It is the stuff of nightmares, being trapped in a small submersible thousands of feet beneath the surface of the ocean and losing contact with the outside world, praying that you will be found in time before your oxygen supply runs out.
That is the dreaded scenario that is now playing out for real for the five people on board Titan, the tourist craft run by OceanGate Expeditions, which has gone missing while on a journey to the bottom of the sea to visit the legendary wreck of the Titanic. The five members of the expedition have until Thursday (June 22) to be rescued as that’s when their oxygen supply will be exhausted, but one man who knows what it is like to travel to the bottom of the sea in a tiny craft and the dangers involved, is Sun journalist Martin Phillips.
He ‘enjoyed’ – and endured – a trip to see the Titanic back in 2001. He was one of three people who journeyed to the wreck on a Russian three-man bathysphere, RV Akademik Keldysh, which was one of only five craft at the time that had the capabilities of diving to such enormous depths.
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Phillips accompanied a man called Peter Bailey and pilot Dr Anatoly Sagalevich on their voyage after Bailey won a competition run by a British businessman who bought the rights to one expedition in order to promote his new diving website. His prize was the ultimate trip of a lifetime and Sun reporter Phillips joined him and Dr Sagalevich on the mission.
Phillips and Bailey were told of the dangers involved on such a trip before they embarked Keldysh for their perilous trip to witness themselves the wreck of the Titanic, just four years after the blockbuster film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet was released.
Phillips, who battled against a bit of claustrophobia during the journey, said: “We were told just the tiniest of things going awry could see us cut in two by a powerful jet of water or crushed under the weight of the Atlantic Ocean.
“If the craft developed a pin-prick fracture, the laser-like jet of water forced through the hole would able to slice a man in half.
“The cramped capsule could even be engulfed in fire and there was slim chance of rescue if it all went wrong. The knowledge of the dangers you were going into was fairly terrifying, but the exhilaration of what we were about to see tended to mask that.
Dr Sagalevich told his two travelling companions how the oxygen-enriched atmosphere in the pressurised subs raised the risk of a blaze inside the vessel, “so we would be kitted out in fire-retardant to protect us – for a few extra seconds”.
Before Phillips and Bailey went on their trip, they watched other submersibles hauled out of the sea with some difficulty following their eight-hour trips, but they also saw a wooden vessel picked up by a big wave and sent crashing into Keldysh, damaging its tail fin, aerial and propeller housing.
“I feared future dives would be cancelled but, after a night in the ship’s workshops, the submersible was ready for launch again,” said Phillips, before adding: “To my alarm it had simply been patched up with silver duct tape.”
They eventually got the green light to head to the Titanic, but within metres of the surface, any sunlight had dissipated and they were left in complete darkness before the headlights were turned on… before being turned off a short while later to preserve precious battery power.
“For the next two hours we sat in darkness as we descended, sinking like a stone, chatting and listening to the regular, echoing ping of the sonar,” explained Phillips.
“Once on the sea bed our pilot put the lights on to illuminate a colourless lunar-like sandscape, but within minutes we were confronted by a wall of black.
“Then we rose and rose until suddenly, just an arms-length away, on the other side of the porthole glass, was the unmistakeable bow rail of Titanic. It was just the most extraordinary sight.
“It took your breath away, all this history right in front of you. We took a tour around the wreck at a respectable distance.
“Only when the pilot announced we had to return to the surface did we realise we had been down there for four hours – it had just flown past. As we began the two-hour return to the surface, the lights were turned off and Titanic went back to darkness once more.”
