My understanding is that any remains would be flash fried by the temperature rise from the pressure before the water could reach them.

Joe

 

Regardless of the specifics, it appears they went in a second. Never had to suffer nor linger. For that, we are thankful.

 

Instant death.

Just add water.

 

What a waste of lives.


I don’t get the draw to this expedition. There’s only ONE viewing window, and you have to sit on the crapper to see out this window. Other than that, it’s all external cameras and you watch inside on monitors. Gee, you know there’s YouTube for that, right? You can see the Titanic pics and videos from the comfort of your home at a comfortable 1 atm.

 

But there's a participation trophy and a certificate of achievement.

 

Most submarines don't have windows.

The number of people who have been to see the Titanic is very limited. The tourist aspect of this submersible was only intended to finance the operation. It was never the aim of the design or construction.

The only question in my mind is why Paul-Henri Nargeolet agreed to go. He was the only one on board qualified to know what he was getting into, and the only one who truly understood the implications of that craft on that dive.

 

Over on Twitter, someone posted the USN sonar analysis of the Argentinian sub that imploded at 1300’ down, it was all over in 40ms, the water entered the hull at 1800 mph.

 

That would be the case for steel or other metal, the hull collapses like an accordion creating a piston effect or so they told us.

Not sure about a composite hull.

 

Did the Atlantis at Waikikki, 100 ft below water with lots of nice large windows.

It was fun, but looking back, no bathroom, no food, no water, and god knows how long of an oxygen supply. Though I imagine even if stuck 100 below water, there’s enough Navy and Coast Guard presence in Hawaii to effect a rescue fairly quickly.

 

A few feet below the waves is nothing.

Ten to twelve thousand feet below the surface is very different.

Observation windows on a shallow tourist tub are not the same at all as a vessel intended to operate with an external pressure of 6,000 psi.

Water pressure at 100' is 43 psi. At 12,500', the depth of the Titanic, pressure is about 6,000 psi.

Oceangate's Titan submersible used a window rated for a depth of 4,265'. Not 12,500'. Pressure at rated depth is approximately 1850 psi. Very different from the pressures experienced at 12,500' depth.

Titan's viewing window was 12.3 inches in diameter; the largest of any deep crewed submersible. It was an off-the shelf component not rated remotely close to the pressures anticipated on the dive. For comparison, a 12.3" diameter disc (119 square inches area) experiences a total static load of:
100': 5117 lbs
4200': 220,150 lbs
12,500': 714,000 lbs

That's not a small exceedance of the rated load for the viewing window. It's a very substantial exceedance. The Titan was assembled of components, nearly all off-the-shelf items from tourist windows to childrens video game controllers, which were not individually designed, nor rated for the anticipated loads and conditions. It would be impossible to expect them to operate any better, when put in combination with numerous other inappropriate components, in the same vessel.