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Stockton Rush Was Dedicated to Ocean Exploration. His Cofounder Still Is Despite the Deadly Risks
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Here's what you'll learn when you read this story:
In June 2023, the OceanGate Expeditions submersible Titan imploded while descending to the wreckage of the Titanic. All five passengers died.
Company cofounder Guillermo Söhnlein has publicly defended his late business partner, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, and ocean exploration more broadly.
A year after the disaster, Söhnlein announced plans for his current company to explore Dean's Blue Hole in The Bahamas.
On June 16, 2023, OceanGate Expeditions CEO Stockton Rush and four other passengers left the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, for the thrill of a lifetime—a submersible dive to the sunken Titanic. Tragically, none of them returned to shore.
'They knew what they were getting into,' OceanGate cofounder Guillermo Söhnlein said. 'And yeah, and it's just, it's a sad thing that they died doing something that they were passionate about.'
Streaming June 11, the Netflix documentary Titan: The OceanGate Disaster takes a closer look at the titular craft's deadly underwater implosion and the events preceding it. It also examines the business practices of Rush and whether they ultimately played a role in the accident.
While Rush's company has drawn intense scrutiny, Söhnlein has rendered a different image of his former business partner—insisting his commitment to exploration is worth continuing.
Rush and Söhnlein cofounded OceanGate in 2009 in Seattle. Similar to space tourism brands such as Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic—created by Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson, respectively—the company's mission was to make undersea exploration more accessible.
According to Söhnlein, he and Rush planned to purchase a 'fleet' of submersibles capable of diving at least 4,000 meters. The craft could be used for a variety of purposes, including tourism, military operations, and scientific research. 'The whole intent was to create these work subs and, in that way, as our tagline was in the early days: Open the oceans for all of humanity,' Söhnlein told Sky News in 2023.
The company's first five-person submersible, Antipodes, followed this model and was used primarily by researchers and what Söhnlein called 'citizen scientists'—or regular people fully trained as crew members for their respective excursions. In June 2011, Antipodes successfully explored the wreckage of the S.S. Governor off the coast of Washington.
But by 2013, Rush determined OceanGate needed to build its own craft to explore greater depths as originally intended. That same year, Rush became CEO when Söhnlein left the company, though he maintained a minority stake. He testified that as of September 2024, he had approximately 500,000 common shares but 'basically resigned myself to the fact that I'm probably never going to see anything out of that equity stake.'
That's because of what would happen a decade later in the North Atlantic Ocean.
In July 2021, OceanGate made its first successful dive to the wreck site of the Titanic, the massive ocean liner that sank on April 14, 1912, and resulted in more than 1,500 deaths. Rush and his team used the company's Titan submersible, which had a unique carbon fiber hull to make it lighter and less expensive to build.
But during the expedition in June 2023, team members lost contact with the Titan. After a frantic days-long search for the craft, investigators recovered debris on June 22 and determined the submersible suffered a catastrophic implosion. All five passengers—including Rush, 61, and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77—died.
The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) later determined that layers of the Titan's carbon fiber hull had begun to delaminate, or break apart, a year prior—ultimately compromising the craft's integrity. This, along with testimony from a former employee saying an accident was 'inevitable,' led to scrutiny of Rush's business and safety practices as company CEO.
The Netflix documentary promises to look at 'technical challenges, moral dilemmas, and shockingly poor decisions' that led to the implosion.
However, Söhnlein, who has never been on a Titanic dive, has publicly defended Rush. He denied leaving OceanGate over safety concerns and told CTV News that OceanGate 'operated as safely as possible and we had a very safety-conscious culture' prior to his 2013 departure.
Then in September 2024, Söhnlein testified to a USCG panel that Rush performed the first manned test dive of Titan on his own and recalled their conversation beforehand. 'He goes, 'I don't want anyone else in the sub. If anything happens, I want it to only impact me. It's my design, I believe in it, I trust it, but I don't want to risk anyone else,'' Söhnlein said.
Söhnlein will offer his full thoughts about the Titan tragedy with the November 2025 release of his book, Titan Unfinished: An Untold Story of Exploration, Innovation, and the OceanGate Tragedy.
In the wake of the accident, OceanGate suspended 'all exploration and commercial operations.' But Söhnlein, undeterred by his friend's death, has continued to advocate for underwater exploration. In June 2024, he announced plans for his own company, Blue Marble Exploration, to launch a craft to Dean's Blue Hole, an underwater sinkhole located in The Bahamas. Scientists have measured its depth at 663 feet, but no humans have ever reached the bottom.
However, Blue Marble Exploration's website currently doesn't include any information about the company or planned excursions to the blue hole or elsewhere. Although it's unclear what the future holds for his company, Söhnlein has expressed hope that the Titan implosion won't deter other explorers and said future missions would be a way to honor the five victims.
'Those of us who work in the deep-ocean community know that there are risks. We know that working down there is difficult,' Söhnlein told the Seattle Times in 2023. 'And yet we all believe in what we're doing. We believe that what we're doing is greater than us.'
Titan: The OceanGate Disaster begins streaming Wednesday, June 11, on Netflix. Tudum has confirmed the project includes new testimony about OceanGate and 'footage from the company's early days.'
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