Witness to Titan sub disaster tells of rescue effort: ‘We lived in false hope’

Rory Golden, who was onboard the support ship for the Titan submersible that imploded in June 2023 while diving toward the wreck of the Titanic, has spoken about the fear and atmosphere of false hope among the crew during the doomed rescue effort.

“We had this image in our heads of them being down there, running out of oxygen in the freezing cold, getting terribly frightened and scared,” Golden told BBC News .

He was on the Polar Prince support ship to give presentations on the Titanic when the submersible went missing. Golden said there was no initial concern, as communication interruptions on ocean voyages are common, but once the alarm was raised the crew had hope that the missing sub would be found, and were heartened by the US Coast Guard-led search and rescue effort.

The Titan experienced a catastrophic hull failure as it approached the sunken Titanic. Those on board probably died instantly.

“We lived in false hope for four days,” Golden said.

The five people killed were the British explorer Hamish Harding, the British Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, the CEO of Oceangate, Stockton Rush, and the French diver Paul Henri Nargeolet.

Golden was a close friend of Nargeolet and was one of the last people to see him alive.

“He left the ship in great spirits, in great form and he was happy. He was going somewhere that he wanted to be,” Golden said.

He noted the Titan sub had made 15 trips to the Titanic before the implosion, and said he himself had travelled in it.

“We all cried when the remains were found of the sub,” Golden said. “A special bond has been formed between all of us who were there on the ship that week. And that’s a bond that will always be there.”

The US Coast Guard plans public hearings for September 2024 on the disaster to go over evidence in what remains an active investigation. “There’s still a lot of questions to be answered,” Golden said.