Last night my thoughts were with the five men who were missing, stuck in a vessel on the ocean ground for days, we assumed. Their time was running out -or perhaps already had already run out. It was a search and rescue mission.
My heart goes out to them and their families. They spent $250,000 each for a ticket on the little submarine that would give them a view of the Titanic wreckage. The ocean giant, the unsinkable ship that is still today as attractive as it has been back then, in 1912.
Why did they do it? Why did they risk so much and pay so much for this one trip? Because they can and I understand.
A 19-year-old is on board, the youngest of the men. Dreams and nightmares are so often too close together. The others, his father and the other men, millionaires, billionaires who can afford everything their heart desires.
Oh, how often I wish to be stinking rich just for one day. Then I would call my dentist and make the appointment and get the dental work done I so wish for, but can’t afford. How wonderful it must be if you can spend 20K and more without even blinking.
In the last two weeks, ships sunk in the Mediterranean Sea, and hundreds of migrants drowned or went missing. We care a little, but they don’t have faces, they don’t have names. There is not much news coverage about it.
The five men on the submersible (A new word I just learned) have faces and names. We have seen them now in the news, and we have watched the rescue teams and have gotten an hourly update.
If someone vanishes at sea, the Coast Guard appoints a mission coordinator to run the search and rescue. In addition to organizing planes, helicopters, boats, and diving teams, he has to keep tabs on the missing person’s statistical odds of survival. The rescue mission now is costing Millions which I assume the families will pay happily -after a hopefully happy ending.
But if days pass and the people are still lost, and the search team has looked everywhere, the Coast Guards have to call it off. They never officially give up until they find a body or bodies, they just downgrade the case’s status to “Active Search Suspended, Pending Further Developments.”
The worst scenario is being stuck for days in a small, cold vessel on the ocean’s ground, knowing that your time soon will run out, because you will be out of air. What a cruel way to die. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. Now we know there was an implosion. They didn’t suffer, which must give comfort to their families. Leaving this earthly being behind, doing something you love. Isn’t that what we all wish for?
The father of the 19-year-old tried to fulfill the dream of a lifetime and it turned into a nightmare.
How rich I seem to be right now!
Why do the rich pay an enormous amount to fly into space, or to dive down to a shipwreck?
We all do it if we can, depending on our age and well-being. We all have wishes, and most of us like a rush of adrenalin now and then. Bungee jumping, zip-lining, rock climbing, deep sea diving, car races, downhill skiing. The wallet is the limit and for some lucky ones, there is no limit.
As for the five men in the vessel, I hope they saw the Titanic and it was everything to them they hoped it would be.
Update after posting: They found debris close to the Titanic wreckage. It seems the small submarine imploded.
Again, I hope they saw the Titanic!
So sad that so many were lost at sea and we only know the names and faces of the rich, I didn’t hear a thing about the others.
Even almost a week later this story still deeply disturbs me. I don’t think any amount of money would tempt me to seek adventure seeking activities that carry such risk. It’s merciful to learn that they likely never even knew what happened, but that is very small comfort to grieving families. I suppose it really does seem like we have grown cold to the suffering of others and the immigrant drownings of late. The inequity of attention is notable. But I do wonder if the submersible hadn’t been focused on viewing the Titanic perhaps even this story wouldn’t have captured so much attention. We’ll never know, but for so many, it’s the “irony” of the Titanic being in this catastrophe that hooked everyone into following so closely.
I am a former down-hill racer, so I do understand the need to feel a ‘rush’ or to conquer fear. How the rich spent their money is beyond anything I will understand, but then, I am not rich, how could I?
I never understood the obsession with the Titanic. I remember how I was ‘dragged’ to the movie theater. When it got dark I couldn’t help saying “I wonder how it will end” which made everybody laugh out loud. According to my friend I ruined the movie experience for many. Because everybody jumped ‘on board’ and there was lots of laughter throughout the film.
I find the old pirate ships, or sunken submarines so much more interesting, but I guess that’s just me.
A good post, indeed. Any Waiver of Responsibility that mentions Death three times on the first page needs to be pondered. The 19 year old did not want to go, but did not want to disappoint his Dad. Perhaps I am not one to talk, seeing as my post on White Island also happened this week. As humans, we place importance and value on many of the wrong things, paying sports stars millions and underpaying doctors and teachers, paying $2 million for a dress once worn in Star Wars, paying $1/4 million to go see a catastrophe from over a hundred years ago and then becoming another catastrophe, trolling the internet for the wacky life of influencers, while stepping over those who are down and out. Life and humans are strange indeed. Allan
We still dance around the golden cow dont’ we. I don’t understand our obsession with the rich either. It’s better in Europe. There you can sit beside Boris Becker (happened to me 20 years ago) and not care. Here in the US we seem to chase them down.
It is very sad, and sad too the other lives lost at sea this week that no one has a face to hold in their memory.
It saddens me too. Dawn is right, we here in the US only focus on the rich and famous. We know how the Kardashians live, but we don’t give a hoot about our next door neighbors.
It is completely bananas the amount of media coverage this story has received. Everyone is talking about it. Here in Australia as well. Yet as to point out, there are so many more stories way more worthy of our attention.
We should be disgusted with the media. And I do hope the families paid for the doomed rescue mission and not the common person in the street.
The media went bonkers over the story here as well. I think the Titanic itself is always such a subject of interest. More than 100 years after it sunk, and we are still fascinated by it.
I am quite sure the families will pay for it.
Indeed the Titanic ‘curse’ is still haunting the world. No doubt this latest accident will inspire a few conspiracy nutters to come up with a story! Lol.
Yes and in about five years we will watch a movie about it 🙂
That seems likely. I thought the same as you, Bridget. Truth is often stranger than fiction. I can hear the Hollywood sound effects of the implosion in my head already.
To me this is yet another example of how some can spend fortunes on costly pursuits while others live and die in penury
Isn’t it like this everywhere. We live in houses and spend money on our yards, while others live in tents and we are bothered by it, so we make sure they are being bulldozed down.
We drink coffees from expensive cafes, while there are part in this world where they don’t have drinking water.
Absolutely.
I just read online what they found.. so very tragic. Dawn makes a good point.
Yes, she did make a good point. Good to see you, so I can stop calling 🙂
The whole thing is so sad. I’ve been thinking about them since they told us it was missing. And yet….I didn’t see anything about immigrants drowning, or I would have been thinking about them as well. We are a country that focuses mostly on the rich and their adventures or misadventures. I think that makes us small.
We are getting smaller (or feel smaller) because our horizon got smaller as well. We don’t look much over our borders anymore. We focus on the rich and famous. We are in trouble.