Latest news with #TheTitanic
Daily Mirror
23-05-2025
- General
- Daily Mirror
Moment wife of OceanGate CEO hears Titan sub imploding is caught on camera
Footage released to the BBC shows Wendy Rush - whose great, great grandparents died on The Titanic - hearing the implosion in which her husband and four paying passengers died A BBC documentary contains the chilling moment when the Titan submersible implodes on its descent to 4000m below the ocean surface, to see the The Titanic. It is caught on a camera from support ship the Polar Prince, which was being manned by Wendy Rush, the wife of Titan's pilot and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush. Wendy's great, great grandparents - the former owners of Macy's department store Isidor and Ida Straus - were two of the wealthy passengers who died aboard The Titanic. The new footage, from June 2023, was obtained by the US Coast Guard for its ongoing investigation into the disaster and shows Wendy hearing the sound of the implosion and wondering what it was. Initially she asks with a nervous smile: "What was that bang?" A moment later she receives a text message informing her that the Titan has 'dropped two weights' which leads her to believe that all is well and the dive is proceeding as expected. But the text had taken a few moments to arrive, and had actually been sent before the implosion, which killed all five passengers instantly. As they struggled to regain communication, those on board the Polar Prince did not notify the USCG for seven hours. When they did, it sparked a search which lasted four days until debris confirming the implosion was discovered. Those who also perished, having each paid $250k for the trip, were British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son, university student Suleman, 19, British businessman Hamish Harding, 58, and former French navy diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77. In the BBC film experts line up to say how the OceanGate sub was a disaster waiting to happen. Hinting at what is to come in the official report, due for release later this year, USCG Marine Board of Investigation Chair, Jason Neubauer, says: 'Really, what we have here is not an accident, it's a potential crime.' Lieutenant Commander Katie Williams, from the USCG, believes the carbon fibre sub had been failing for around a year prior to the disaster, due to a process called "delamination". In that time, Titan took passengers on three more dives in the summer of 2022 - two to the Titanic and one to a nearby reef - before the implosion in June 2023. "Delamination at dive 80 was the beginning of the end," she says in the film. 'And everyone that stepped onboard the Titan after dive 80 was risking their life.' Discovery journalist and presenter Josh Gates was taken for a test dive and found the experience extraordinary - because nothing worked. 'It didn't do anything it was asked to do. It was non-functional,' he says. Stockton is shown in clips telling Josh that by the time the testing has finished, the sub will be 'pretty much invulnerable' and joking that he uses 'earplugs' to block out the sound of any cracking noises that might suggest problems. 'The red flag for me was like a flare had gone up,' Josh recalls. Deciding to ring his boss and pull his report, he explains: 'I suddenly realised what would it mean if I made this promotional documentary about Stockton and about OceanGate that inspired other people to go and take a ride in this sub - and something happened to it.' Karl Stanley, a fellow submersible pilot and deep sea exploration designer, has been on Titan and says he believes he narrowly escaped with his life, having heard many noises which seemed to suggest the hull was breaking under the pressure. 'I'm sure we came within a few percentage points of implosion,' he says. On OceanGate boss Stockton, Karl is scathing about the way in which he continued to take paying passengers on dives, regardless of safety. 'He painted himself into a corner. If he admits defeat and failure, he then has to tell this to the people that had given him so much money. There is no possible way that Stockton didn't know how this was going to end. It was obvious that it was going to fail in some way.' He adds grimly: 'People are spending a quarter of a million dollars on a death tube controlled by a game controller, that wasn't tested, by a guy that's telling you how he wants to be remembered for breaking rules. It's a message to the super wealthy that their money can't buy everything.'
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Brian Schottenheimer Using Old Jimmy Johnson Trick To Inspire Cowboys
FRISCO - When Jimmy Johnson took over for the legendary Tom Landry in 1989, one of his first major moves was to reconfigure the locker room. Four years later, the Dallas Cowboys won back-to-back Super Bowls and became the NFL's Team of the 1990s. Can lightning strike twice in the same locker room? Advertisement When new head coach Brian Schottenheimer announced last week that he was shaking up the seating chart at The Star - quarterback Dak Prescott next to edge rusher Micah Parsons in the middle of the room, for example - it conjured memories of Jimmy putting his logistical stamp on his new team 36 years ago. "The players don't really get a say in that," Schottenheimer said. "But there's a method to the madness. I think when you start a new year, do something different, change something up." The new boss has added some new bells and whistles as well, including a new ping-pong table. For 29 years, Landry did it his way. When the team moved its headquarters to Valley Ranch in 1985 the locker room was an absolute maze of crooks, crannies and cubicles, with seemingly no rhyme or reason. He let the players choose where they sat, leading to - for example - punter Mike Saxon bunking next to linebacker Jeff Rohrer. Advertisement It led to two Super Bowls, but along came Jimmy harumphing that the set-up was "too clique-ish." He literally tore down the walls at Valley Ranch, and divided the spacious locker room into two halves with offensive players on side and defense on the other. In the middle of the room were leather couches for relaxing and tables for dominoes, etc. Given their almost 30-year drought, critics could claim Schottenheimer's extreme makeover is merely rearranging deck chairs on The Titanic. But let's see if the new coach's madness in indeed founded in a productive method. Related: Cowboys Jerry Jones Accused of Trades Lies Related: Cowboys Victims of Recency Bias in Brutal Playoff Prediction
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Prophetic' Letter Written by Titanic Passenger Days Before the Ship Sank Sells for Nearly $400,000 at Auction
A letter written by a Titanic survivor while onboard the ship has sold for nearly $400,000 at auction Antique auctioneer Henry Aldridge & Son called the note from Colonel Archibald Gracie "prophetic" — as he wrote that he would "await my journey's end" before he passed judgment on the "fine ship" An estimated 1,500 people died in the Titanic tragedy in April 1912 A letter written onboard the Titanic just days before the ship sank has sold for nearly $400,000 — far surpassing auction expectations. Antique auctioneer Henry Aldridge & Son announced the sale earlier this week, stating that the letter — written by Colonel Archibald Gracie while onboard the RMS Titanic in 1912 — fetched £300,000 pounds (roughly $399,000) at auction, surpassing its initial estimate of £60,000 (roughly $79,878.00). Per the auctioneer's website, the letter from one of the ship's most well-known survivors was "prophetic" — as he wrote it on April 10, 1912, three days before the ship struck an iceberg in the early morning in the North Atlantic Ocean. An estimated 1,500 people died in the tragedy. In the letter, Gracie wrote to an acquaintance, the grand-uncle of the seller, "It is a fine ship, but I shall await my journey's end before I pass judgment on her." He continued, in what's believed to be the only example of a letter from him on the ship, "The Oceanic is like an old friend and while she does not possess the elaborate style and varied amusement of this big ship, still her seaworthy qualities and yacht-like appearance make me miss her." Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Related: The Titanic: Looking Back at the Ship's Tragic History Henry Aldridge & Son's website states that on the night of the Titanic sinking, Gracie went to bed early and intended to play squash in the morning. He then woke up to a jolt and the ship making contact with the iceberg before midnight, before he later assisted women and children into lifeboats. After securing his own escape, Gracie was eventually brought onto the rescue ship Carpathia, before returning to New York City and writing about his experience on the ship in The Truth About the Titanic. Gracie suffered from hypothermia complications and other injuries in the months to follow, before he died in December 1912 of complications from diabetes. The Truth About the Titanic was published the following year. The auctioned letter — dated April 10, the day Gracie boarded the ship at Southampton — was written on over four sides and postmarked Queenstown, Ireland, on April 11 and London on April 12. Three days later, the ship sank in the early morning off the coast of Newfoundland while on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. Related: Titanic's Floating Door Sells for Whopping $718,750 at Auction, Beating Indiana Jones' Bullwhip Ahead of the Henry Aldridge & Son sale, auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said Gracie's letter "is one of the finest of its type known" and has never come to the market before. "Not only is it written by one of the most important first-class passengers on Titanic, Colonel Archibald Gracie, [but] the letter itself contains the most prophetic line: 'It is a fine ship but I shall await my journey's end before I pass judgment on her'. Five days later Titanic was at the bottom of the North Atlantic," he said. The company later confirmed the letter's sale on Instagram, calling it a "fabulous day." "Multiple records were broken, including the amazing Archibald Gracie letter card written onboard Titanic, selling for a premium inclusive £300,000. Our next Titanic and liner auction in November promises to be another one to remember and we are now accepting entries," Henry Aldridge & Son wrote. Over the years, other antiques from the ship, such as a gold Tiffany & Co. pocket watch given to a captain, have fetched high prices at auction. Even props from the 1997 Titanic film have brought in big bucks, as just last year, the iconic piece of balsa wood that Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet hang onto in the movie's final scenes sold for $718,750. Read the original article on People
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Prince Harry's North Pole guide in court battle with billionaire over tragic Titan trip
A British explorer who guided Prince Harry to the North Pole is locked in a £1m court fight with a billionaire heiress over a cancelled expedition to the wreck of The Titanic on the ill-fated Titan submersible. Henry Cookson, a former safari guide and polar explorer, now runs Cookson's Adventures, an ultra-luxury adventure travel company specialising in bespoke trips for high net-worth individuals to far flung and otherwise inaccessible spots, often costing millions. In 2017, his company was paid £680,000 by Karen Lo, the super-rich heiress to a Hong Kong soy milk fortune, to organise a once-in-a-lifetime submarine visit to the Titanic, planned for 2018 aboard the OceanGate Titan craft. But the 2018 dive was canceled after the vessel was damaged by lightning, with Ms Lo being offered a priority place on a future trip instead. However she never got her trip after Covid intervened and the Titan vessel then infamously imploded during a dive to the wreck in June 2023, killing all five passengers, including OceanGate founder Stockton Rush, and causing the company's operations to cease. Ms Lo is now suing Holland Park-based Henry Cookson Adventures Ltd, claiming the company is responsible for refunding her for the Titanic trip she paid for but never took. But Mr Cookson's company is fighting the claim, saying the heiress knew there were no refunds when she put her money down for the Titanic trip, and that she had a chance to go on the expedition later but never did. Ms Lo is a Hong Kong based heiress with a reported net worth of $1 billion. Her wealth comes from Vitasoy, a soymilk and drinks company founded by her grandfather Dr Lo Kwee-seong, which has a reported global turnover of $1 billion and over 7,000 employees. She hit the headlines in 2018 when she bought Sting's New York apartment for $50m and again in 2023 when she sued a gallery owner for £500,000 over alleged non-delivery of a Banksy painting she had bought. On his company's website, Mr Cookson describes how he used his experience guiding horseback safaris in Kenya and in polar exploration, including a mission to the Pole with Prince Harry and the Walking With The Wounded charity, to set up ultra high-end adventure travel company Cookson's Adventures. "It's these expeditions that served as inspiration in founding Cookson Adventures, bringing the same standards of ground-breaking excellence to the world of private travel. That's whether working with remote tribes in Africa or organising Alaska's most complex charter operations," the website states. Papers lodged with London's High court describe how Mr Cookson had previously been "on friendly personal terms" with Ms Lo, even attending her wedding, and had organised trips worth "tens of millions of US dollars" for her and her guests. Her barrister Jack Harding states in court papers: "The defendant agreed to organise and supply a two-week expedition for the claimant and 17 others to visit the wreck of the Titanic between 30th June and 14th July 2018. "The defendant's supplier for the expedition was OceanGate, a company which, at the material time, specialised in the provision of crewed submersibles for tourism, research and exploration." Having paid around £670,000 up front for the trip in May 2018, an email was sent by Cookson Adventure to Ms Lo explaining that the mission had been cancelled because the Titan craft had been struck by lightning and its electronic systems damaged. The contract "provided 'clients' with 100% credit toward 2019 Titanic dives or any other expedition offered by OceanGate" due to the cancellation, but "OceanGate did not carry out any further dives to the Titanic wreck in 2019 or 2020," he said. "The claimant, through her agents and legal representatives, subsequently requested repayment of the sums paid under the contract. The defendant has refused to refund any of the claimant's money." Ms Lo is suing under the Package Travel Regulations 1992, arguing it was an express or implied term of the contract that the dive would take place within a "reasonable time." "In repudiatory breach of the aforementioned express and/or implied terms, the Titanic Expedition did not take place in 2018 or at all," he says. "As a result of the defendant's breach of contract, the claimant was entitled to and did elect to treat the contract as at an end. "As a result of the matters set out above, the claimant seeks damages for her wasted expenditure in entering into a contract which was never performed. "The defendant was enriched, at the expense of the claimant, by the payment and receipt of her money. It is irrelevant that the defendant may have subsequently passed some or all of the money to its own supplier. "The claimant did not receive any benefit from the money that she paid to the claimant and/or the defendant did not provide any service of benefit to the claimant." Ms Lo's lawyer says she wants her £670,000 back, plus interest at 8% from May 2018, taking the total claimed over £1m. However in the defence to the action, Henk Soede, for Mr Cookson's company, denies they owe the heiress a penny. "She was introduced to Mr Cookson through a personal friend in 2011-12 and has been using the defendant's services since then, in every case for exclusive unique and tailor-made trips at very high cost," he says. "For example, in 2018/19, after the postponed dive voyage to which this claim relates, the defendant arranged and the claimant paid in full for a multi-million dollar trip to the Antarctic on three yachts, including the super-yacht purchased in the name of the claimant the year previously, with twin helicopters and two submersibles, for a total of 13 guests and four nannies. "The claimant's annual budget with the defendant ran into tens of missions of US dollars. "The claimant and Mr Cookson were on friendly personal terms and Mr Cookson had attended her wedding in Rome and accompanied a number of her friends who traveled with the couple to Egypt as part of their honeymoon. "At no stage did the defendant agree to 'organise and supply' an expedition for the claimant and her guests to visit the wreck of The Titanic," the lawyer states, insisting that Mr Cookson's company instead had an "affiliate agreement" to be a booking agent for some of the planned trips, with OceanGate remaining the "organiser". The contract had also contained a no-refund clause, with the agreement being that a credit towards a future voyage with priority booking rights be provided instead if the mission did not go ahead for technical reasons. "The defendant disputes this claim because, in outline, the Package Travel Regulations 1992 do not apply because the holiday was neither sold nor offered to be sold in the UK," he says. "Alternatively, even if the regulations did apply, the claimant would not be entitled to a refund as the package was not cancelled but only postponed, in accordance with the agreed terms. "Nor in any event would the defendant be liable to refund monies paid to it, which, as the claimant was well aware, had been passed on to the party providing the voyage, which was also, if the regulations applied, the organiser. "The claimant did not take up the credit within a reasonable time and thereby waived or lost her entitlement. Further, by notifying the defendant that she did not intend on using the credit in the future, the claimant terminated the contract and/or cancelled the voyage. "Alternatively, the contract was in any event frustrated as a result of the complete loss of the dive vessel in 2023 and the resulting cessation of the provider's trading activities." The lawyer states that whilst no dives took place in 2019 and Covid restrictions stopped any missions in 2020, dives took place in 2021 and 2022 which Ms Lo could have joined using her credit, prior to the ill-fated final mission in 2023. "At all material times, OceanGate acknowledged that the defendant was entitled to a credit for un-taken 2018 missions," he says. "However, the claimant made clear that she did not want to use her credit in 2019 or at any time in the future." Her solicitors had instead demanded a refund in June 2019, he said. The case, unless settled, will come before a judge in court at a later date. The Titan submersible was the first privately-owned submersible with a claimed maximum depth of 4,000 metres and the first completed crewed submersible with a hull constructed of titanium and carbon fiber composite materials. After testing with dives to its maximum intended depth in 2018 and 2019, the original composite hull of Titan developed fatigue damage and was replaced by 2021. In that year, OceanGate began transporting paying customers to the wreck of the Titanic, completing several dives to the wreck site in 2021 and 2022. During the submersible's first 2023 expedition, it imploded during the crew's descent to the wreckage of Titanic, about 320 nautical miles (590 km) south-southeast off the coast of Newfoundland. The submersible was carrying tourists Hamish Harding, Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman Dawood, crew member and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and OceanGate founder and the vessel's pilot, Stockton Rush.
The Independent
14-04-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Prince Harry's North Pole guide in court battle with billionaire over tragic Titan trip
A British explorer who guided Prince Harry to the North Pole is locked in a £1m court fight with a billionaire heiress over a cancelled expedition to the wreck of The Titanic on the ill-fated Titan submersible. Henry Cookson, a former safari guide and polar explorer, now runs Cookson's Adventures, an ultra-luxury adventure travel company specialising in bespoke trips for high net-worth individuals to far flung and otherwise inaccessible spots, often costing millions. In 2017, his company was paid £680,000 by Karen Lo, the super-rich heiress to a Hong Kong soy milk fortune, to organise a once-in-a-lifetime submarine visit to the Titanic, planned for 2018 aboard the OceanGate Titan craft. But the 2018 dive was canceled after the vessel was damaged by lightning, with Ms Lo being offered a priority place on a future trip instead. However she never got her trip after Covid intervened and the Titan vessel then infamously imploded during a dive to the wreck in June 2023, killing all five passengers, including OceanGate founder Stockton Rush, and causing the company's operations to cease. Ms Lo is now suing Holland Park-based Henry Cookson Adventures Ltd, claiming the company is responsible for refunding her for the Titanic trip she paid for but never took. But Mr Cookson's company is fighting the claim, saying the heiress knew there were no refunds when she put her money down for the Titanic trip, and that she had a chance to go on the expedition later but never did. Ms Lo is a Hong Kong based heiress with a reported net worth of $1 billion. Her wealth comes from Vitasoy, a soymilk and drinks company founded by her grandfather Dr Lo Kwee-seong, which has a reported global turnover of $1 billion and over 7,000 employees. She hit the headlines in 2018 when she bought Sting's New York apartment for $50m and again in 2023 when she sued a gallery owner for £500,000 over alleged non-delivery of a Banksy painting she had bought. On his company's website, Mr Cookson describes how he used his experience guiding horseback safaris in Kenya and in polar exploration, including a mission to the Pole with Prince Harry and the Walking With The Wounded charity, to set up ultra high-end adventure travel company Cookson's Adventures. "It's these expeditions that served as inspiration in founding Cookson Adventures, bringing the same standards of ground-breaking excellence to the world of private travel. That's whether working with remote tribes in Africa or organising Alaska's most complex charter operations," the website states. Papers lodged with London's High court describe how Mr Cookson had previously been "on friendly personal terms" with Ms Lo, even attending her wedding, and had organised trips worth "tens of millions of US dollars" for her and her guests. Her barrister Jack Harding states in court papers: "The defendant agreed to organise and supply a two-week expedition for the claimant and 17 others to visit the wreck of the Titanic between 30th June and 14th July 2018. "The defendant's supplier for the expedition was OceanGate, a company which, at the material time, specialised in the provision of crewed submersibles for tourism, research and exploration." Having paid around £670,000 up front for the trip in May 2018, an email was sent by Cookson Adventure to Ms Lo explaining that the mission had been cancelled because the Titan craft had been struck by lightning and its electronic systems damaged. The contract "provided 'clients' with 100% credit toward 2019 Titanic dives or any other expedition offered by OceanGate" due to the cancellation, but "OceanGate did not carry out any further dives to the Titanic wreck in 2019 or 2020," he said. "The claimant, through her agents and legal representatives, subsequently requested repayment of the sums paid under the contract. The defendant has refused to refund any of the claimant's money." Ms Lo is suing under the Package Travel Regulations 1992, arguing it was an express or implied term of the contract that the dive would take place within a "reasonable time." "In repudiatory breach of the aforementioned express and/or implied terms, the Titanic Expedition did not take place in 2018 or at all," he says. "As a result of the defendant's breach of contract, the claimant was entitled to and did elect to treat the contract as at an end. "As a result of the matters set out above, the claimant seeks damages for her wasted expenditure in entering into a contract which was never performed. "The defendant was enriched, at the expense of the claimant, by the payment and receipt of her money. It is irrelevant that the defendant may have subsequently passed some or all of the money to its own supplier. "The claimant did not receive any benefit from the money that she paid to the claimant and/or the defendant did not provide any service of benefit to the claimant." Ms Lo's lawyer says she wants her £670,000 back, plus interest at 8% from May 2018, taking the total claimed over £1m. However in the defence to the action, Henk Soede, for Mr Cookson's company, denies they owe the heiress a penny. "She was introduced to Mr Cookson through a personal friend in 2011-12 and has been using the defendant's services since then, in every case for exclusive unique and tailor-made trips at very high cost," he says. "For example, in 2018/19, after the postponed dive voyage to which this claim relates, the defendant arranged and the claimant paid in full for a multi-million dollar trip to the Antarctic on three yachts, including the super-yacht purchased in the name of the claimant the year previously, with twin helicopters and two submersibles, for a total of 13 guests and four nannies. "The claimant's annual budget with the defendant ran into tens of missions of US dollars. "The claimant and Mr Cookson were on friendly personal terms and Mr Cookson had attended her wedding in Rome and accompanied a number of her friends who traveled with the couple to Egypt as part of their honeymoon. "At no stage did the defendant agree to 'organise and supply' an expedition for the claimant and her guests to visit the wreck of The Titanic," the lawyer states, insisting that Mr Cookson's company instead had an "affiliate agreement" to be a booking agent for some of the planned trips, with OceanGate remaining the "organiser". The contract had also contained a no-refund clause, with the agreement being that a credit towards a future voyage with priority booking rights be provided instead if the mission did not go ahead for technical reasons. "The defendant disputes this claim because, in outline, the Package Travel Regulations 1992 do not apply because the holiday was neither sold nor offered to be sold in the UK," he says. "Alternatively, even if the regulations did apply, the claimant would not be entitled to a refund as the package was not cancelled but only postponed, in accordance with the agreed terms. "Nor in any event would the defendant be liable to refund monies paid to it, which, as the claimant was well aware, had been passed on to the party providing the voyage, which was also, if the regulations applied, the organiser. "The claimant did not take up the credit within a reasonable time and thereby waived or lost her entitlement. Further, by notifying the defendant that she did not intend on using the credit in the future, the claimant terminated the contract and/or cancelled the voyage. "Alternatively, the contract was in any event frustrated as a result of the complete loss of the dive vessel in 2023 and the resulting cessation of the provider's trading activities." The lawyer states that whilst no dives took place in 2019 and Covid restrictions stopped any missions in 2020, dives took place in 2021 and 2022 which Ms Lo could have joined using her credit, prior to the ill-fated final mission in 2023. "At all material times, OceanGate acknowledged that the defendant was entitled to a credit for un-taken 2018 missions," he says. "However, the claimant made clear that she did not want to use her credit in 2019 or at any time in the future." Her solicitors had instead demanded a refund in June 2019, he said. The case, unless settled, will come before a judge in court at a later date. The Titan submersible was the first privately-owned submersible with a claimed maximum depth of 4,000 metres and the first completed crewed submersible with a hull constructed of titanium and carbon fiber composite materials. After testing with dives to its maximum intended depth in 2018 and 2019, the original composite hull of Titan developed fatigue damage and was replaced by 2021. In that year, OceanGate began transporting paying customers to the wreck of the Titanic, completing several dives to the wreck site in 2021 and 2022. During the submersible's first 2023 expedition, it imploded during the crew's descent to the wreckage of Titanic, about 320 nautical miles (590 km) south-southeast off the coast of Newfoundland. The submersible was carrying tourists Hamish Harding, Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman Dawood, crew member and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and OceanGate founder and the vessel's pilot, Stockton Rush.
