Why has a fascination with the Titanic endured so long — and transferred to the Titan?
“The 360” shows you diverse perspectives on the day’s top stories and debates.
What’s happening
Four days of desperate rescue efforts abruptly turned into grim tragedy Thursday afternoon once officials announced that the five passengers who disappeared while attempting to explore the Titanic shipwreck were likely lost due to a “catastrophic implosion” of their vessel.
Despite years of safety concerns about the construction of the 22-foot tourist submersible named the Titan, and scrutiny about the private exploration company OceanGate’s “experimental” approach to the journey, wealthy tourists and explorers paid up to $250,000 per person for a chance to visit the remnants of the Titanic, which sank in 1912 on its inaugural trip from England to New York.
For some, the wreckage both then and now represents the ills of greed playing out in the most absolute terms. For others, it represents something bigger than life — and an opportunity to be a part of it. As Salon noted, so-called Titaniacs will do anything to see the Titanic in real life.
“For a lot of us, it’s more than just a ship,” Rafael “the Titanic Guy” Avila, who shares Titanic updates on his TikTok account with more than 650,000 followers, told the Washington Post.
The tale of the Titanic has grown into a multibillion-dollar industry. There are seven permanent Titanic museums, a litany of books, documentaries and video games to immortalize the ship’s voyage. Director James Cameron’s iconic 1997 movie earned more than $2.2 billion worldwide — making it, at the time, the highest-grossing feature film ever.
Why there’s debate
Many critics are stunned that Titanic enthusiasts assume such risks to visit the wreck and its underwater graveyard. To them, the jaw-dropping costs, both of the submersible adventure and the international rescue effort, only highlight the gap between wealthy and poor people.
These critics point to the fact that far less attention was paid to the deaths of 300 migrants trying to get from Libya to Italy, who drowned after their boat capsized in some of the deepest waters of the Mediterranean.
In a drawing posted on Instagram, artist Oliver Jeffers depicted the scenario with a news camera pointed toward the sinking five-passenger sub, turned away from drowning refugees.
“While we are glued to the news about 5 mostly wealthy tourists lost on a submarine on their way to seek the wreckage of a sunken ship, today is World Refugee Day, and only last week a boat holding hundreds of refugees sank off the coast of Greece,” Jeffers wrote in the caption of the post.
But for others, the grip of the Titanic’s story is simply impossible to ignore.
“It took two hours and 40 minutes to sink, which is long compared to most other wrecks,” Gareth Russell, who wrote a book about the Titanic, told the Telegraph. “That time enabled people onboard to go through the process of dealing with death. You start with life, then there’s the assumption everything will be fine, then there’s the moment when everyone has to decide how they’ll respond to the challenge of dying.”
Russell, coincidentally, said he was offered a place on the Titan a few years ago and considered it, but he ultimately turned down the opportunity, saying, “I’m not great with enclosed spaces, and this was my worst nightmare. It’s a treacherous dive.”
Perspectives
A surreal similarity
“I’m struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself, where the captain was repeatedly warned about ice ahead of his ship and yet he steamed at full speed into an ice field on a moonless night. And many people died as a result. And for a very similar tragedy, where warnings went unheeded, to take place at the same exact site … is just astonishing. It’s really quite surreal.” — Director James Cameron to ABC News
It's unsinkable, supposedly
“It is the ultimate story: It’s unsinkable, supposedly, and you’ve got it full of all these key people, like the president of the company that owns it and the president of the company that built it, and as well as all these famous people ... and then on its maiden voyage, it hits an iceberg and then sinks so slowly. And then there’s all this time for all this drama to be acted out, like the band playing — that just doesn't get duplicated.” — Don Lynch, historian of the Titanic Historical Society, to Salon
Dark reflection on humanity
“It’s a horrifying and disgusting contrast. The willingness to allow certain people to die while every effort is made to save others ... it’s a really dark reflection on humanity.” — Judith Sunderland, associate director for Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia division, to NBC News
Another faceless tragedy
“The sinking of a boat carrying hundreds of migrants should be treated this way, but it isn’t and hasn’t been. It is undoubtedly a new story and an unspeakably tragic one — it’s also, unlike the Titanic tourists story, one that says a great deal about the way the world works. And yet it’s treated as routine or even mundane — yet another faceless tragedy involving people who typically receive far less attention than those who are far better off than they are.” — Alex Shephard, New Republic
Feel those emotions from a safe distance
“We love stories where people somehow beat the odds. Any story that evokes such strong emotions, like sadness and fear, is likely to cause us to keep reading. It gives us an opportunity to feel those emotions from a safe distance. We aren’t actually on the sub and most of us don’t know anyone who is, but it gives us an opportunity to imagine what it must be like to be there from a safe distance.” — David Kessler, grief expert and founder of Grief.com, to USA Today
Odd to watch, but impossible to look away
“The news is often about death, and accidents: We all know the planes that land safely don’t get covered. … There’s anger here, in all kinds of directions: The fact that there are massive resources being devoted to the rescue — truly, as if they are astronauts — of just five people. The fact that they got themselves into this scenario. It feels odd to watch, but impossible to look away from. The exact goal of why we need to ‘stay informed’ is unclear — most of us would never be able to afford such a journey anyway. Gawking feels wrong, but also totally natural.” — Shannon Palus, Slate
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