

“There is more life on the Titanic now than when it floated on the surface of the ocean,” says Laurie Johnston, an ecologist who studies microorganisms. Laurie has already gone down to the liner six times.

These “rustites” (from the words “rust” and “stalactites”) are waste products of bacteria that oxidize the metal they eat. Gravity causes the acidic liquid to flow down and form entire branches of rust.

“Rustites are unique because they are the dominant species down there,” Johnston says.

By the time researcher Robert Ballard and his team found an airliner on the ocean floor in 1985, rust-proofs reigned there.

On the day, they eat about 180 kg, and scientists warn: the ship does not have long to live.

Last Chance

So, the clock is already ticking, and the window of opportunity to see the famous liner - whether for scientific purposes or just for memory - is narrowing every day.

One such opportunity is offered by OceanGate, a privately owned company that uses a small fleet of man-operated deep-sea vehicles to explore the oceans surrounding North America.

OceanGate has already launched 13 expeditions (since it was founded in 2009), including the study of other wrecks.

Never before, however, have they sold tickets for their devices to those who do not have knowledge and experience in ocean exploration. In 2019, for the descent to the Titanic, they want to do this.

Nine groups of these select “mission specialists,” as OceanGate calls them, will embark on an 11-day journey to the bottom. The dives are planned to take place from the end of June to mid-August 2019.

They will be transported by helicopter from St. John's, Newfoundland, to an escort ship that will serve as a base during the mission from where they will sail to the ocean floor for their final rendezvous with the Titanic.

A ticket for this 11-day excursion (and everything it includes) costs $105—the equivalent of a first-class ocean voyage on the Titanic (adjusted for inflation).

At first, the idea of ​​bringing nonprofessionals with you to the bottom of the ocean, where the temperature of the water is 1 degrees Celsius, and the pressure that can crush you like a tin cannon seemed dangerous.

But Joel Perry, president of OceanGate Expeditions and a diver with 30-year experience, doesn’t worry about security issues.

“Of course, it’s not as dangerous as it might seem, we don’t take just anyone with us,” he says. “The selection process is quite strict, and we will not take a person until we are one hundred percent sure that he is suitable.”

According to Perry, everyone understands perfectly: candidates must be fit in both physical and psychological qualities in order to spend a week at sea.

On top of that, all members of the mission will have to complete a four-hour course on how to behave in the event of a helicopter crash. They will be trained in a large pool, placed inside the helicopter cabin.

Фото: Depositphotos

Bans and how to get around them

The idea of ​​visiting what remained of the once proud liner itself, from the day it was discovered, seemed doubtful to many.

According to David Concannon, the expedition leader and a lawyer who has represented OceanGate in the past, American Ballard and his French crew began discussing jurisdiction over the wreck and the right to access it less than 1985 hours after their descent to the Titanic in XNUMX.

Ballard’s intensive efforts led to the creation of an international agreement: to leave the wreckage alone. What the French then completely ignored.

Since then, the governments of Britain, France, Canada and the United States have waged an endless war against individuals and companies - such as OceanGate - wanting to visit the Titanic.

“It's always been about control,” emphasizes Concannon, who currently consults for OceanGate.

“Who will have control over the site where the Titanic rests? Over all the material filmed there? Over discovered artifacts? The battles for control have been going on for the last 30 years or longer. And if you look at the situation from this point of view, the smoke began to clear.”

Today Concannon calls draconian rules and bans set by NOAA (the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and other agencies.

NOAA, for its part, believes that any descent to the Titanic, even one in which no one is trying to find something to remember, is a violation of its architectural integrity and its status as an underwater attraction of great cultural significance and heritage as a memorial.

Fortunately for OceanGate, however, NOAA is unlikely to be able to seriously interfere with the expedition. Threats have been made before, but it has never come to something serious - say, to a lawsuit.

“If they want to impose restrictions, no one will listen to them,” says Concannon. “So the members of the expedition will simply fly to the site of the disaster, go down to the bottom, do what they see fit, and leave the Titanic.”

This freedom of ocean morals is also due to the fact that the wreckage of the Titanic is very far from the Canadian coast.

The territorial sea boundary ends at a distance of 19 km, and the economic boundary ends at 160 km from the coast, explains Concannon.

Titanic is 600 km from Newfoundland. In other words, on the high seas.

Although he doesn't like the rules of NOAA, Perry says that OceanGate will follow them.

After all, the mission of 2019 is not only for Titanic fans to be able to meet the object of their passion. Members of the expedition are using modern technology to obtain a three-dimensional model of the liner in its entirety - for the first time in the last 10 years.

The Titan bathyscaphe will be equipped with sonar and laser scanners, thanks to the participation of the media company Virtual Wonders, to record billions of spatial points of the vessel lying on the bottom.

The result (using a supercomputer) will be a super-high-resolution 3D image—nothing like this has ever been done before.

“We will see the bow of the airliner in great detail, and the stern will also be clearly visible,” says CEO Mark Bauman. “It will take years to map the inside of the ship.” But every year we will get closer to the goal.”

According to Bauman, having repeatedly scanned the ship during the OceanGate six-week expedition, it will even be possible to see the changes in rust-conditioners that occurred during that time.

“This will help us compare our readings with previous measurements taken from the Titanic.” Which, in turn, will help calculate exactly when the Titanic will turn into just a rusty trace on the ocean floor.”

Perry says the 3D models and all the data will be made available free of charge to any scientists and researchers who want to use them in their work, an approach consistent with how NOAA manages its Titanic visual content.

Part of the material will be provided to educational institutions and used for educational purposes by the non-profit organization OceanGate Foundation.

Well, for everyone else, Bauman hopes to create something that makes you breathtaking.

“We plan to release applications for augmented reality, virtual reality, we plan to sell our models to video game developers, and people will be able to dive on a submarine to the Titanic themselves,” he says. “And it will look more gorgeous than in 3D Imax resolution.”

Unlike all previous expeditions, all voluntary participants of the OceanGate mission will help scientists to collect data, which from the very beginning seemed to Renate Rojas particularly attractive.

For the past five years, she has been following with hope the progress in the preparation of the mission.

“We are not tourists,” she says. “We are truly part of the team.”

If you're lucky, Rojas will even be entrusted with piloting the submersible using its unique steering wheel - a wireless joystick from PlayStation.

“I'm betting on OceanGate. I believe we will be successful."

So Rojas believes that participation in the expedition fully justifies its high price.

She will not only see the place that was opened to just a handful of people on our planet, she will be directly involved in all the details of an exciting journey to the bottom.

In addition, she emphasizes, a flight into space costs $250, a climb to Everest costs $000. The amount they are asked to pay here is very realistic in this market.

Down to the bottom

If everything goes according to plan, then in June 2019, Rojas will be delivered from the auxiliary vessel to the Titan's control room, and she will descend into the submersible through an open hatch.

After it takes its place next to other specialists, the hatch will close and the device will begin to dive into the dark depths.

She will hear clicks and buzzing from the inside, and condensate will appear on the walls of the bathyscaph.

When the device touches the bottom, the lights will flash, and she will find herself face to face with the dream of her life - the Titanic in all its dying glory.

“I can imagine the feelings that will come over me there. I’ve been waiting for this for so long,” she says. “I think it will also be a very sad moment.” That tragedy is a very sad event in itself. So for me this meeting will be very emotional from any point of view.”

“It’s essentially a grave,” Johnston says. “There’s no getting around it, no matter how you look at it.” And we treat this with deep respect."

Some, including descendants of survivors, say that organizing tours of the wreck is disrespectful to the hundreds who died in 1912.

But, according to Johnston, the researchers' work provides a unique opportunity for future generations to learn about the Titanic, especially considering that very soon it will simply disappear.

“This is part of human history,” she says, “so I want to introduce it to all people.”

Renata Rojas hopes to be able to share her impressions and memories of the expedition with her children.

She would like them to know: the dream of a lifetime, even such as hers, can eventually come true.

“I was once just a child who had a dream. When you have a dream, even if it seems impossible, you can make it happen, says Rojas. “I’m ready for this.”

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