AN Isle of Man-based deep sea research and exploration company is taking bookings for what could be the last ever diving expedition to the Titanic.
This expedition will be particularly poignant as this year marks the 100th anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York.
Ramsey-based Deep Ocean Expeditions has organised multiple dives to the wreck over the past decade – but this year’s expeditions will be its first since 2005.
It doesn’t come cheap. The price of the 14-day trip, including an eight to 10- hour dive tour of the Titanic in one of two Russian Mir submersibles, comes to just under $60,000 a person.
Fewer than 150 people have ever visited the remains of the Titanic which were discovered in 1985 by oceanographer and marine biologist Dr Robert Ballard.
But those adventurers lucky enough to book a place on the Centenary Expedition will descend 12,500 feet to the bed of the North Atlantic and explore the ghostly wreck – seeing with their own eyes the Titanic’s lookout, bridge, telemotor and other artefacts that played a defining role in the greatest maritime disaster of its age.
Due to high demand for what is likely to be the firm’s last dive to the Titanic, four trips have been organised in July and August this year for the Titanic Centenary Expedition which is in partnership with the PP Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, part of the Russian Academy of Science.
These are the owners of the twin Mir submersibles which are capable of working at depths of 20,000 feet.
Head of the expedition is world renowned scientist Anatoly Sagalevitch, who played a major role in the Mir submersibles’ design and has piloted numerous dives to the Titanic, including those for James Cameron’s epic Hollywood film.
Deep Ocean Expedition’s leader is Rob McCallum, who has led and organised numerous dive expeditions around the world and is a veteran of more than 50 Antarctic expeditions.
The company, based at Grosvenor House, in Tower Street, Ramsey, was founded in 1998 by Mike McDowell, a specialist in remote expedition logistics.
In 2000, multiple dives were made to the RMS Titanic for the James Cameron’s 3D film ‘Ghosts of the Abyss’.
Touring
In the summer of 2001, the company led an expedition to the wreck of the Second World War German battleship Bismarck, the first time anyone had visited the ship since its sinking in action 60 years earlier.
It takes about two-and-a-half hours to reach the final resting place of the Titanic, on the seabed 300 miles south-east of Newfoundland. Three to four hours are spent touring the wreck site itself, the dive focusing on the bow section, the largest and most impressive section of the wreck.
During the trip, the Mir glides over the top of the wreck to look down into the cavern where Titanic’s famous grand staircase was once located. Numerous pieces of debris lie strewn across on the ocean floor, undisturbed for a century.
Those on board the Mir sub will also be able to view one of the ship’s giant boilers, as well as the enormous propellers.
It is also possible to glimpse the inside of the some of the cabins, including the quarters of Captain Smith, who famously went down with the ship. His bathroom is clearly visible with his porcelain bathtub still in remarkably good condition.
•The Isle of Man’s joint Branch of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects and the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology is holding a Titanic dinner at the Palace Hotel in Douglas on April 14 to mark the centenary of the Titanic’s sinking and to raise funds for the Institute’s Guild of Benevolence. For further information, email {mailto:rms_titanic@manx.net|rms_titanic(at)manx.net}