Cofounder of Doomed Titanic Sub Says Tragic Implosion Has Amplified His Drive

"I think in a paradoxical kind of way, that drive to keep going is amplified."

Death Day

We're less than a week away from the first anniversary of the crew of five on board the OceanGate submersible being declared dead after embarking on a daring mission to visit the wreck of the Titanic 13,000 feet under the surface.

And while OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush was amongst the deceased, the controversial company's cofounder Guillermo Söhnlein's desire to continue exploring the deepest depths of our planet continues, as Business Insider reports.

Despite Rush's long-documented web of lies and disregard for safety precautions, Söhnlein believes tragedies are "just part of the exploration experience," as he recently told BI, and should serve as motivation to push on.

"I think in a paradoxical kind of way, that drive to keep going is amplified," he added. "And I think in large part, it's because you want to make sure that your colleagues, who lost their lives, didn't lose their lives in vain. You want their death to mean something, and you want their legacies to live on."

Tarnished Legacy

Söhnlein, a wealthy submersible pilot and scuba diver, cofounded the OceanGate Foundation with Rush in 2009 and left in 2013. He still has a minority stake in the company but has since started his own expedition company, Blue Marble Exploration. He also wants to send 1,000 people to a floating colony on Venus.

Söhnlein never mentioned having any regrets about the tragedy during his interview with BI, and characterized OceanGate as a way to make exploring the ocean's depths more accessible to people who aren't ultra-wealthy or specialized researchers.

However, the many missteps leading up to Rush's tragic death are still coming to light just under a year later, casting a huge shadow on his tarnished legacy. OceanGate quietly suspended all operations weeks after the tragedy.

Last week, Wired published a shocking investigation about the company's inner workings, with a trove of emails, documents, and photographs revealing a "company culture in which employees who questioned their bosses’ high-speed approach and decisions were dismissed as overly cautious or even fired."

Söhnlein refused to comment on the Wired report to BI, but admitted to having read it.

Given Söhnlein's financial interest in commercial ocean exploration, his remarks shouldn't come as a surprise. But is Rush's legacy really worth celebrating, given the many mistakes and hubris that eventually broke the camel's back? Considering how many experts repeatedly warned him of the risks, it's unlikely everybody will agree.

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