Titan's Support Ship Felt a 'Shudder' When It Lost Contact with Doomed Sub That Imploded: Hearing

Mar. 15, 2025

Wreckage from the Titan submersible implosion in June 2023.Photo:U.S. Coast Guard

U.S. Coast Guard

ThePolar Prince’s master told Coast Guard investigators that he recalled feeling his ship “shudder” around the same time its communications with theTitansubmersiblewere lost last yearduring theTitan’sdoomed dive down to the wreck of theTitanic.

In his written answers to the Coast Guard’s questions, the master (thePolar Prince’s captain) said that “with the benefit of hindsight,” he believes he had “felt thePolar Princeshudder at around the time communications were reportedly lost" but did not realize it until later.

“At the time, we thought nothing of it,” the master said, noting, “It was slight.”

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At the hearing on Friday, Jamie Frederick, the Coast Guard captain who oversaw theTitansearch-and-rescue mission, said this was “the first” time he had heard about the “shudder.”

Not sharing that information with the unified command, he added, “would be unconscionable.”

“It’s a piece of info we didn’t have,” Frederick said. “It’s information that could have had a drastic impact on the search efforts.”

A piece of the Titan submersible that imploded in June 2023.NTSB

NTSB

At 10:15 a.m. local time, about a half hour before communications between theTitanandPolar Princeabruptlyended, theTitantold its support ship “all good here.”

The Coast Guard said Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a noted explorer who was aboard the submersible when it imploded, is believed to have been sending the final round of messages.

The last one, just seconds before contact was cut, was apparently about the vessel dropping weights while near theTitanic.

Allfive peoplewho were onboard theTitandied in the implosion: Nargeolet; Hamish Harding; father and son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood; and Stockton Rush, who co-founded OceanGate, the company operating theTitan.

Human remains were subsequently found as part of the recovery mission, Coast Guard officials have said.

source: people.com