Ohio Billionaire Plans to Take $20M Sub to Explore Titanic Wreckage Following OceanGate Tragedy

Ohio billionaire Larry Connor is ready to dive to the Titanic wreckage, even after OceanGate’s tragic sub implosion.

Patrick Lahey, co-founder and CEO of Triton Submarines, told The Wall Street Journal that Connor reached out to him shortly after the OceanGate tragedy. Connor wanted a submersible that could safely and repeatedly reach the Titanic’s depths.

“He called me up and said, ‘We need to build a sub that can dive to [Titanic-level depths] repeatedly and safely and show the world that Titan was a contraption,’” Lahey shared with The Wall Street Journal.

In response, Lahey designed the Triton 4000/2 Abyssal Explorer, a two-person vessel priced at $20 million. This sub can reach depths of about 4,000 meters, deeper than the Titanic’s 3,800 meters, according to the company’s website.

Connor explained that the vessel uses new materials and technology that were unavailable just a few years ago. “Patrick has been thinking about and designing this for over a decade. But we didn’t have the materials and technology. You couldn’t have built this sub five years ago,” he told the WSJ.

Connor, who has previously dived to the Mariana Trench, expressed confidence in the new submersible. He and Lahey plan to dive to the Titanic to prove it can be done safely. “I want to show people worldwide that while the ocean is extremely powerful, it can be wonderful and enjoyable and really kind of life-changing if you go about it the right way,” Connor said.

Despite the interest stirred by Connor, Lahey admitted that the OceanGate tragedy had made some people wary. “This tragedy had a chilling effect on people’s interest in these vehicles,” he said. “It reignited old myths that only a crazy person would dive in one of these things.”

However, Lahey emphasized the difference in quality between Triton’s certified submarines and OceanGate’s experimental designs. Ray Dalio, a financier and part-owner of Titan Submarines alongside Hollywood director James Cameron, voiced his confidence in certified submarines. “In that situation, they were experimental, they didn’t have certification, and they were not representative of what subs are,” Dalio said. “Anyone who is knowledgeable would have no reservations.”