Eternal Father, strong to save,

Whose arm does calm the restless wave,

Who bids the mighty ocean deep

Its own appointed limits keep;

O hear us when we cry to Thee

For those in peril on the sea.

— The Navy Hymn

Well the search is over and it is now known the five passengers and crew of the submersible vessel the Titan died in an instant, too quickly to suffer. This is at least better than what was feared, that they were trapped inside with the air slowly running out like on the ill-fated Russian sub the Kursk.

Reactions vary from outpourings of sympathy for the families of the dead, to sheer rage at the arrogant incompetence revealed about Stockton Rush, CEO of OceanGate, who stated he didn’t want to hire “50-year-old white guys” with military experience because they weren’t “inspirational.”

Rush went on record saying, “You know, at some point, safety just is pure waste. I mean if you just want to be safe, don’t get out of bed, don’t get in your car, don’t do anything. At some point, you’re going to take some risk, and it really is a risk/reward question. I think I can do this just as safely by breaking the rules.”

After saying something like that it is amazing he got anyone at all to go with him. Hell I wouldn’t drive with a man with that attitude!

But he did and they paid for it with substantial chunks of money, and their lives. In an age where men took responsibility for their actions he might have been invited into a room with a pistol to do the right thing. But we can’t do that because he’s dead too, a victim of his own hubris.

And these are the times when we find out how utterly vile some people can be. People who smugly celebrate the deaths of rich people solely because they are rich.

But they were explorers, taking risks to advance our knowledge and technology!

No, they weren’t. The DSV-2 Alvin submersible, owned by the US Navy and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and commissioned in 1964. (And built in Minneapolis by the way.)

Alvin has safely made more than 5,000 dives including many to explore the wreck of the Titanic. Though with all the upgrades and replacements it’s not really the original ship anymore.

The Titan is to Alvin like a model airplane is to an F22. Or perhaps a better analogy would be a folded paper boat, good for a short voyage under ideal conditions but not something you’d reuse again.

When I was growing up on Aquidneck Island I used to go sailing with my father and scuba diving with friends. This is like dipping your toes in the water compared to deep sea exploration but they’re a good introduction to the rules of the sea.

Some are humorous like, “Never piss to windward.” Some express necessary truths in short form such as, “Never second-guess the skipper.”

But all of them can be summed up, “The sea never forgives you.”

In any venture into extreme environments you have checklists you go through every single time, in order, never skipping anything, never cutting corners. In my scuba classes we learned how a great many people have died for lack of preparation for specific kinds of situations, such as cave diving. (Never done it, never will.)

In the pride and intoxication of our fat happy safe lives we have come to believe we can rewrite the laws of nature. That inspiration can take the place of competence. And we are paying for it in a great many ways we are only beginning to realize.

Times like this I remember the Confederate States Submarine the Hunley and her doomed crews. The men of the Kursk denied a chance at rescue because of Putin’s national pride. The ill-conceived and executed Scott expedition to the South Pole and how their tragedy overshadowed Amundson’s successful endeavor. Shackleton’s harrowing adventure in which he lost not a single man.

And I remember Francis Bacon’s admonition, “Nature, to be commanded – must be obeyed.”

— Steve Browne is longtime reporter and contributor to the Marshall Independent