California man journeyed on Titan 2 years before fatal implosion: ‘Adventure of a lifetime’

Nearly two years ago, Bill Price of Cayucos, California was one of five people onboard the Titan submersible when it successfully journeyed about 2 miles below the ocean surface to the undersea wreckage of the Titanic.

According to the U.S. Coast Guard, the 22-foot-long submersible imploded after leaving on a similar mission about a week ago — killing all five people on the vessel owned and operated by OceanGate Expeditions.

The Titan launched from an icebreaker ship on the morning of June 18 and was reported overdue that afternoon about 435 miles south of St. John’s, Newfoundland, the Associated Press reported.

Debris from the 20,000-pound submersible was found roughly 1,600 feet from the Titanic in North Atlantic waters, the Coast Guard said Thursday, bringing an end to rescue efforts.

Price is now grieving the deaths of two friends — OceanGate CEO and Titan pilot Stockton Rush and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet — as well of the loss of the sub and the Titan dream.

Also killed in the implosion were two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, as well as British adventurer Hamish Harding.

As details about the fatal incident emerged over the course of a week, Price said, “I went from anticipation and hope to a kind of finality.”

In July 2021, Price went on an “adventure of a lifetime” — embarking on two missions as a crew member. Only the second one was successful.

“I had spent days” with Rush and Nargeolet, Price recalled. “We had all our meals together with the other crew, spent 10 hours each on two days in the missions. We had this kind of bond in adventure, but also trying to accomplish something amazing.”

SLO County man is drawn to adventure

Price said he’s always been drawn to adventure.

As a 14 year old, he and some pals took a 20-mile round trip from the Detroit suburb where they lived to across the Canadian border and back.

His parents “thought I was down at the park. It was many years before I told them where I’d gone,” he recalled.

After years leading the YMT Vacations travel company started by his aunt and uncle, Price retired and left Manhattan Beach.

He joined an adventurer’s club in Los Angeles, which led him to Rush and the Titan.

He and second wife Nanette Price got married alongside a Pismo Beach cove, having vacationed often on the Central Coast.

When his daughter Nicole was accepted to Cal Poly, got married and had a baby nearly four years ago, Bill and Nanette Price moved to Cayucos to be closer to her, her husband Willie Travis and their daughter Navi, as well as Willie’s 16-year-old son August.

Bill Price’s other daughter, Kristin Price, is a licensed acupuncturist from Playa del Rey.

Cayucos “is a perfect fit for us,” Bill Price said. “I love it here. It’s great.”

SLO County man joins mission to find Titanic wreckage

Price was an adjunct marketing advisor for Rush.

“I had an opportunity to be a mission specialist, be part of the crew in its attempts to locate the wreck” of the famed Titanic ocean liner that sank in 1912 after colliding with an iceberg, Price said.

Because of a confidentiality agreement, Price wouldn’t say how much he paid to be part of the missions that recently cost in the neighborhood of $250,000 each.

“I can say it was over six figures, a substantial amount for me,” he said. “Because I had a lot of business and marketing experience, we agreed I’d assist them, give them a lot of insight into that side of things” in exchange for a discounted rate.

Price was aboard the Titan on July 22 and July 23, 2021, when it attempted to reach the Titantic wreckage.

Cayucos man: Titan’s problems started on 2021 mission

While on the Titan, Price and his fellow crew members had no GPS or voice communication with their support vessel.

Instead, they relied on a sonar device “almost like a telex that sends beeps up and back, and comes out like a text,” Price said.

On July 22, when the crew began getting their bearings to adjust the submersible’s location closer to the Titanic, “We experienced some difficulties,” he said. “After an hour or so, we had a loss of communication.”

“There was some concern,” Price said, mostly because the crew on the support vessel were giving the Titan crew the coordinates.

“With our last known coordinates, we realized we needed to be in a different location,” he added.

That was when they learned that the Titan’s left side propulsion unit was not operating, so we couldn’t really steer,” Price recalled. “The decision was made to abort that mission.

“Then the real issues came in,” he added.

“There’s a series of weights attached to each side of the hull, in a rack. On the bottom of the rack, there’s an electronic release mechanism, which had failed,” he said. “The way for us to get back to the surface was to release the weights. We were just stuck there in limbo while still descending, with quite a ways to go to the bottom.”

Stockton “had anticipated this,” Price said and came up with an alternate plan.

“If we could twist the sub far enough over on its ‘side,’ maybe the weights would fall out and be released,” he said. “So, five of us went from one side of the sub to the other, until we got the submersible to spin or twist.”

That was tricky, considering tthat crew members normally sat facing each other aboard the cramped submersible.

“We were dead in the water, still sinking,” he said. “By then, we all faced the same direction and in a crouched position, began to go up one side. We’d climb the wall, go as far as we could, then turn around and go the other way. We did several back and forth (maneuvers).”

Eventually, he said, “We heard a clunk, an indication one of the weights had gone. We continuing shifting from side to side until the sub started going back up.”

The tense process took about a half hour, Price estimates now.

Was he ever scared?

“Looking back, I probably should have been,” he said. “But the focus of everybody at that time was not panic or concern. We knew we were stuck and had to concentrate on what needed to be done to get back up.”

What was it like to see Titanic wreckage?

Even after that experience, Price and the others opted to join another mission to reach the Titanic wreckage the next day.

“Stockton went to each one of us, asked if we wanted to go back down,” Price said. “Based on the fact he was able to successfully manage when the difficulties arose, that gave me the confidence to go back down.”

Seeing the Titanic wreckage in person on July 23, 2021, was “one of the highlights of my life,” the Cayucos man recalled.

Price said he was especially fortunate to make the trek alongside Nargeolet, who was able to point out what had changed since his previous visit to the wreck 20 years earlier.

“Some things were no longer there,” Price said, “such as part of the mast in front section of the bow The crow’s nest was no longer there.”

Another change was in the captain’s quarter, he said.

“There’s a bathtub that’s pretty visible,” When (Nargeolet) was there before, “the tub was pretty empty, but this time almost filled to the top filled with debris.”

Those insights “brought everything to life,” Price said.

“When we arrived at the bow section itself, we had a moment for reflection and prayer … for the people who lost their lives there,” Price recalled. “We made sure that nothing was touched or changed. We basically were there to observe, but seeing what not that many other people in the world have seen.”

Asked if he would visit the Titanic again, especially given the fate of the Titan, Price paused for a few moments.

“No. I certainly couldn’t even afford the first one,” at full cost, he said. “But if they gave me the opportunity (to be on another submersible mission) to another unique destination, I’d consider it.”