Canadian filmmaker James Cameron holds the record for the deepest solo submersible dive in history. He went down to a depth of 10,994 metres, to the bottom of Mariana Trench’s Challenger Deep—the deepest place on earth. Cameron was no novice; he had visited, several times, the remains of the Titanic, which have lain at rest some 4,000 metres in in the frigid waters far off Newfoundland’s coast, since its fateful sinking on April 14, 1912. Cameron’s feature film about the tragedy benefitted from his close encounters with the ship, certainly. And soon, others can have their own experience, vividly firsthand.
The United Kingdom-based Blue Marble Private travel company worked with deep-sea submersible pioneers OceanGate Inc. to create an underwater ship capable of travelling right down to the Titanic. The trip is not cheap, but nor was a first-class cabin on the Titanic when it took its maiden (and final) voyage. The price in 1912 was $4,0350 USD; pro-rated for inflation, this new trip will cost $105,129 USD. (A different company, Deep Ocean Expeditions, used to often take tourists on trips down to the wreck, but ceased regular expeditions in 1995, with a final trip in 2012.)
The adventurers who take this Blue Marble Private tour will start in Newfoundland, and make an eight-day odyssey across and down into the Atlantic Ocean. Viewing the Titanic up close, seeing the famed grand staircase, might even be a little eerie for some, but no doubt it will be the thrill of a lifetime. A limited number of missions, each with a capacity for nine “Mission Specialists”, will launch in 2018, and are expected again in 2019. And surely, all are going to come back to the surface with many a story to tell, just like Cameron.
