Connecticut
Titanic expert with CT ties on board missing submersible
One of the five people onboard a submersible that went missing on its way to the wreckage site of the Titanic has ties to Connecticut.
Paul-Henri “PH” Nargeolet, an underwater researcher and highly regarded Titanic expert, lived in both South Kent and Greenwich, records show.
The 77-year-old French deep sea explorer is one of five men on board the OceanGate Expeditions’ Titan, which lost signal shortly after submerging in the ocean bound for the wreckage of the Titanic. The vessel’s communication systems stopped about an hour and 45 minutes after the Titan submerged, The Associated Press reported.
The US Coast Guard is bringing in more ships, vessels to search for lost Titanic tourist submersible
The full scope of the search was twice the size of Connecticut in waters 2 ½ miles deep, according to the First Coast Guard District.
Nargeolet, who now resides in Duchess County, New York, is the director of underwater research for RMS Titanic, Inc., which owns the salvage rights to the Titanic wreck and manages artifacts at many Titanic exhibitions, according to the company’s website.
The company tweeted a statement on Wednesday, lauding Nargeolet’s expertise on the Titanic wreck site.
“Paul-Henry (PH) Nargeolet is a precious member of the RMS Titanic, Inc. family whose passion for Titanic and diving led him to complete over 35 submersible dives, more than anyone, and his knowledge of the wreck site is unparalleled,” the company said in their statement. “We trust and have faith his experience will help navigate this critical situation.”
— RMS Titanic, Inc. (@RMSTitanic_Inc) June 21, 2023
Also on board the vessel are pilot and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, billionaire Hamish Harding and father and son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood. A ride to the shipwreck costs approximately $250,000, multiple media outlets have reported.
According to property records and Sotheby’s International Realty, Nargeolet owned a 1700’s house called Pond Meadow Farm nestled on 28 acres in Litchfield County’s South Kent until 2022, when the home sold for nearly $2.5 million, according to Zillow.
Nargeolet was a member of the Kent Memorial Library board while living in South Kent. He joined the board in 2015, according to the library’s website.
The library board published a brief biography of Nargeolet, who served 25 years in the French Navy where he was a captain of the Deep Submergence Group of the Navy, the library said.
His career in deep-sea diving spanned decades and included work for the French Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea and several expeditions to the Titanic site, according to the Kent Memorial Library.
Nargeolet was also part of a team that discovered a “biodiverse abyssal ecosystem” near the Titanic wreck on a previously unknown basalt formation, according to OceanGate.
During an expedition in 2022, explorers discovered the “extremely productive and dense ecosystem” about 2,900 meters deep. The discovery was preliminarily named Nargeolet-Fanning Ridge in Nargeolet’s honor, OceanGate said.
In its statement on Twitter this week, RMS Titanic, Inc. president Jessica Sanders said, “We are devastated with the news, but remain steadfast in a hope for a safe rescue for all. PH is more than a colleague, he is a friend. No one has more experience at the wreck site than PH, and no one has a better chance of navigating through equipment failures than he does. We remain hopeful.”
Experts estimated that the submersible will likely run out of its oxygen supply by Thursday morning, according to multiple media reports.
On Wednesday, Canadian military aircraft detected underwater noises near the area that was being searched, but nothing had been found yet in connection with the noises, according to the First Coast Guard District for the United States Coast Guard Northeast.
Coast Guard officials were bringing in more ships and other vessels to search the area, though the exact location of the sounds had not yet been narrowed down, the AP reported. The Coast Guard said that three vessels arrived on-scene Wednesday morning, including the John Cabot, which has side-scanning sonar capabilities, the Skandi Vinland and the Atlantic Merlin.