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Two men jump overboard when yacht goes up in flames off Seguin Island

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GEORGETOWN, Maine — Two boaters jumped overboard to save themselves after a fire engulfed a 48-foot yacht off the Maine coast, the Coast Guard said. Several lobster boats came to the rescue, and one plucked the men out of the water.

The two unharmed men watched along with the lobstermen as the vessel burned and sank in 200 feet of water on Saturday off the coast of Seguin Island, near Georgetown.

“It was a very heartbreaking scene. It was really scary,” said Deb Kremer, who witnessed the fire and took photos from her boat.

The Coast Guard emphasized the importance of fellow boaters who came to the rescue, averting tragedy.

“The moral of the story: Without the good Samaritans responding to calls and helping the Coast Guard, some lives could’ve been lost on this incident. We credit the good Samaritans,” said Lt. j.g. David Letarte in South Portland.

The Coast Guard did not identify the two men aboard the yacht, the Titan. It was unclear where the yacht was based.

The Coast Guard estimated that it took roughly an hour for a rescue vessel to arrive on the scene after receiving a distress call about an engine room fire, during which time the boat burned down and sunk.

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Maine lobstermen credited with saving lives of boaters following yacht fire.

The boaters jumped into the water after calling for help off the coast of Georgetown

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Several lobstermen are credited with saving the lives of two boaters off the coast of Georgetown on Saturday.

The 48-foot yacht Titan caught fire several miles off Seguin Island, with flames quickly spreading, prompting the boaters to jump into the water for safety.

Several lobstermen are credited with saving the lives of two boaters after their yacht caught fire off the coast of Georgetown, Maine Saturday. @WMTWTV pic.twitter.com/PMXNVhZFcE — Terry Stackhouse (@TStackhouseWMTW) August 20, 2023

According to the U.S. Coast Guard Lt. David J. Letarte, the agency issued an Urgent Mariner Information Broadcast after the boaters called for help reporting their vessel was disabled, and fire was coming from the engine room.

Letarte was able to identify one of the lobster boats involved in pulling the boaters to safety as "My Three Blondes" but added there were vessels involved in the effort.

"We credit them in this case as saving some lives," Letarte said.

The boaters were taken to shore and are ok.

On board one of the other nearby vessels that responded was Deb Kremer, who heard calls for help over the radio.

"The boat was fully engulfed, and burned like that for approximately 40 minutes before sinking," Kremer wrote in an email to Maine's Total Coverage.

The yacht sank in about 200 feet of water, according to the Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard says it is unclear how the fire started.

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Local fishermen rescue two people from burning yacht

Two lobster boats responded to an urgent call of mariners in distress Saturday off Georgetown.

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The 48-foot yacht Titan burns off the coast of Georgetown on Saturday. Two people on board were rescued by fishermen before the yacht sank. Photo courtesy of Deb Kremer

Two people who were on board a 48-foot-long yacht when it caught fire and sank off the coast of Georgetown on Saturday were rescued and brought to safety by local fishermen.

Ryan Koroknay, a spokesman for the Coast Guard, said there were two people on board the Titan when it caught fire and sank near Seguin Island around noon.

Both people jumped into the ocean to escape the flames.

After receiving a call for help, the Coast Guard issued an urgent marine information broadcast, which is a signal to other vessels that there are mariners in distress, Koroknay said.

At least two lobster boats, including My Three Blondes, responded to the scene, along with a 47-foot motor life boat out of the Coast Guard station in South Portland. The lobster boats arrived first and were able to pull both people out of the ocean. By the time the Coast Guard crew arrived, the yacht had sunk.

Two boats watch as the 48-foot yacht Titan burns off the coast of Georgetown on Saturday. Two people on board the yacht were rescued by fishermen before it sank. Photo courtesy of Deb Kremer

“Kudos can’t speak highly enough of those fishermen who were out there and rescued these boaters,” said Koroknay, who also serves as the Coast Guard’s chief of incident management. “We were very fortunate that these fishing vessels were in that area.”

Koroknay said the two people on the Titan – he didn’t know their names – were brought to shore uninjured. He does not know who owns the vessel or where the yacht was headed when it caught fire. The Coast Guard is investigating the sinking.

Deb Kremer was aboard one of the fishing vessels that responded to the fire after hearing calls for help on the vessel’s radio.

Kremer told WMTW-TV that the yacht was fully engulfed in flames when the fishing vessels arrived and that it burned for about 40 minutes before it sank in about 200 feet of water.

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‘Really scary': 2 men jump overboard when yacht goes up in flames off Maine

The two unharmed men watched as the vessel burned and sank in 200 feet of water on saturday off the coast of seguin island, near georgetown, published august 21, 2023 • updated on august 21, 2023 at 2:27 pm.

Two boaters jumped overboard to save themselves after a fire engulfed a 48-foot yacht off the Maine coast, the Coast Guard said. Several lobster boats came to the rescue, and one plucked the men out of the water.

The two unharmed men watched along with the lobstermen as the vessel burned and sank in 200 feet of water on Saturday off the coast of Seguin Island, near Georgetown.

“It was a very heartbreaking scene. It was really scary,” said Deb Kremer, who witnessed the fire and took photos from her boat.

The Coast Guard emphasized the importance of fellow boaters who came to the rescue, averting tragedy.

“The moral of the story: Without the good Samaritans responding to calls and helping the Coast Guard, some lives could’ve been lost on this incident. We credit the good Samaritans,” said Lt. j.g. David Letarte in South Portland.

The Coast Guard did not identify the two men aboard the yacht, the Titan. It was unclear where the yacht was based.

The Coast Guard estimated that it took roughly an hour for a rescue vessel to arrive on the scene after receiving a distress call about an engine room fire, during which time the boat burned down and sunk.

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Maine lobstermen rescue 2 people from burning yacht off coast of Georgetown

by Ariana St Pierre , WGME

GEORGETOWN (WGME) -- Lobsterman rescued two people who were on board a 48-foot yacht when it caught fire and sank off the coast of Georgetown, according to the Press Herald.

The Press Herald reports two people were on the “Titan" on Saturday when it went up in flames and sank near Seguin Island around noon.

• Also read: Massachusetts man dies trying to save family swimming in New Hampshire

The Coast Guard told the paper that both jumped into the ocean to escape the flames.

The Coast Guard got a distress call and sent out a message to other nearby vessels to help.

Two lobster boats got there first and were able to pull both people out of the ocean.

• Also read: Several crews rescue injured man from Presumpscot River

The Coast Guard says they both were brought to shore uninjured.

The Coast Guard is investigating the sinking.

Maine lobstermen credited with saving lives of boaters following yacht fire

GEORGETOWN, Maine (WMTW) - Several lobstermen are credited with saving the lives of two boaters off the coast of Georgetown on Saturday.

The 48-foot yacht Titan caught fire several miles off Seguin Island, with flames quickly spreading, prompting the boaters to jump into the water for safety.

According to the U.S. Coast Guard Lt. David J. Letarte, the agency issued an Urgent Mariner Information Broadcast after the boaters called for help reporting their vessel was disabled, and fire was coming from the engine room.

Letarte was able to identify one of the lobster boats involved in pulling the boaters to safety as “My Three Blondes” but added there were vessels involved in the effort.

“We credit them in this case as saving some lives,” Letarte said.

The boaters were taken to shore and are ok.

On board one of the other nearby vessels that responded was Deb Kremer, who heard calls for help over the radio.

“The boat was fully engulfed, and burned like that for approximately 40 minutes before sinking,” Kremer wrote in an email to Maine’s Total Coverage.

The yacht sank in about 200 feet of water, according to the Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard planned to return to the scene of the fire Sunday to investigate.

Copyright 2023 WABI. All rights reserved.

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Physicist explains how Titan’s ‘catastrophic implosion’ happened–and what it meant for those on board

• Search Search

The submersible “Titan” that had garnered much of the world’s attention for the past week experienced a “catastrophic implosion,” according to the U.S. Coast Guard. The tragic result, authorities said, is that the five occupants on board are presumed to have died during the implosion.

How does such an implosion happen, and what kind of impact would it have had Titan’s crew? Northeastern Global News reached out to Arun Bansil , university distinguished professor of physics at Northeastern, to provide a basic overview of the physics involved—and the violent consequences associated with it. 

The brief conversation has been edited for clarity.  

What does it mean for a submarine to have ‘imploded?’ What causes a water submersible to implode? How is it different from an explosion? 

Quite simply, an implosion is the opposite of an explosion. In an explosion, the force acts outwards, but in an implosion the force acts inwards. When a submersible is deep in the ocean it experiences the force on its surface due to water pressure. When this force becomes larger than the force hull can withstand, the vessel implodes violently. 

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Officials overseeing the search for the submarine said the discovery of debris from the water craft is consistent with a ‘catastrophic implosion.’ What would such an event have meant for the five occupants?

Implosions like explosions are very violent. As the hull breaks apart under the huge external pressure, a large amount of energy is released, and the five occupants would have died instantly. The occupants would not have experienced pain or realized what hit them. 

Can you briefly explain, if you can, the engineering behind how submarines are able to navigate such crushing depths in the first place—and why Titan was presumably unable to?   

The key is the design of the hull that protects the vessel against the large external water pressure that is trying to crush the hull. Much of the existing technology is based on steel, titanium and aluminum. The performance of these materials under extreme stress is well understood. 

However, the Titan’s hull had an experimental design. It used mostly carbon fibers, which have the advantage of being lighter than titanium or steel, so Titan could have more space for passengers. Properties of carbon fibers for deep sea applications are, however, not that well understood. It can crack and break suddenly. 

Also, Titan had previously gone for deep sea dives a few times, which would have contributed to the fatigue of the hull to make the hull more prone to catastrophic failure. 

Tanner Stening is a Northeastern Global News reporter. Email him at [email protected] . Follow him on Twitter @tstening90 .

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US Navy detected likely 'catastrophic implosion' of Titan sub soon after it went missing

The sound was detected near where the submersible lost communication on Sunday.

News reporter @ConnorSephton

Friday 23 June 2023 13:57, UK

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The US Navy likely detected the "catastrophic implosion" of the Titan submersible soon after it went missing on Sunday.

Five people died , including a billionaire father and son, in the implosion of the vessel near the Titanic wreck.

The discovery of debris from the submersible comes as a senior official in the navy confirmed that an existing secret system designed to pick up audio heard a sound consistent with an "implosion".

The sound was heard near where the submersible lost communication on Sunday.

'Debris consistent with catastrophic loss of pressure chamber' as all five on board Titan 'lost' - live updates

While the official said the sound was "not definitive", the navy said it shared the information "immediately" with the incident commander.

A navy statement said: "This information was considered with the compilation of additional acoustic data provided by other partners and the decision was made to continue our mission as a search and rescue and make every effort to save the lives on board."

On Thursday, Rear Admiral John Mauger - who led the search - confirmed in a news conference that a remotely operated vehicle had discovered the nose cone of the lost submersible about 487m (1,600ft) from the bow of the Titanic on the seafloor.

Further debris was found nearby, with Rear Admiral Mauger adding: "In consultation with experts from within unified command, the debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber.

"On behalf of US Coast Guard and entire unified command, I offer deepest condolences to the families. I can only imagine what this has been like for them, and I hope this discovery provides some solace during this difficult time."

Minutes before the news conference, OceanGate - which owned the submersible - released a statement that said: "We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost.

"These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world's oceans.

"Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time. We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew."

Read more: Family of British billionaire Hamish Harding pay tribute following implosion of missing sub Student, 19, killed in Titan was 'terrified' before trip but went as a Father's Day present Titanic director said he 'knew submersible was destroyed' four days before debris found

Sky's US correspondent James Matthews - who was at the US Coast Guard's news conference in Boston - asked Rear Admiral Mauger whether any trace of the passengers had been found.

He replied: "This is an incredibly complex operating environment on the seafloor, over two miles beneath the surface. The remote operating vehicle has been searching, and it is highly capable, and we've been able to classify parts of the pressure chamber for the Titan submersible."

When asked about the prospects for recovering crew members, Rear Admiral Mauger warned "it is an incredibly unforgiving environment on the seafloor".

While the debris is consistent with a "catastrophic implosion" of the vessel, he stressed that it is too early to know when this happened - and underwater robots remain on scene to gather information.

"We'll continue to work and continue to search the area down there, but I don't have an answer for prospects at this time," he told reporters.

Questions remain about Titan's mechanical and safety issues

US correspondent

It was the outcome that nobody wanted but everyone feared.

As time passed in this search, the prospect of a happy ending diminished.

Coordinators had spoken of hope but throughout they had managed expectations - emphasising the scale of the challenge, calling it "enormously complex", in an offshore environment they described as "incredibly unforgiving".

So there was a sense of inevitability about the announcement that debris had been found - the Coastguard news conference on Boston's harbour side was laced with sorrow, if not surprise.

Questions will continue to be asked about the Titan, its condition and suitability to make the trip.

Mechanical and safety issues remain a big part of this story.

There has been much criticism of the vessel's structure before, during and after it went missing.

OceanGate, the company that owned the Titan, issued a statement in which it described the five on board as "true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure". No doubt.

No doubt, either, that in pursuit of adventure, they deserved transport they could count on.

Misplaced trust cost them their lives as they sought a glimpse of the Titanic.

Disasters do tend to attract disaster.

Maritime investigators will consider whether, in the case of the Titan, this was one waiting to happen.

Carl Hartsville, an expert from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, later added that no debris from the Titanic is based in the area.

While there had been speculation in past news conferences that underwater banging noises heard near the site could be linked to Titan, the Coast Guard said there doesn't appear to be a connection.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said it was "tragic news" that the five men had lost their lives. Billionaire Hamish Harding - as well as businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman - were British citizens.

"The UK government is closely supporting the families affected and expresses our deepest condolences," he added.

Earlier on Thursday, it had been announced that a "debris field" had been found at the search site.

David Mearns - a rescue expert who knew two of the five men onboard - had told Sky News that Titan's landing frame and rear cover had been identified.

Five days have passed since Titan's passengers embarked on a two-hour dive to see the wreck of the Titanic.

Teams from multiple countries had scoured thousands of square miles looking for the minivan-sized vessel.

On Wednesday, the US Coast Guard had forecast that the vessel's air supply would run out by 12.08pm UK time today.

Finding the missing submersible in a totally dark environment was likened to discovering a needle in a haystack - and according to experts, even specialist vehicles on the seafloor can only see for a matter of metres.

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Read more: What happened to the Titan sub? Five men on board described as 'true explorers'

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Commodore David Russell, a former Royal Navy submariner, told Sky News that the evidence suggests that the Titan's pressure hull failed - and those onboard would have lost their lives instantaneously.

Mr Harding and Mr Nargeolet were members of The Explorers Club - and in a statement, its president Richard Garriott de Cayeux said "our hearts are broken" by the tragedy.

He thanked those involved in the search and rescue effort, adding: "They were both drawn to explore, like so many of us, and did so in the name of meaningful science for the betterment of mankind.

"We're heartbroken for the families, friends and colleagues of those who were lost. Their memories will be a blessing and will continue to inspire us in the name of science and exploration."

Related Topics

• Titanic submersible

James Cameron says Titan submersible passengers likely had warning just before implosion

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“Titanic” director James Cameron said during an ABC News interview that one of his longtime friends was among the passengers on the tourist submersible Titan and that sensors likely warned of the disaster just before it occurred. All five aboard were killed in a “ catastrophic implosion , officials said.

After OceanGate Expeditions released a statement Thursday saying that all five passengers’ lives had “sadly been lost” and the company confirmed that the debris found was indeed from the missing submersible, Cameron weighed in on the tragedy.

“This OceanGate sub had sensors on the inside of a hull to give them a warning when it was starting to crack,” he told ABC News . “And I think if that’s your idea of safety, then you’re doing it wrong. They probably had warning that their hull was starting to delaminate, starting to crack. ... [W]e understand from inside the community that they had dropped their ascent weights and they were coming up, trying to manage an emergency.”

The director of the 1997 blockbuster “Titanic” is a longtime member of the diving community, has experience designing submarines able to withstand the depths that the Titan could not and has ventured down to the wreck of the Titanic 33 times himself.

Cameron described implosion as a “violent event,” and he said engineers typically focus first and foremost on the submersible design maintaining structural integrity against pressure that increases with depth.

World & Nation

5 aboard Titanic tourist sub are dead after ‘catastrophic implosion’

The five people aboard a submersible that vanished on a trip to explore the Titanic wreckage have died after a catastrophic implosion, the U.S. Coast Guard says.

June 22, 2023

“People in the community were very concerned about this sub,” Cameron told the network. “A number of the top players in the deep submergence engineering community even wrote letters to the company, saying that what they were doing was too experimental to carry passengers and that it needed to be certified. I’m struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself, where the captain was repeatedly warned about ice ahead of his ship and yet he steamed at full speed into an ice field on a moonless night and many people died as a result.

“For us, it’s a very similar tragedy where warnings went unheeded. To take place at the same exact site with all the diving that’s going on all around the world, I think it’s just astonishing. It’s really quite surreal.”

The Times obtained the 2018 letter privately written to Stockton Rush, the chief executive of OceanGate, who was among those who died in the implosion. The manned underwater vehicles committee at the Marine Technology Society wrote to Rush, stressing the need for a third-party safety review of OceanGate’s submersibles.

“Our apprehension is that the current experimental approach adopted by OceanGate could result in negative outcomes (from minor to catastrophic) that would have serious consequences for everyone in the industry,” the letter stated.

William Kohnen, chairman of the committee, told The Times that OceanGate “raised a number of eyebrows.”

Also in 2018, David Lochridge, a former OceanGate employee, sued the company for terminating him after he raised safety red flags, “particularly OceanGate’s refusal to conduct critical, non-destructive testing of the experimental design of the hull.” Lochridge specified that its hull monitoring system would detect failure “often [only] milliseconds before an implosion.”

He said he disagreed with Rush’s decision to “subject passengers to potential extreme danger in an experimental submersible.”

‘Catastrophic’ safety concerns raised about sub long before ill-fated Titanic voyage

Long before a submersible vanished on an expedition to explore the wreck of the Titanic, concerns were raised about the safety of the vessel.

June 21, 2023

Cameron also told ABC News that he was mourning the death of French Titanic explorer Paul-Henri “P.H.” Nargeolet, a longtime friend who was aboard the Titan submersible.

“It’s really quite surreal, it’s just astonishing,” he said. “P.H., the French legendary submersible dive pilot, was a friend of mine. It’s a very small community, I’ve known P.H. for 25 years.

“For him to have died tragically in this way is almost impossible for me to process.”

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Emily St. Martin is a former entertainment reporter on the Fast Break Desk. Before joining the Los Angeles Times, she contributed to the New York Times, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, NBC, Vice, Los Angeles Magazine and the Southern California News Group. She also previously worked at the Hollywood Reporter. In 2022, she won third place for best news feature with the L.A. Press Club. St. Martin has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of La Verne and a master’s in creative nonfiction from UC Riverside.

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The Maverick Design Choices That May Have Doomed Titan

By Helmuth Rosales William J. Broad Eleanor Lutz and Bedel Saget July 14, 2023

Until the Titan disaster on June 18, no one had ever died while piloting or riding a submersible into the deep’s unending darkness. This remarkable safety record stood for nearly a century, despite explorers making many thousands of dives.

Federal investigators say it could take them up to 18 months to determine why Titan imploded, killing its five passengers. But engineers interviewed by The New York Times point out possible weak points in the sub’s design.

Carbon fiber

Titan had several cost-saving departures from proven submersible designs.

Unlike most other submersibles, Titan’s hull was shaped like a pill, which fit more passengers. A sphere has been the industry standard, known to be better suited for deep-sea pressures.

The hull’s central cylinder used carbon fiber, not the more expensive titanium used in other submersibles that safely returned passengers from the abyss.

And Titan’s carbon fiber cylinder was attached to titanium hemispheres, creating several joints of dissimilar materials that are challenging to bond properly.

Titan’s owner, OceanGate, took a unique approach with the vessel, working to minimize the costly overhead of other submersibles. The lightweight craft was relatively easy to transport. It required no dedicated mothership, but instead could be towed on a flotation device behind a rented ship. Compared with rivals, the company said, the savings made Titan “more financially viable.”

What follows is a comparison of Titan’s design with a standard vehicle that, in typical fashion, relies on conservative engineering rules that have proven themselves over many decades. Teams of investigators are now examining such differences in trying to understand why Titan imploded during its dive to the Titanic wreckage .

Titan’s Unorthodox Shape Fit More Passengers

Submersibles must withstand the deep ocean’s crushing pressures, which squeeze with equal force from all sides. At Titanic’s depth — two and a half miles down — every square inch of a submersible experiences three tons of force.

A spherical hull distributes the stress evenly, making it the best shape for resisting the compressive forces of the abyss. Any other shape, experts said, will tend to deform unevenly.

Take a look at the difference between Titan and Alvin, a research submersible with an all-titanium hull. Since 1973, it has completed more than 4,500 dives.

Titan’s hull was larger and held two more passengers than Alvin, which fits three. In three years of dives, OceanGate charged up to $250,000 per person to visit the Titanic.

Tim Foecke, a retired forensic metallurgist who has done mechanical testing and failure analysis on metals and carbon fiber, said the change in hull geometry from a tight sphere to a lengthy tube may have contributed to Titan’s catastrophic failure. A larger hull needs to be stronger and thicker to withstand the same pressure as a smaller one. In two hulls of the same thickness, he said, the larger one would “collapse or buckle” first.

Unproven but Economical Material

OceanGate created most of Titan’s hull out of carbon fiber, rather than the conventional titanium used for Alvin. Experts said the risky design saved money.

Titanium is strong against both compression and tension. That means it can withstand forces that are crushing it or pulling it apart. Carbon fiber, though, is much more effective in resisting pulling forces than crushing forces, such as compression. It resists pulling for a while before breaking, but collapses or buckles if pushed on or compressed.

“I was very surprised” by the fiber construction of Titan, Mr. Foecke said, because compression was the main force that the submersible encountered during its long descent.

Carbon fiber is often used in the aerospace industry because it’s strong and lightweight. It reduced Titan’s weight to 21,000 pounds, compared with Alvin’s 45,000 pounds.

“This weight reduction allows us to carry a significantly greater payload, which we use to carry five crew members,” said Stockton Rush, OceanGate’s chief executive, in a company news release last year. Mr. Rush was serving as Titan’s pilot when it imploded.

To further cut costs for the 2023 season, Mr. Rush rented a mothership that was smaller, older and less expensive than those on previous expeditions. Called the Polar Prince, it was too small and cramped to carry Titan on its deck. The ship thus towed the lightweight craft on the three-day voyage from St. John’s, Newfoundland, to the Titanic site.

“I thought the sub and platform were being tossed around pretty roughly,” recalled Arnie Weissmann, the editor in chief of Travel Weekly, about his expedition in May aboard Titan, with the same mothership. In contrast, Alvin travels to its dive sites aboard a dedicated mothership outfitted with custom winches, hangars and a machine shop. A large crane places it into the ocean.

Asked if towing Titan risked damage, in addition to other questions, a company spokesperson, Andrew Von Kerens said: “OceanGate is unable to provide any additional information at this time.”

As a class, submarines go down for days, weeks and months. They operate autonomously. In contrast, submersibles go down for hours and rely on a mothership for such things as crew sustenance, communications, sleeping bunks and proper toilets. The combination of a support ship and the undersea craft can be costly. Recently, a pair went up for sale at $50 million.

Joining Dissimilar Materials Was Challenging

The engineers who were interviewed also expressed design concerns over areas of Titan where dissimilar materials were joined. Because different materials change shape at different rates when under pressure, achieving and maintaining a seal in these areas can be challenging.

At Titanic depths, Titan would have been subject to water pressures of three tons of force per square inch.

Titan’s hull was designed so that a carbon fiber shell was glued to titanium rings on either end.

This cross section of the hull shows where the two different materials were joined.

Under deep-sea pressures, carbon fiber would compress in diameter more quickly than the titanium, placing stress on the glue joint. (Animation is an illustration of how the deformation could work.)

The dissimilar materials used in the craft’s hull construction, said Alfred S. McLaren, a retired Navy submariner and president emeritus of the Explorers Club of New York City, “have different coefficients of expansion and compression, and that works against keeping a watertight bond.”

Moisture or sea salt could have degraded the hull’s carbon fiber and the glue joining it to the titanium, creating another potential weak point, said Kedar Kirane, a mechanical engineer with expertise in damage, fracture and fatigue in fiber-reinforced composites. Mr. Foecke also said that the acrylic of the viewport might have failed where it met the titanium or that uneven tightening of the hatch bolts might have caused uneven stresses along the porthole, causing a fracture.

The best way of outwitting the many dangers, the experts agreed, would have been to subject Titan to rigorous testing under the anticipated conditions and stresses. Fatigue of various materials also would have had to be considered and continually monitored. Manufacturing defects or any damage could build up over time as the Titan endured the cycles of stress associated with repeatedly going down miles to the bottom of the Atlantic and back.

A detailed timeline stretching back to 2013 shows OceanGate did extensive developmental work and testing for Titan. Still, left out of the public record are any proprietary tricks and improvements that OceanGate may have made as it gained field experience with its experimental sub.

Skirting Certification Saved Time and Costs

Most deep-sea craft undergo costly rounds of inspection and testing by reputable marine organizations that specialize in certifying the deep-diving craft as safe. But Mr. Rush obtained no certification for Titan, saying it stifled innovation . In a documentary , he said: “You are remembered for the rules you break, and I’ve broken some rules to make this. The carbon fiber and titanium — there’s a rule you don’t do that. Well, I did.”

Mr. Kirane said that if he were designing the Titan, his top priorities would be testing and certification.

“I would probably emphasize the actual testing itself because that’s very critical,” he said. “Safety is at stake, so before actually using it in a real-world application, I would make sure it passes all the certification required and a lot of experiments.”

An earlier version of this article mischaracterized the nature of the physics acting on a submersible at Titanic’s depth. It faces three tons of force per square inch, not three tons of pressure per square inch.

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Sunken Russian warship Moskva: What do we know?

Russia's flagship Black Sea missile cruiser, the Moskva, has sunk after being "seriously damaged".

That is as far as the warring sides may agree on - not what caused the sinking.

The Russian defence ministry said ammunition onboard exploded in an unexplained fire and the ship tipped over while being towed back to port.

Ukraine claims it struck the vessel with its Neptune missiles. Unnamed US officials have told US media they believe the Ukrainian version.

The 510-crew warship had led Russia's naval assault on Ukraine, which made it an important symbolic and military target.

Earlier in the conflict the Moskva gained notoriety after calling on Ukrainian border troops defending Snake Island in the Black Sea to surrender - to which they memorably radioed a message of refusal which loosely translates as "go to hell" .

Unexplained fire or a missile attack?

Prior to the sinking, Russia's defence ministry issued a statement saying "the vessel is seriously damaged. The entire crew have been evacuated".

Naval officials said they were towing the warship back to port.

But a later statement the same day announced that on its journey back to port the ship "lost its balance".

"Given the choppy seas, the vessel sank," it said.

Moscow again blamed the blast on an unexplained fire, making no mention of any missile strike.

But Ukraine says it is responsible for an attack on the cruiser, which it claims it targeted with recently-introduced Ukrainian-made missiles.

In a Facebook post before the ship sank, Ukrainian officials said Russian rescue efforts were being hampered by ammunition exploding on board and bad weather.

On Friday, US officials said two Ukrainian Neptune missiles had struck the vessel, killing an unknown number of sailors.

The BBC has not been able to verify the claims.

Billowing black smoke

Dramatic pictures and a credible video appearing to show the Russian warship listing heavily and billowing smoke have since appeared.

Military experts told the BBC the footage most likely showed the Moskva cruiser and was probably recorded on 14 April.

The damage that can be seen in the footage is consistent with the type that a Neptune-style missile attack would inflict , they agreed.

Rear Admiral Chris Parry, who previously commanded a Royal Navy destroyer, said that after looking at the image he was left in "no doubt it's been hit by one or two missiles".

But other experts said the footage didn't provide enough proof to definitively rule out another explanation not involving a missile strike.

Reported casualties

Russia has not admitted any casualties. On Saturday the Russian defence ministry published footage showing what it described as the crew of the Moskva, on parade in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol.

The commander-in-chief of the Russian navy said the officers and crew would "continue their service".

The video showing around 100 sailors is the only evidence that's been offered of any survivors from the 510-crew warship.

The history of the Moskva cruiser

Originally built in Ukraine in the Soviet-era, the vessel entered service in the early 1980s according to Russian media.

The missile cruiser was previously deployed by Moscow in the Syria conflict where it supplied Russian forces in the country with naval protection.

It carried over a dozen Vulkan anti-ship missiles and an array of anti-submarine and mine-torpedo weapons, the reports said.

The Moskva is the second major Russian ship known to have been destroyed since the invasion began.

What defences did the Moskva have?

The Slava-class cruiser was the third largest vessel in Russia's active fleet and one of its most heavily defended assets, naval expert Jonathan Bentham from the International Institute for Strategic Studies told the BBC.

The cruiser was equipped with a triple-tiered air defence system that if operating properly should have made it very hard to hit.

In addition to medium- and short-range defences, it could engage six short-range close-in weapon systems (CIWS) as a last resort.

"The CIWS system can fire 5,000 rounds in a minute, essentially creating a wall of flak around the cruiser, its last line of defence," Mr Bentham said.

If the strike is proven to have come from a missile it "raises questions over the capabilities of the modernisation of the Russian surface fleet: whether it had enough ammunition, whether it had engineering issues".

Neptune missiles

Kyiv military officials say they struck the Moskva with a Ukrainian-made Neptune missile.

The cruise missile system was designed by Ukrainian military engineers in response to the growing naval threat posed by Russia in the Black Sea, following its annexation of Crimea in 2014.

According to the Kyiv Post , the Ukrainian navy only received its first delivery of the 300km-range (186 miles) Neptune missiles in March last year.

Since the invasion began Ukraine has received an influx of military aid from Western allies, including £100m worth of anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles that the UK announced it would be sending last week .

The Russian military has been dominant in the Black Sea since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, and has used its presence there to launch and supply the invasion.

Its Black Sea fleet has supported the war with the capacity to launch cruise missiles anywhere in Ukraine, and has been important in supporting Russian attempts to seize Mariupol.

Snake Island

"The Moskva had been a thorn in the side of the Ukrainians since the beginning of this conflict," Michael Petersen, of the Russia Maritime Studies Institute, told the BBC.

In the early days of Russia's invasion, the Moskva made global headlines after it ordered a group of Ukrainian soldiers on an outpost in the Black Sea to surrender.

When the troops defiantly refused in a radio message, it was initially believed that the border troops had been killed. However, in fact they had been taken captive.

The soldiers were eventually released as part of a prisoner swap with Russia in late March and their commander was honoured with a medal by the Ukrainian military.

The tale of their bravery became such a boost to Ukraine's morale that that the country's postal service commemorated their encounter on Snake Island with a special illustrated stamp.

War in Ukraine: More coverage

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Ukraine's battle for justice over alleged Russian war crimes

Us accuses putin of genocide but france reluctant.

'Nothing left': After California Yacht Club fire, residents mourn loss of a beloved spot

I n an instant, an overnight seaside blaze engulfed decades' worth of boating trophies, historical artifacts and cherished memorabilia at the California Yacht Club in Marina del Rey on Monday.

Fire crews attempted to control the blaze as heavy smoke and flames consumed the two-story building. By the time they had subdued the fire two hours later, only the skeletal remnants of the clubhouse were left standing.

John Myers, senior vice president of the club, said the blaze had been reported by an employee working late in the clubhouse Monday night. The fire spared the remainder of the facilities on the ground, including the docks and the yachts moored there. But the clubhouse, and particularly its second floor, was all but wiped out.

“We are working closely with the Los Angeles County Fire Department in their investigation of the cause of the incident and will share those findings when they become available to us,” Myers said.

Members are left mourning, comparing the loss to the death of a loved one.

Jennifer Dakoske Koslu awoke in Rancho Mirage at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, before the sun had risen, to find her phone inundated with text messages from club members.

The first message she read simply stated, "The CYC is gone."

“As soon as I opened my phone, it went to a link on the Citizen app and saw a video of the club burning. I was shocked,” Dakoske Koslu said.

For the last 24 years, Dakoske Koslu and her family have been dedicated members of the CYC, whose clubhouse is a few miles away from their home in Playa del Rey. She said it is where her children have grown up, familiarizing themselves with every inch.

“I remember taking my son there on the Fourth of July when he was just 3 weeks old. It was the first place we went with him as a newborn," Dakoske Koslu said.

She and her husband biked to the club in the aftermath of the fire, greeted by the charred remains of the building on Wednesday afternoon.

“The destruction is unbelievable. It's clear that the fire was burning intensely on the second floor,” Dakoske Koslu said. “There's nothing left.”

The second floor once housed a collection of the club's prestigious racing trophies, kept on display for members and visitors. The fire melted all but a single salvageable California Cup. Most notably, the priceless King of Spain Trophy, acquired in 1929 from King Alfonso XIII, was lost.

Additionally, the club lost cherished photographs of every past commodore, a significant position within a yacht club. Members said they didn't know if anyone had digitized the images of the commodores or of the club's founders.

“We would tell yachting stories at the bar around lots of memorabilia, and the yachting artifacts behind the bar are all gone now,” Tom Materna said. “The yacht club provided us a facility for the off-the-water celebrations after hard-fought competition on the water.”

The CYC dates to the early 1920s, started by boat owners from the Los Angeles Athletic Club and other yacht clubs. The Board of Harbor Commissioners approved the first clubhouse in 1922, designed by famed architect Edwin Bergstrom, co-designer of the Pentagon.

In 1965, the yacht club submitted a proposal for an all-encompassing $1-million, two-story, 10,000-square-foot clubhouse on four acres off Admiralty Way. Members envisioned a state-of-the-art facility with 170 boat slips, a guest dock, a small boat hoist and a dry land storage facility for boats. The clubhouse that resulted was dedicated on June 10, 1967.

Then-Commodore William A. DeGroot Jr. told The Times that the triangular parcel of land on which the clubhouse still sits is a “perfectly logical place for a club facility, and a commanding view down the main channel of the marina.”

Though the building has historical significance to its members, it does not have a historic designation, according to Linda Dishman, president of the Los Angeles Conservancy.

“We are deeply saddened by this tragedy and so grateful for the outpouring of support from the community and our members,” Myers said. “CYC has been a beacon for the nautical community for the past 101 years.”

Materna, 68, first found out about the fire through Facebook as friends posted videos and photos of the damage Tuesday morning. Then he began receiving calls and text messages from friends.

“Everybody woke up in the morning and realized we'd lost a significant part of the sailing community,” Materna said.

His connection to the club dates back nearly 52 years, to when he was just 16 years old. After spending 30 years sailing professionally with Hobie Cats, mainly racing catamarans — a watercraft with two parallel hulls of equal size — he recently served as a crew member on other club members' racing yachts.

The CYC is pivotal in the boat racing community, organizing and hosting events such as the Optimist National Championship and Junior Olympic trials, Materna said. He fondly remembers the hundreds of people from across the globe converging on the marina for similar events.

The main topic among members now is what's next for the club. Dakoske Koslu noted that the club's ownership changed over the last few years, and many are unsure and concerned about the club's continuation after the fire.

The club relocated to the marina in 1967, leasing the land it sits on from the county.

“I don't think the county has really valued the contributions of the California Yacht Club as an important part of the Marina. They value Trader Joe's because it's more money for them,” Dakoske Koslu said.

Dakoske Koslu said she’s seen numerous small marine-oriented businesses displaced from the marina, making way for more commercialized developments such as Trader Joe's and Recreational Equipment Inc.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times .

DEVELOPING: FBI investigating second attempted assassination of Trump; suspect in custody

A tale of two disasters: Missing Titanic sub captivates the world days after deadly migrant shipwreck

As rescuers raced to find a handful of wealthy people and explorers who vanished after launching a mission to survey the Titanic, another disaster at sea that's feared to have left hundreds of people dead has been swept from the spotlight.

Last week's sinking of a fishing boat crowded with migrants trying to get from Libya to Italy sparked arrests, violent protests and questions about authorities’ failure to act or find a long-term solution to the issue. But many human rights advocates are frustrated that the world seems to have already moved on and that the resources and media attention being dedicated to the Titan rescue efforts far outweigh those for the sunken migrant ship.

“It’s a horrifying and disgusting contrast,” Judith Sunderland, associate director for Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia division, said in a telephone interview, reflecting on the apparent disparities in resources and media attention on the two crises.

“The willingness to allow certain people to die while every effort is made to save others ... it’s a, you know, really dark reflection on humanity,” she said.

The willingness to allow certain people to die while every effort is made to save others ... it’s a, you know, really dark reflection on humanity.

Judith Sunderland, Human Rights Watch

Sunderland wasn't alone in raising concerns over disparities in attention and resources dedicated to the search for the crew of explorers aboard the missing submersible, named Titan, compared with the deadly shipwreck last week of a vessel carrying hundreds of migrants and asylum-seekers.

The front pages the past few days have been dominated by the search for the missing sub, said Josie Naughton, co-founder and CEO of Choose Love, a U.K.-based nongovernmental organization supporting refugees around the world.

She said thousands more articles appeared to have been published about the submersible than about the migrant boat, “yet, it’s 100 times as many people who are feared to have lost their lives and these people, they were forced to flee their homes, they were looking for safety.”

“Whilst of course we hope so much that the people on board get brought to safety, it does kind of make you question, what’s the difference in terms of how the media is covering it but also in terms of how, you know, the governments and government infrastructure responds,” Naughton added. “Why is it so different?”

The search for Titan is a race against time as the oxygen supply dwindles on the vessel, which has been missing since it lost contact with its mother ship, the Polar Prince, an hour and 45 minutes after launching its dive early Sunday. The U.S. Coast Guard had said that 96 hours' worth of oxygen is available for the crew of five and it will run out by early Thursday morning, although the exact amount is not known.

With the support of agencies from other nations, the Coast Guard has been racing to find the vessel and its passengers, who have been identified as Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, the company behind the mission; British billionaire Hamish Harding, owner of Action Aviation; French dive expert Paul Henry Nargeolet; and prominent Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman.

Sunderland said she was “not surprised” that the search for Titan and its passengers was attracting media attention. The focus on “very wealthy people” potentially “dying on a vanity trip, you know, that’s a ‘good story,’” she said. “The real issue in my mind is the resource question.”

Hundreds feared dead in Greece shipwreck

Greek authorities have so far recovered the bodies of at least 81 people, and more than 100 passengers have been rescued, including Pakistanis, Egyptians, Syrians, Afghans and Palestinians. But survivors and the United Nations have said hundreds were aboard the boat and many are still missing and feared dead.

If a death toll in the hundreds was confirmed, it would be among the worst shipwrecks recorded in the Mediterranean.

Greek authorities have further been criticized for not acting to rescue the migrants, even though a coast guard vessel escorted the trawler for hours. International maritime law dictates that authorities are obligated to conduct immediate rescue operations — with or without an explicit plea for help.

Gianluca Rocco, head of the Greek section of the International Organization for Migration, the U.N. migration agency, called it “one of the biggest tragedies in the Mediterranean.”

Artist Oliver Jeffers shared his feelings with a cartoon on Tuesday, which marked World Refugee Day. It depicted a news crew focusing its cameras on a vessel under the sea while turning away from people appearing to drown in nearby waters.

“While we are glued to the news about 5 mostly wealthy tourists lost on a submarine on their way to seek the wreckage of a sunken ship, today is World Refugee Day, and only last week a boat holding hundreds of refugees sank off the coast of Greece,” Jeffers wrote in an Instagram post accompanying the graphic.

“Many (including children) lost their lives on that sinking ship while on their way to seek a safer existence,” he said. “It’s hard to not be cynical about the state of society that this story has gripped us in the midst of a constantly rising refugee crisis with more and more people dying on the daily, and not getting nearly as much attention.”

He asked his followers to make a donation to the International Rescue Committee “while we watch for news of a still hopeful safe return” of the missing sub.

While many shared similar sentiments, not everyone agreed.

Commenting on Jeffers’ post, one person wrote: “The submarine story is leading the news because it is extraordinary, it is weird, and it is associated with a 100+ year old event that has long been part of pop culture.

“As sad as it is, a refugee boat going down is not altogether that uncommon, so it is naturally going to capture the public’s imagination less than a missing deep-sea submarine,” they said. “Acting like we pay attention to one at the expense of the other is a logical fallacy: people can think about two things at once.”

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said she was “deeply saddened” by the tragedy off the Greek coast, and she promised to strengthen cooperation between the European Union and nearby countries to “prevent such tragedies.”

Human rights groups have argued, however, that the current focus on efforts to crack down on migrant smuggling means migrants and refugees often feel forced to take longer and more dangerous routes to reach safe countries.

The best way to prevent the deaths of migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees seeking safety is to create “safe and legal routes for asylum-seekers to reach safety so that they’re not forced to take these journeys,” Naughton said.

While she didn’t know what the outcome of the search for the missing submersible and its passengers might be, “what I do know is that 500 people risking their lives in search of safety deserve the same respect as the lives of those on the Titan,” she said.

Chantal Da Silva reports on world news for NBC News Digital and is based in London.