Daughter of ‘Mr Titanic’ killed in Titan sub catastrophe pays tribute
The grieving daughter of one of those killed in the Titan tragedy has spoken out to say her father, known as ‘Mr Titanic’, died doing what he loved most.
French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, was one of the five killed when a submersible imploded on a trip to the wreckage of the Titanic a year ago.
Ahead of the first anniversary, his daughter Sidonie Nargeolet, 40, said he must have been ‘super happy’ and he had a ‘very good death’.
She told the Sunday Times her father died doing his favourite thing and passed away ‘healthy with his mind intact’.
When she last spoke to him as he arrived on the Polar Prince – the ship from which the sub launched – he was ‘happy’.
But at 6am the next morning, she was told that the Titan was missing and she said she ‘cried for 10 minutes’.
Mr Nargeolet was on board with Hamish Harding, the 58-year-old British billionaire, his son Suleman, 19, and the Titan’s owner Stockton Rush, 61.
Sidonie Nargeolet with her father Paul Henri-Nargeolet who died on the Titan sub trip
French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, was one of the five killed when a submersible imploded on a trip to the wreckage of the Titanic a year ago
The submersible vessel named Titan used to visit the wreckage site of the Titanic
The world held its breath as the search and rescue mission began for the sub which had just 96 hours of oxygen left.
And on June 22, the US Coast Guard found debris on the Atlantic seabed which evidenced the Titan had imploded the same day it dived.
Mr Nargeolet came along as a deep-sea guide and it was his 38th trip to the wreckage of the Titanic.
In the 1990s, he left his job in the navy to explore and retrieve relics – managing to retrieve the first objects from the site, some of which he returned to the owners.
He took 5,500 in total and faced criticism from other explorers but he was ‘obsessed’ and retrieved the objects to honour the memory of those who died.
Ms Nargeolet told the Sunday Times she went sailing with her father in the Mediterranean before he sank it.
‘My family made fun of him. They said it was a bit like the Titanic. I didn’t think it was funny at the time, but now…’ she told the newspaper.
Mr Nargeolet (left) and Stockton Rush (right), CEO of the OceanGate Expedition
Five people were onboard, including British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding and Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman
His daughter slammed the firm behind the sub and said it stopped communicating with the families after the accident.
She said: ‘That is not normal. The least they could do is offered their condolences.’
The tragedy is still being ‘actively’ investigated and it later emerged that experts had flagged concerns with the firm – OceanGate – about the sub.
Ms Nargeolet said it is ‘better’ that the firm’s boss Mr Rush is no longer around as it would have been ‘hell for him to be alive’ after the disaster of OceanGate Expeditions, which offered the trips for $250,000.
In a disturbing interview a month before the disaster, Mr Nargeolet said the risks to the experimental sub didn’t worry him because ‘under that pressure, you’d be dead before you knew there was a problem’.
His former navy colleagues organised a ceremony for him in Toulon, and a building at the naval diving school has been named in his memory.
His daughter told the Sunday Times she has cried every day for the last year but said: ‘I think what he did is beautiful. I think it’s courageous.’
The missing Titan sub had been hit by technical issues and mishaps on at least six previous occasions before it vanished, it was later reported.
The former Director of Marine operations for the Titan project, David Lochridge, was fired from the company in 2018 after he raised concerns about its safety.
Bosses at the firm disagreed with his demands for more rigorous safety checks on the submersible, including ‘testing to prove integrity’.
The company also opted against having the craft ‘classed’, an industry-wide practice whereby independent inspectors ensure vessels meet accepted technical standards.
OceanGate suggested that seeking classification could take years and would be ‘anathema to rapid innovation’.
A desperate search for the sub was launched after it lost contact with its mothership and vanished during an expedition to the Titanic wreck on Sunday June 18, 2023
Lochridge, whose role included overseeing safety on the Titan project, had urged OceanGate to seek classification several years ago, before he was sacked in a disagreement about safety checks on the craft.
He also wanted the company to carry out a scan of Titan’s hull to ‘detect potential flaws’ rather than ‘relying on acoustic monitoring’ – which would only detect an issue ‘milliseconds before an implosion’.
In a court document filed in 2018, lawyers for the company said Lochridge’s employment was terminated because he ‘could not accept’ their research and plans, including safety protocols.
OceanGate also claimed that Lochridge ‘desired to be fired’ and had shared confidential information with others and wiped a company hard drive. The company said he ‘refused to accept the voracity of information’ about safety from Titan’s lead engineer.
In his report he said: ‘With Cyclops 2 (Titan) being handed off from Engineering to Operations in the coming weeks, now is the time to properly address items that may pose a safety risk to personnel.
‘Verbal communication of the key items I have addressed in my attached document have been dismissed on several occasions, so I feel now I must make this report so there is an official record in place.’
