Last July my fellow Explorers Club members Hamish Harding and Paul-Henri Nargeolet along with Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, were lost, when the Titan, a five-man pressuried submersible imploded on a dive to the RMS Titanic at the bottom of he North Atlantic. On e the surface support ship lost contact, a massive multi-national mission streamed to the rescue. All in vain, although the wreck was found without any of the crew. Death had to be instaneous.
Yesterday evening the Explorers Club held a memorial for Hamish Harding, an extraordinary deep sea and polar explorer. I was too sick from fish poisoning to attend. A bad piece of Hake, although it tasted good at the time of eating and I supposed going down the Titanic seemed a good idea in the height of summer. Seats for the three passengers cost $250,000. Stockon Rush had sworn the dive was safe without mentioning previous issues mainly that the carbon-titanium hull had been constructed from secondhand material from Boeing.
All that aside the sea is a cruel mistress.
The three passengers had sign waivers against any lawsuit in case of death.
They understood the risks, as anyone does who goes down the sea in ships.
Sadly a week earlier in the Ionian Sea off the coast of Pylos, Messenia, Greece, a fishing boat sank while carrying an estimated 400 to 750 migrants off the coast of Pylos, Greece. Hundreds drowned as the Hellenic Coast Guard watched under orders to not interfere. The world press ignored the story, as they might have a almost sinking of a ferry off Sulawesi. I was so glad we didn’t go under the waves,
I have also endangered my life diving off the Quincy Quarry cliffs, free-diving through underwater caves off Isla des Mujeres, surfing Bingin Beach In Bali, playing softball against the Hells Angels for CBGBs, and motorcycling through the mountains north of Chiang Mai. I have died several times without the time to think I’m going to die and hopefully the same went for the crew of the Titan and the drowned migrants. Rest eternally under the sea.
