How Long Does It Actually Take to Reach the Titanic? The Sunken Ship Still Fascinates Many

When the Titanic began its fateful voyage on April 10, 1912, it was hailed as being an unsinkable ship. This could not have been further from the truth as five days later, the massive vessel sunk after striking an iceberg. Out of the 2,224 people on board, only a little more than 1,500 would survive. Since that day, the ship remains a topic of great interest to experts and laypeople alike.

James Cameron is famously obsessed with the Titanic, and it goes far beyond the making of an award-winning film. He himself has participated in several dives to the wreck, the footage of which was used in his film.

In June 2023, a privately owned company by the name of OceanGate lost contact with one of its submersibles during a tourist trip to the ship. How long does it take to get down to the Titanic and what do we know about the OceanGate expedtion?

According to the BBC, "each full dive to the wreck, including the descent and ascent, reportedly takes around eight hours." Professional expeditions to the sunken ship are few and far between. In 2019, a team of scientists and experts conducted five dives over a period of eight days where they discovered massive deterioration since the previous expedition in 2005, per Good Morning America.

The ship, which sits 12,500 feet down on the frigid sea floor of the Atlantic ocean, rests 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. Using special cameras that shot in 4K, the 2019 expedition team was able to see the "rusting hulk is crumbling from salt corrosion, metal-eating bacteria and deep ocean currents," per GMA. While this is natural, the ship's decline almost feels like the final death in a tragedy that still resonates for people.

Titanic historian Parks Stephenson, who was part of that 2019 expedition, found the most surprising reveal to be the status of the starboard side of the officers' quarters, which is where the captain's rooms were located. "Captain's bath tub is a favorite image among the Titanic enthusiasts, and that's now gone," he said in a statement, per GMA. "That whole deck hole on that side is collapsing taking with it the staterooms, and the deterioration is going to continue advancing."

An hour and 45 minutes after it submerged, OceanGate lost contact with its Titan submersible which prompted a "massive search and rescue effort" by the United States Coast Guard, reported The Independent. Passengers on board include "British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding, renowned French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Sulaiman Dawood." The fifth passenger is thought to be Stockton Rush, the founder of OceanGate Expeditions.

The submersible has a four-day emergency oxygen supply and, per a family friend of Hamish Harding, could run out around 6:30 a.m. EST, Thursday, June 22. This is not the first time an OceanGate vessel has gotten lost. CBS reporter David Pogue tweeted, "You may remember that the OceanGate Expedition sub to the Titanic got lost for a few hours LAST summer, too, when I was aboard." The difference this time is, communication with the Titan has been severed.

Both the United States Coast Guard as well as the Canadian government are working tirelessly to find the missing submersible. They have already searched an area "roughly the size of Connecticut," and will continue to do so, said Rear Admiral John Mauger of the US Coast Guard Northeast District.