When Guillermo Sohnlein founded OceanGate with Stockton Rush, the goal was to give people “greater access to the ocean.”
And that is what the company attempted to do last year when an experimental submersible imploded on its way to see the wreckage of the Titanic.
Sohnlein testified at a hearing with the U.S. Coast Guard on Monday that the company sought to develop multiple deep-water submersibles that could be sent anywhere in the world, the Associated Press reported.
The Coast Guard started the hearing earlier this month to investigate the cause of the implosion.
Sohnlein said at first the company was to create a fleet of four or five deep-diving submersibles. These vessels would be able to transport five people 6,500 yards deep.
The company did not plan to have a dedicated mothership.
“We wanted to give humanity greater access to the ocean, specifically the deep ocean,” said Sohnlein, who left OceanGate before the Titan disaster in June 2023 occurred.
Rush, who co-founded Ocean gate with Sohnlein, was one of the five people who died when the submersible imploded.
Sohnlein defended his company’s efforts after the submersible’s implosion even though he left the company years earlier.
He testified the company wanted to use carbon fiber so the vessel would be lightweight and less costly. He said using that carbon fiber was “not a novel idea” and said “people have looked at that before.”
However, no other submersible builder could meet the company’s requirements so they had to make it themselves, Sohnlein said.
Former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge testified earlier he and Rush did not see eye to eye. He felt the company was focused on making money.
“The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” Lochridge said at the hearing. “There was very little in the way of science.”
The hearing is expected to run through Friday, with more witnesses, per the AP.
The fatal accident sparked a debate about the future of private undersea exploration.
Coast Guard officials said the submersible had not been independently reviewed, which is standard. The Titan’s design subjected it to criticism in the community of undersea exploration.
The Washington state-based company suspended operations following the implosion. Currently, the company has no full-time employees.
The submersible’s final dive took place on June 18, 2023, and kept in contact by .texts with Polar Prince, its support.
One of the last messages received from Titan’s crew before the submersible imploded said, “all good here.” That is according to a visual re-creation shown earlier in the hearing.
The Titan’s wreckage was found on the ocean floor about 330 yards off the bow of the Titanic, per Coast Guard officials said.
There were no survivors.
