When five men died on June 18, 2023, in the explosion of the submarine Titan during a dive at the Titanic’s resting place, Paul-Henri Nargeolet’s knowledge was also lost. It was Nargeolet’s 38th dive on the sunken ship. Known as Mr. Titanic, he has helped recover thousands of items that have been displayed in museums and events around the world.
A year later, the company he worked for as director of underwater research is preparing an expedition in July that will employ a pair of robots instead of humans in submarines looking for more treasure to unearth in the future.
Jessica Sanders, president of RMS Titanic which is organizing the expedition, said, “there is an art to artefact recovery and a human element that technology can never replace – and should not”. He said Mr Nargeolet had embodied that kind of experience.
On the other hand, he said the results of the robotic mission “will speak for themselves.”
The plans by Mr. Nargeolet’s former employers show one of the most immediate effects of the Titan disaster: a deployment of robots to fly the frozen depths in place of humans driving submarines. Robots are considered safer.
At the same time, however, players in the submarine world are pushing for greater international regulation to prevent another disaster. They want to close the loophole exploited by OceanGate, Titan’s manufacturer, by avoiding the voluntary safety certifications the industry uses to reduce significant risks to divers.
The many fans of manned submarines want to make sure Mr Nargeolet’s legacy paves the way for a new generation of explorers. That could involve future human pilots retrieving more of the Titanic’s remains and paraphernalia — rivets, fine china, champagne bottles — scattered across about three square miles of the North Atlantic seabed.
On his final dive, Mr Nargeolet hoped to see one of his long-held recovery targets – the wireless telegraph that transmitted the Titanic’s distress calls. Responding ships rescued hundreds of survivors, including women and children in lifeboats. In his autobiography, Mr Nargeolet said the wreckage of the Titanic around the famous telegraph was “likely to collapse in the short term”, making its rescue “even more urgent”.
James Cameron, known for the 1997 film Titanic, also favors the recovery of the telegraph. “To actually put this instrument on public display would be very emotional for millions of museum visitors,” he said in an interview last year.
In 1987, when Mr. Nargeolet made his first dive on the Titanic, underwater robots were rare. Then the Cold War spinoffs made their abilities and numbers skyrocket. Robert D. Christ of the Marine Technology Society, an industry group, said there are now thousands and that perhaps as many as a hundred could descend to the depths of the Titanic, more than two miles below.
Large underwater robots with lights, computers, video cameras, mapping systems, sensors and manipulator arms. Most have long moorings connecting them to motherships. At the top, operators use joysticks and monitors to orchestrate the action below.
July’s mission to the Titanic, located about 370 miles off Canada’s Newfoundland, will include two submersibles from the Chouest Group, a Louisiana-based family of companies serving the offshore oil industry. In May, it announced the acquisition of another company, which expanded its undersea fleet to more than 100 robots.
“I’ve been baffled for years why anyone even builds deep submersibles anymore,” said Tyler Schilling, an industry pioneer who founded Schilling Robotics in Davis, Calif., referring to the human-driven vessels. “I think the Titan situation is the only logical answer – people want adventure.”
The adventure factor, submarine advocates say, is real and healthy because it helps create a broad public appreciation for the wonders of the world’s oceans.
A new generation of human-driven submarines is thought to be adding to the allure. Known as bubbles, they have spherical hulls made of clear plastic that give their passengers stunning panoramic views instead of peeking through tiny portholes.
A subbubble strong enough to withstand the crushing pressures at the bottom of the Titanic is now forming. Triton Submarines, a company in Sebastian, Florida, is building the sub for Larry Connor, an Ohio billionaire and ocean adventurer. Triton says he will set a record for how deep a bubble can go.
The new submarine is intended to show the world that – unlike last year’s disaster – submarines can safely and repeatedly venture into the depths of the Titanic.
“A few years ago, this was not possible,” Patrick Lahey, president of Triton Submarines, said of the new submarine. But technological advances, he added, “allow us to do it safely.”
For example, Mr. Lahey said, steady advances in heating and shaping thermoplastic materials will allow Triton to make the submarine’s clean walls incredibly strong. Their thickness, he said, will be 16 inches – a record. Mr Lahey added that the two-person craft is set to make its ocean debut in early 2026.
Triton as a company prides itself on what the Titan submarine lacked – expensive rounds of inspection and testing by reputable marine organizations that specialize in certifying deep submersibles as safe. It’s an industry-wide code of conduct that experts now believe should be made a global requirement because Titan’s makers skipped the voluntary step.
“It should be mandatory,” Alfred S. McLaren, a retired Navy submariner, submarine pilot and president emeritus of the Explorers Club, said of the proposed upgrade. “Until you implement these testing and certification rules, it’s high seas and stupid things are going to happen.”
Will Kohnen, who chairs the Marine Technology Society’s Submarine Committee, agreed. “We have the technology down,” he said. “We don’t have to prove that we are safe. What we need is the regulatory framework that will control traffic and check that people have a driving license.”
Mr Kohnen said that about two hundred human-piloted submersibles now travel the world’s oceans – a tiny fraction of the deep-sea robot population – and that only about 10 could descend to the depths of the Titanic.
Until the Titan disaster, submarines had a remarkable safety record because companies adhered to the voluntary code. Despite thousands of deep dives, no man in a submarine has ever died while plunging into the sunless depths of the ocean.
Experts say it is likely that government investigations into what caused the Titan to explode will need to be completed before new submarine rules are drawn up. This month, the head of the US investigation, Capt. Jason D. Neubauer of the Coast Guard, said the conclusions of his investigation and the release of its findings could take another two years.
The International Maritime Organization, the United Nations agency that sets standards for safety and security at sea, has said it awaits such findings before addressing the issue of global submarine regulation.
“People will embrace the change,” Salvatore Mercogliano, a shipping historian at Campbell University in North Carolina, said of the new arrangement. “Everyone has safety on their mind.”
After the Titanic disaster, echoing the new caution, RMS Titanic decided to suspend its reliance on the pilot boat “until further investigation” into the cause of the explosion.
Ms Sanders, chairman of RMS Titanic, said the new confidence in submarine safety would allow her company to use piloted vehicles again, particularly for the daunting task of recovering the telegraph that sent the Titanic’s distress calls.
An early version of the recovery plan called for a pilot vehicle to team up with three robots on a mission to retrieve the legendary device.
With both the robots and the submarines, Ms. Saunders said, her company’s overall goal is to ensure that gems from the famous ship “don’t get lost at sea a second time.”
