James Cameron, who only made Titanic so he could underwrite his submarining hobby, has weighed in on the Titan submersible tragedy over the past few days. Now that it’s confirmed that the submersible imploded, killing all five passengers inside, Cameron told ABC News that he could see clear parallels with the original launching and sinking of the Titanic.
“Many people in the community were concerned about this sub and even wrote letters to the company saying that what they were doing was too experimental and what they were doing needed to be certified,” Cameron said. “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 died as a result. It’s a very similar tragedy at the exact same site. It’s astonishing and really quite surreal.”
‘Titanic’ director James Cameron on the ‘catastrophic implosion’ of Titan submersible: “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.” pic.twitter.com/vO8JkCXS5f
— ABC News (@ABC) June 22, 2023
Cameron has long banged the drum for safety in submarining, going above and beyond in caution back in 2012 when he visited the Mariana Trench in the DEEPSEA CHALLENGER sub. At the time, he told National Geographic, “Yeah, of course I’m worried,” Worry is a good thing when you’re an explorer. I think when you’re cavalier, when you take risk for granted—that’s when you’re going to get bitten.”
It turns out he learned some powerful lessons from telling the story of the Titanic.
(via ABC News)