oceans_167

OceanGate Inc. is a privately owned U.S. company in Everett, Washington, that provides crewed submersibles for tourism, industry, research, and exploration. The company was founded in 2009 by Stockton Rush and Guillermo Söhnlein. In 2017, the founder stated that providing high-end tours were a gateway to more profitable business.

The company acquired a submersible vessel, Antipodes, and later built two of its own: Cyclops 1 and Titan. In 2021, OceanGate began taking paying tourists in the Titan to visit the wreck of the Titanic.[5][6] As of 2022, the price to be a passenger on an OceanGate expedition to the Titanic shipwreck was US$250,000 per person.

In June 2023, the Titan imploded during a voyage to the Titanic shipwreck site, killing all 5 occupants on board, including the company founder Stockton Rush. An international search-and-rescue operation was launched, and on June 22, the wreckage was found on the seabed near the Titanic wreck site.