The recent voyage to the depths of the ocean to find the wreckage of the Titanic ship that sank more than a century ago may have ended up as a catastrophic expedition, but the audacity of the five men who undertook and died during the journey deserves commendation and introspection.

By their action, they demonstrated and reinforced the daring character of mankind to take risks, which have led to innovations and discoveries that are benefiting human beings across the globe. Beyond that, perhaps, is a lesson reminding mankind that despite its monumental mastery of nature, it is far from conquering it. The situation is such that the more the man knows about his environment, the more he is yet to know. The world had no choice but to accept explanation that the ‘indestructible’ Titanic sank after inevitably colliding with an iceberg, a reason that sounded too simplistic for a vessel of its extraordinary might, but the world is yet to be told the real reason for the ‘catastrophic implosion’ suffered by the Titan, and which swiftly terminated the lives of all its five occupants.

Five men, in a deep-sea tourist submersible named Titan, which is operated by a U.S.-based company, OceanGate Expeditions, embarked on the voyage, for which they paid $250,000 each, from Newfoundland. They were the founder and Chief Executive Officer of OceanGate, Stockton Rush, who piloted the Titan; British billionaire and explorer, Hamish Harding, 58; Pakistani-born businessman, Shahzada Dawood, 48; his 19-year-old son, Suleman, both British citizens; and French oceanographer and renowned Titanic expert, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, who was said to have visited the wreck dozens of times.

In a report by Joseph Ax and Steve Gorman published by Reuters, they wrote that the Titan was discovered to be missing an hour, 45 minutes into the sail to the ocean floor after losing contact with its surface support ship. They quoted the U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger as later saying, at a press conference, that robotic diving vehicle deployed from a Canadian ship had discovered a debris field from the submersible Titan on the seabed some 1,600 feet (488 metres) from the bow of the Titanic, 4 km beneath the surface, in a remote corner of the North Atlantic. The Titan was found in pieces from a “catastrophic implosion” that killed everyone aboard.

Earlier, the OceanGate issued a statement saying there were no survivors among the five men aboard the Titan, adding: “These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans. Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time,” the company said.

The RMS Titanic, a British passenger liner thought to be unsinkable, struck an iceberg and sank during its maiden voyage in 1912, killing more than 1,500 people aboard. The exact location of the Titanic shipwreck was discovered in 1985. The vessel lies about 900 miles (1,450 km) east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and 400 miles (640 km) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Since the wreck was discovered, salvagers and researchers have risked their lives and paid an astronomical sum to dive to the depth of 12,500 feet to see the remains of the Titanic described by Yudhajit Shankar Das of India Today as an engineering marvel of its time.

Indeed, the voyage to see the Titanic was a great risk. However, similar adventures in history have turned out to be of immense benefits to humanity. A good example is the first space flight by the Soviet cosmonaut, Yuri Gargarin, in 1961 that has had a lasting impact. French astronaut, Jean-Francois Clervoy, described Gagarin’s first space flight as a lesson in courage and commitment for the benefit of not only his country but also the whole of mankind.” Clervoy said that at that time when Gagarin took the historic flight, it was extremely difficult to go into space and the probability of losing a spacecraft and the crew was about 50 per cent compared to today’s one per cent, which is still considered to be high. The courageous flight by Gagarin laid the foundation for space exploration, which, today, has played a crucial role in innovation and advancement of mankind for decades.

One of the benefits of space exploration is in advanced robotics and artificial intelligence. The harsh condition of the space environment compelled experts to develop robots and artificial intelligence as mechanisms of exploration to roam the surface of Mars and beyond. The capability led to development of technologies to support mobility for disabled people and for use in search and rescue efforts on Earth till today. It is also on record that astronauts, aboard the International Space Station, experimented with and fine-tuned medical innovations that later transformed healthcare on Earth, notably in life-saving cancer treatment and delicate robotic surgery performed inside an MRI machine. Other benefits are in the areas of cleaner water, critical raw materials for nuclear power plants and combating climate change.

The Titan voyage should be seen as a path to discovery, innovation. Advancement of mankind is characterised by risk taking, and the ill-fated Titan submersible is a forerunner to efforts by human beings to conquer the seas for the benefit of mankind as pioneered by Gagarin for space exploration.

In the race for innovation and discoveries, there may either be success or failure at some points. When it is failure, lessons are learnt, improvement made and the journey to the set goal continues. Apart from the general belief that no technology can be considered as foolproof, some experts claimed that the Titan was not fit for purpose, which was the reason for the safety concerns and repeated warnings by a popular deep sea exploration specialist, Rob McCallum. The warnings also issued against the backdrop of the fact that the world of deep-sea exploration is not well regulated were allegedly ignored by OceanGate.

In future, such technology as Titan should be certified fit for purpose and registered with local and international agencies that regulate safety as well as bodies or groups that set standards in the industry to reduce the risk level. There is a need for a body of the United Nations to approve such an adventure. In case there is a future voyage to the Titanic, some parts of it should be allowed to be brought to land because of the claim that the historic vessel would be destroyed in about 20 years’ time. In the final analysis, the Titan voyage was about the adventurous nature of human beings that should be applauded because, as the saying goes, “man does not discover a new sea until he has courage to leave the shore.”

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