There has been a fascination with the Titanic and its wreckage ever since the ship sank on April 14, 1912. The wreckage was discovered in 1985 and nearly 30 expeditions to the site have taken place but less than 20 manned expeditions in submersible equipment. At a depth of 12,500 feet, the watery grave of the Titanic makes it nearly impossible for explorers to reach.
On this day in 2023, four individuals each paid $250,000 to tour the remains of the ship without realizing that this would be the cost of their lives!
Stockton Rush, founder and CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, was serving as tour guide and pilot aboard the Titan, a deep-sea submersible. Aboard the vessel were “Hamish Harding, a British airline executive; Shahzada Dawood, a Pakistani businessman, and his 17-year-old son, Suleman; and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French explorer.”1
By protocol, the transport vessel, Polar Prince, was to receive regular updates which included depth reports, ballast release reports, and location status in relation to the bow of the Titanic. At 9:14 a.m., the dive began with a decent rate of 108.26 feet per second. By 10:47:08, the Titan had reached a depth of almost 11,000 feet. One second later, the Polar Prince heard a loud BANG. The Titan had imploded, exposing the passengers to 4,930 pounds/square inch of pressure. All passengers were instantly killed.2
Was this preventable? In August 2025, the United States Coast Guard released a 300-page report titled “Report of the Marine Board of Investigation Into the Implosion of the Submersible TITAN (CG1788361) in the North Atlantic Ocean Near the Wreck Site of the RMS TITANIC Resulting in the Loss of Five Lives on June 18, 2023.” The opening summary sends chills through you!
“Five people died when the commercial submersible TITAN imploded on June 18, 2023, in what is considered to be a preventable tragedy. The U.S. Coast Guard’s Marine Board of Investigation into the fatal incident found that OceanGate’s failure to follow established engineering protocols for safety, testing, and maintenance of their submersible, was the primary causal factor. The investigation further identified the need for proper corporate governance, a professional workplace culture, and improved regulatory oversight, in particular for novel vessel designs and operations.
“For several years preceding the incident, OceanGate leveraged intimidation tactics, allowances for scientific operations, and the company’s favorable reputation to evade regulatory scrutiny. By strategically creating and exploiting regulatory confusion and oversight challenges, OceanGate was ultimately able to operate TITAN completely outside of the established deep-sea protocols, which had historically contributed to a strong safety record for commercial submersibles. The lack of both third-party oversight and experienced OceanGate employees on staff during their 2023 TITAN operations allowed OceanGate’s Chief Executive Officer to completely ignore vital inspections, data analyses, and preventative maintenance procedures, culminating in a catastrophic event.”3
“In 2018, dozens of experts signed a letter to OceanGate warning that the Titan’s “experimental” design put it at risk of “catastrophic” failure. They worried that the ship’s carbon-fiber hull—large enough to hold 5 passengers—couldn’t withstand the tremendous pressure of repeated dives to more than 12,000 feet below the surface. Several OceanGate employees also sounded safety alarms, but were fired or quit.”4
Why would warnings have been ignored? Why would the CEO of the company not consider the danger to his own life, much less the lives of the people for whom he was responsible? Was it greed? Pride? Arrogance? Ambition? Willful ignorance? We will never know nor have answers to this question.
The world, including Christians, seems to have the exact same problem? Warnings are given all throughout the Bible about the devastating effects of sin. Eternal consequences are spelled out clearly for all who would reject Jesus. Believers are told that they will lose eternal rewards. Potential immediate consequences are waving red flags, yet we rush to the sin anyway.
The clear warning of Galatians 6:7-8 is often ignored. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. (8) For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”
Proverbs 1 is full of warnings. Proverbs 1:24-33 says, “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; (25) But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: (26) I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; (27) When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. (28) Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: (29) For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: (30) They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. (31) Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. (32) For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. (33) But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.”
How can we read passages like this and believe that it applies to everyone else except me? Somehow, I will be the exception and escape the consequences. Is it greed driving us to these decisions? Pride? Arrogance? Ambition? Willful ignorance? Ultimately, we know that it is the “lusts of the flesh” that are manifested, willingly ignoring every warning that God gives. It is a “deceitful heart” that deceives itself.
History records many statements of arrogance and attitudes that contributed to the sinking of the Titanic. Even though the Titan was recovered, pieces of it sunk to the ocean floor as well as remains of the deceased, taking their place at the bottom of the ocean and resting as a monument against all who would choose to ignore the warnings.
“I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” (Jeremiah 17:10)
1https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/june-18/titan-submersible-implodes
2https://media.defense.gov/2025/Aug/05/2003773004/-1/-1/0/SUBMERSIBLE%20TITAN%20MBI%20REPORT%20(04AUG2025).PDF
3Ibid.
4https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/june-18/titan-submersible-implodes
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