I was the youngest ever diver to explore the Titanic at 13 and lost consciousness – people don’t realize the dangers
THE youngest ever person to explore the Titanic wreck has revealed he lost consciousness during his record-breaking dive in a warning to others about the inherent dangers of deep-sea exploration.
Sebastian Harris, son of Titanic expedition leader G. Michael Harris, became the youngest person to dive at the site of the infamous shipwreck in 2005 when he was just 13 years old.
With his father, Harris journeyed 12,850 feet below the surface of the icy North Atlantic Ocean in a Russian Mir II submersible.
In total, the trip took 12 hours - about half of which was spent exploring the wreck of the storied Titanic - and earned him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.
The record is still in place today and a plaque placed on the ship's bridge commemorates the accomplishment.
However, it wasn't all plain sailing: disaster nearly struck during Harris' initial descent.
He explained: "During our dive, we had a small safety issue. Suddenly our oxygen levels started to drop and I fell unconscious while we were diving down.
"Fortunately my father and our pilot did not experience the same issue, otherwise it may have been fatal, and thankfully we had oxygen meters inside of the sub that were showing lower oxygen levels than normal. So we cranked it up and then I was back in the game.
"But these sorts of small issues can and do happen with regularity, so the certification and safety of these vehicles is so important.
"These activities are inherently dangerous. A 13-year-old doesn't really have a sense of their own morality, so I was blissfully ignorant to a degree, but in different circumstances that could've ended in tragedy."
WARNING SIGNS IGNORED
Harris spoke with The U.S. Sun during a search for a missing submersible that vanished on June 17 near the wreck of the Titanic with five people aboard.
During the interview he theorized that the sub - named Titan, and created by OceanGate Expeditions - had likely suffered a catastrophic implosion during its descent, killing all those on board instantly.
Within 48 hours, Harris' hypothesis was proven correct: on Thursday, debris was found by authorities on the ocean floor 1,600ft from the Titanic's bow that was later confirmed to belong to the missing vessel.
In the days since the sub first lost contact, questions and historic concerns regarding the safety and design of the Titan have come to light.
OceanGate has only been providing tours of the Titanic site since 2021, however, experts from within and outside of the company have raised concerns about the submersible as far back as 2018.
It seems like maybe they weren't taking all available precations and I think many folks in the industry will find that incredibly frustrating.
Sebastian Harris
One ex-OceanGate Expeditions employee hired to protect the safety of submersibles and their passengers and crew, years ago claimed that CEO Stockton Rush - who died on the sub - and other company executives ignored warning signs the Titan may be unsafe.
Similar concerns, along with the claim that the company had ignored industry-wide safety standards, were echoed in a letter delivered to the company that same year by the Marine Technology Society.
In the letter, obtained by The, the group warned that the "current 'experimental' approach adopted by OceanGate... could result in negative outcomes (from minor to catastrophic)".
"I think you are potentially placing yourself and your clients in a dangerous dynamic," he wrote to Rush in March 2018. "In your race to Titanic, you are mirroring that famous catch cry: 'She is unsinkable'".
Rush responded that he was "tired of industry players who try to use a safety argument to stop innovation."
"We have heard the baseless cries of 'you are going to kill someone' way too often," Rush retorted. "I take this as a serious personal insult."
McCallum said on numerous occasions he urged the company to seek certification for the Titan before using it for commercial tours.
However, the vessel was never certified or classed. Instead, passengers were asked to sign lengthy waivers, acknowledging the craft's lack of certification and their chances of death, two ex-passengers told The U.S. Sun.
The tense exchange ended between McCallum and Rush ended after OceanGate's lawyers threatened legal action against him, he said.
For his part, Harris said he never would've stepped foot on the Titan - even at first glance of the vessel.
"I can't say that I would go on it, no," he said. "The Mir submersible I went on had several hundred dives logged before we set off.
"In 2000, my father and some of his colleagues almost had a catastrophic incident when diving the Titanic, but ultimately they were successfully recovered.
"What happened was they basically came up to the surface in very rough seas and the large ship - their main ship - landed on top of the submarine and it was a very bad deal.
"But even in the face of that, I felt safe diving in the Mir submersibles. But I couldn't get on the Titan.
"I don't know the full specifications of the sub but I understand that it was carbon fiber with basically a six-foot bowl at each end.
"There was no way to get yourself out of the sub, which I'd have an issue with.
"And I just don't think tourism at these kinds of depths is necessarily warranted."
SUB CATASTROPHE
While Harris said he would love to see deep-sea tourism one day take off, the industry is still very much in its infancy and the technology needs time to catch up to ensure it's the safest possible experience.
"The way I would think about it is that more people have been to space than to this depth in the ocean," he said, "and still we're in the very early stages of space tourism.
"I think the biggest takeaway from all this is anybody who is interested in this kind of tourism needs to do their due diligence and kind of take their safety into their own hands and have a very clear understanding of what they're dealing with.
"There's no blame to be had on the four individuals [aboard the Titan] in any way, shape, or form, but I think if one good thing comes from all this, it's just like the sinking of the Titanic was super impactful on maritime safety regulations, that something similar happens here too."
The suspected implosion of OceanGate's Titan sub was announced by John Mauger, Rear Admiral of the US Coast Guard, during a press conference in Boston, MA, on Thursday afternoon.
All five passengers aboard the vessel were confirmed dead.
They were named as OceanGate CEO and founder Stockton Rush; British Billionaire Hamish Harding; the legendary French diver Paul-Henry Nargeolet; British-based tycoon Shahzada Dawood, and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood.
Cameron claimed that OceanGate didn't get the Titan certified because they knew it wouldn't pass the necessary tests.
"I was very suspect of the technology that they were using. I wouldn't have gotten in that sub," he said.
"I felt in my bones what had happened. For the sub's electronics to fail and its communication system to fail, and its tracking transponder to fail simultaneously - sub's gone."
Cameron also suggested there was a "terrible irony" in the loss of the Titan and its crew, likening it to the 1912 sinking of the Titanic itself.
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"We now have another wreck that is based on unfortunately the same principles of not heeding warnings," he said.
"OceanGate were warned."