SEATTLE — The office of OceanGate, the company manning the deep-sea vessel that vanished on its way to the Titanic wreckage, has closed indefinitely, according to the Port of Everett, where OceanGate is a tenant.
The Port said in a statement Thursday the OceanGate office would remain closed on the same day the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed that the submersible carrying five people to the Titanic had imploded near the site of the shipwreck and killed everyone on board.
The passengers on board included OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush; two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood; British adventurer Hamish Harding; and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
“These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans,” OceanGate wrote in a statement. “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.”
Rush founded OceanGate in 2009 beginning with a five-person submarine purchased from a private owner. The submarine Antipodes was introduced the next year and made 130 dives within two years.
Along with two submarines, he began making his own vessel, a submersible — different from a submarine because it needs a mothership — made from carbon fiber. He called it Cyclops, which served as a prototype and platform for Titan.
The OceanGate vessels have gone on dozens of dives throughout the Puget Sound region and around the world. On one expedition in 2014, rapper Macklemore went aboard Antipodes into Elliott Bay to find sixgill sharks, in a dive that was documented by the Discovery Channel’s “Daily Planet” for Shark Week, according to OceanGate’s website.
In 2018, OceanGate worked with the SeaDoc Society for a Salish Sea expedition, doing seven dives in Cyclops 1 off San Juan Island over five days.
In Everett, OceanGate had an office on Craftsman Way, where it sat along the water and neighbored a boat dealer, brewery and distillery.
Port of Everett CEO Lisa Lefeber said Thursday “today’s news about the Titan and those on board is beyond devastating, and not the outcome we were hoping to hear. On behalf of the Port of Everett, I send our deepest condolences to families, friends and co-workers of those whose lives have been tragically lost.”
