The co-founder of the company that owns the experimental submersible that imploded en route to the wreck of the Titanic said Monday that the company focused on using carbon fiber for the doomed ship because the company wanted a lightweight, less expensive submersible that didn’t need to be tethered to an expensive mother ship.
Businessman Guillermo Sohnlein, who helped found OceanGate with Stockton Rush, described the use of carbon fiber as “not a new idea” and said “people have looked at this before.”
Sohnlein eventually left the company before the Titan disaster in June 2023. Rush was one of five people who died when the submersible implosion occurred. Although Sohnlein left the Washington company years ago, he defended its efforts after the submersible implosion.
On Monday, he said no existing submarine builder could meet the company’s requirements, forcing it to build its own subs. And he said the company worked closely with the Coast Guard and eventually moved the sub to Miami to get more diving days so it could train with it.
“We would never have been able to move the submarine to Miami if we didn’t have confidence that the Coast Guard was comfortable with what we were going to do,” Sohnlein said.
The Coast Guard opened a public hearing earlier this month as part of a high-level investigation into the cause of the implosion. Some testimony focused on the troubled nature of the company. Earlier in the hearing, OceanGate’s former chief operating officer, David Lochridge, said he clashed frequently with Rush and felt the company was only in business to make money.
“The idea behind this business was to make money,” Lochridge said. “There was very little science in the business.”
Sohlein also testified Monday that he left the company in 2013 as it transitioned to engineering, which he described as a greater strength of Rush than his own. He said it was a “pretty easy decision” for Rush to take over the company, but it was harder to decide whether he should stay.
Ultimately, Sohnlein said, he didn’t think it was wise for the company to continue paying him $120,000 for a reduced position. He added that he retained a minority stake in the company, which still exists.
“Financially, it didn’t make sense to continue paying me that kind of salary when I wasn’t going to do much other than oversee business operations,” Sohnlein said, adding that it was “one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make” and that he once thought it would be “the last job I’d ever have.”
Other witnesses are also expected to testify Monday, including former OceanGate technical director Phil Brooks and Roy Thomas of the American Bureau of Shipping. The hearing is expected to continue through Friday and include additional witnesses.
Lochridge and other witnesses painted a picture of a struggling company eager to get its unconventionally designed craft into the water. The accident sparked a global debate about the future of private underwater exploration.
Coast Guard officials stressed at the start of the hearing that the submersible had not undergone an independent review, as is standard practice. That and Titan’s unusual design have subjected it to intense scrutiny from the underwater exploration community.
OceanGate, based in Washington state, suspended operations following the implosion. The company currently has no full-time employees, but it was represented by an attorney at the hearing.
During the submersible’s final dive, on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after exchanging text messages about the Titan’s depth and weight as it descended. The support vessel Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display.
One of the Titan crew’s last messages to the Polar Prince before the submersible implosion stated, “Everything is fine here,” according to a visual reconstruction shown earlier in the hearing.
When the submersible was reported overdue, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to an area about 700 kilometres south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. The wreckage of the Titan was later found on the ocean floor about 300 metres from the Titanic’s bow, Coast Guard officials said. No one on board survived.
OceanGate said it has fully cooperated with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigations from the beginning. Titan has been making trips to the Titanic wreck site since 2021.
