Inside the Titan: quiet and cramped, with a single porthole

USA

Passengers seeking a glimpse of the RMS Titanic aboard the submarine that disappeared into the North Atlantic this week endured a dangerous fall to the ocean floor for hours aboard a cramped craft with a single porthole.

Mike Reiss, a producer and writer for “The Simpsons,” boarded the ship known as the Titan last summer. He said passengers would have to sign a waiver that listed three deaths on the first page.

Passengers on his 10-hour journey — a trip that can cost up to $250,000 — were composed but excited, he said. Sandwiches and water were available on the ship, but he recalled being told that many passengers did not eat during the voyage due to excitement and that the rudimentary onboard toilet had never been used.

OceanGate Expeditions, which operates the ship, describes the journey on its website as an “exciting and unique travel experience”. The company did not immediately respond to a request for more information on Tuesday.

The Titan is tight. David Pogue, a CBS reporter and former New York Times tech columnist who has been on board, described the cylinder as “about the size of a minivan.”

Images of OceanGate show a barrel with a interior like a metal tube, where passengers can sit on the flat floor with their backs to the curved walls. There is some overhead lighting but no chairs and little room to move or stand up.

Mr Reiss described a “common” experience with fellow passengers as they took turns looking at the Titanic wreck.Credit…Via Denise Reiss

Yet Mr. Reiss, who had previously traveled with OceanGate Expeditions to see Hudson Canyon off the coast of New York City, described the journey to the Titanic as “very comfortable” and said he fell asleep on the quiet, dimly lit descent. . “You just fall like a brick for two and a half hours,” he said.

As the submarine headed for the Titanic, Mr. Reiss, he was thrown off course by underwater currents. The compass was acting “really weird,” he recalled, and the team only knew they were about 500 yards from where they should have been.

Still, the Titan, only able to spend three hours on the ocean floor, managed to arrive at the wreckage with about 20 minutes to spare for what Mr. Reiss called a quick “photo-op.” He could see the sunken ship through the porthole, which he described as the size of a washing machine window.

The wreckage was “the biggest thing in the world,” he said, “but you’re in such darkness, you just don’t know where it’s going to be.”