Titan - Titanic and the special connection

Since its disastrous voyage more than a century ago, the Titanic has held an unshakeable hold on the human imagination, thanks to its mystery. Now, the accident of the Titan submersible during the expedition to the “ill-fated” wreck has surprised the public with the incredible similarities between the two maritime disasters. And this does not stop at the two similar names: “Titan” and “Titanic”…

According to Bloomberg, on June 22, James Cameron, director of the Oscar-winning blockbuster “Titanic” released in 1997 and also an expert on submarines, admitted that the scenario of the Titan submarine visiting the exploding Titanic wreck had briefly appeared in his imagination. According to this veteran director, the voyages of the Titan and Titanic were both warned of the dangers. Not only him, many diving enthusiasts have also expressed skepticism about the safety of Titan, even writing letters to the US company OceanGate, the owner of the ship, to criticize the too risky expedition organized by the company.

“I was struck by the similarity between Titan and the Titanic disaster. In the accident more than 100 years ago, the captain of the Titanic was repeatedly warned of an iceberg ahead but still deliberately ran into it at full speed on a moonless night, resulting in the tragic loss of many lives. A similar tragedy happened to the Titan submersible at the same location when warnings were ignored. Now, in the same place, there is a wreck lying next to another wreck for the same unexpected reason. It is unimaginable,” said Mr. Cameron.

According to CNN , in 2012, Mr. Cameron designed and piloted the Challenger Deep submersible in the Pacific Ocean , but he affirmed that he would never design a vehicle to carry passengers to explore the ocean without permission. Instead, Challenger Deep is only an experiment and a mission for scientific research.

Cameron said he wished he could go back in time and sound the alarm sooner about the design flaws in the Titan. While the cause of the Titan’s explosion remains unclear, Cameron said critics were right to warn that the carbon fiber and titanium hull would allow for microscopic water separation and infiltration, leading to deterioration over time. In 2018, other experts criticized OceanGate for refusing to seek safety certification for the Titan.

After Mr. Cameron's sharing, the international media continued to "dig deep" into the thrilling coincidences between the Titan submersible and the Titanic sinking. Looking back at the Titanic sinking, it can be seen that the two names "Titan" and "Titanic" have many special connections. Before the Titan exploration ship disappeared, the Titanic had a catastrophic accident. And before the Titanic crashed, a ship named Titan in a novel predicted the Titanic's journey. According to As.com, in 1898, just 14 years before the Titanic disaster (1912), writer Morgan Robertson wrote the novel "Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan". At that time, the author named the ship "Titan" and created an accident with a series of coincidences with the Titanic sinking that happened later. Notably, the cause of the tragedy, the location of the accident, the size of the ship, the speed, and the number of passengers of the “Titan” in the novel and the real-life Titanic are quite similar. Meanwhile, according to AP, it is also a coincidence that the wife of the pilot of the submersible that disappeared while exploring the Titanic wreck is a descendant of the couple who died in the Titanic sinking in 1912.

The Titanic disaster continues to be the subject of a series of investigations, lawsuits, and intriguing theories. Similarly, the Titan explosion also raises the unanswered question: Who will be legally responsible for this disaster?; at the same time, it urges the need for clear rules to ensure the safety of underwater expeditions, which many people are willing to risk their lives to experience a unique feeling and reassure themselves that they have lived a life not in vain.

LE THU

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