Unlucky Titan Submersible’s Launch Ship Returns to Newfoundland
Unlucky Titan Submersible’s Launch Ship Returns to Newfoundland
The ship that launched the tragic Titan submersible was escorted to a Canadian Coast Guard base when it returned on Saturday morning from international waters to its home port, St. John’s, Newfoundland, where investigators boarded it in search of answers.
The ship, the Polar Prince, docked at the Atlantic coast Guard headquarters, and a parade of around a dozen persons, including inspectors from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, entered or left the ship for hours.
The transportation safety investigators were expected to search through the heavy plastic equipment cases pulled from the Titan, a submersible that cost-conscious tourists from around the world $250,000 tours of the Titanic wreck site, 12,500 feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, to see what went wrong.
International teams’ search and rescue operation was called off on Thursday after U.S. Coast Guard officials revealed that the missing ship had probably imploded, killing the five persons on board, and debris was found on the ocean floor roughly 1,600 feet from the Titanic catastrophe.
The Polar Prince, a Canadian vessel owned by Miawpukek Horizon Maritime Service, had taken the Titan’s passengers and others to their destinations while towing the Titan to its launch location due to the Titan’s lack of power.
The Polar Prince stayed close to the launch site until the search was called off, at which point it moved on to the local coast guard headquarters. A big orange ocean supply ship came in a floating platform that had been used to transport the Titan separately.
A dozen individuals wearing orange safety vests and white hard hats entered the ship more than an hour after the ships docked.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada made the announcement on the probe on Friday and travelled to St. John’s carrying duffel bags and hard cases bearing its name or initials.
Family members of the five individuals who were in the submersible when it exploded, according to Kathy Fox, head of the safety board, were among the 41 passengers on board the ship on June 18. 17 of those on board, according to a different official with the safety investigative authority, were crew members of the ship.
The safety board interviewed a number of persons on Saturday, including the family members. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police claimed that as part of a preliminary investigation to ascertain whether a criminal investigation was necessary, it separately interviewed passengers and personnel on the ship.
The complete cooperation has been obtained, Ms. Fox assured reporters. “Up to this point, the interaction has been really good.”
The Titan’s wreckage is currently on the ocean floor, and Ms. Fox stated that the United States Coast Guard would be in charge of rescuing and inspecting it, but that her organisation would review any results.
For the Canadian Coast Guard, which gave it the name Sir Humphrey Gilbert, the Polar Prince was constructed in 1959 as a small icebreaker and buoy tender. The ship, which was decommissioned from government service in 2001, underwent multiple name changes before being christened Gilbert 1.
One of the many owners in that tangle put it up for auction on eBay in 2005 with a $1 million starting price.
The Miawpukek Mi’kamawey Mawi’omi First Nation, located near Conne River, Newfoundland, is one of the company’s owners.
On Sunday, the Polar Prince departed from St. John’s, its home port, for the trip to the Titanic wreck. Prior to it, the ship had been docked for a few weeks as it was getting ready for the journey, which had been postponed due to bad weather.
On Saturday, in clear, warm weather, it returned.
