The crew of the submersible that vanished en route to the Titanic wreck in the North Atlantic over the weekend were “excited” for their voyage — heading to a coffee shop just moments before heading out to sea, a barista who saw the explorers said.
The group — which includes renowned billionaire explorer Hamish Harding and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush — was seen grabbing fresh-ground coffee at Terre Restaurant shortly before the sub left St. John’s, Newfoundland, on Friday.
The cafe was just steps from where the Polar Prince surface vessel was docked.
“Before leaving on their last expedition, a bunch of the crew came in here and ordered a bunch of coffees before going out,” barista James Law told the Daily Mail.
“It was about nine or 10 of them. I could tell who they were because they’re all literally wearing jackets that say ‘Titanic’ on them. Everyone was wearing that blue OceanGate Titanic jacket,” he recalled.
“Whenever we see guys wearing those expedition jackets, we just say, ‘What are you guys up to?’ The group came down, and they’re like, ‘We’re heading out.’”
Law also remembered that the group seemed a bit anxious to get underway after waiting out bad weather.
“They were saying they were excited for a good expedition. And a few of them seemed in a rush. They were a little behind schedule. That was the first day there was a break in the fog for a while. They were in a rush to go. They were excited to go,” he told the outlet.
Two days later, the Titan lost contact with the Polar Prince about one hour and 45 minutes into its descent to the Titanic wreck, which sits 12,500 feet down on the sea floor.
Despite a massive search effort using resources from the US and Canadian coast guards as well as volunteers from around the world, the sub and its five passengers have still not been located.
The vessel’s emergency oxygen is believed to have run out on Thursday morning.
“I recognized one of the faces, the CEO, Rush,” Law told the Daily Mail of his response to the news of the missing crew, which also includes Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his teenage son, Sulaiman, and French Titanic explorer Paul-Henri “PH” Nargeolet.
“And I also recognized [Harding],” the barista added.
Law said the frantic search for the five men has brought back painful memories of his friend’s brother, Marc Russell, who died alongside his boatmate while fishing for cod in September 2021.
“This whole Titanic situation has got me thinking about that, to be honest,” he admitted.
“Marc was a codfish captain, and they were just out fishing when the boat disappeared. The Canadian Coast Guard launched a massive search. Then after a few weeks when they called off the search, they sent sonar boats onto the ocean to see if they could find the ship.
“They couldn’t even find it. The only thing they found was a bait bin floating,” he lamented.
“The sad thing is that the last radar ping they got from that boat was three kilometers from the harbor. The parents would be able to see where the boat went down from their bedroom window, if the weather wasn’t completely fogged up that day,” he continued.
Tourist submersible exploring Titanic wreckage disappears in Atlantic Ocean
What we know
A submersible on a pricey tourist expedition to the Titanic shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean has vanished with likely only four days’ worth of oxygen. The US Coast Guard said the small submarine began its journey underwater with five passengers Sunday morning, and the Canadian research vessel that it was working with lost contact with the crew about an hour and 45 minutes into the dive.
It was later found that a top-secret team with the US Navy detected the implosion of the Titan submersible on Sunday, but did not stop search efforts due because the evidence was “not definitive” and a decision was made to “make every effort to save the lives on board.”
Who was on board?
The family of world explorer Hamish Harding confirmed on Facebook that he was among the five traveling in the missing submarine. Harding, a British businessman who previously paid for a space ride aboard the Blue Origin rocket last year, shared a photo of himself on Sunday signing a banner for OceanGate’s latest voyage to the shipwreck.
Also onboard were Pakistani energy and tech mogul Shanzada Dawood and his son Sulaiman, 19; famed French diver and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and OceanGate founder and CEO Stockton Rush.
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- Coast Guard knew Titan sub imploded Sunday, but continued search anyway — here’s why
What’s next?
“We’re doing everything we can do to locate the submersible and rescue those on board,” Rear Adm. John Mauger told reporters. “In terms of the hours, we understood that was 96 hours of emergency capability from the operator.
Coast Guard officials said they are currently focusing all their efforts on locating the sub first before deploying any vessel capable of reaching as far below as 12,500 feet where the Titanic wreck is located.
Mauger, first district commander and leader of the search-and-rescue mission, said the US was coordinating with Canada on the operation.
The debris recovered from the US Coast Guard’s Titan submersible search site early Thursday included “a landing frame and a rear cover from the submersible.”
After search efforts to recover the stranded passengers proved futile, and bits of debris from the submersible were found, it was decided that the sub imploded, which correlated with an anomaly picked up by the US Navy in the same area.
The Coast Guard later reported that all 5 passengers were confirmed dead, and rescue efforts were halted.
Law said that locals protested when the Coast Guard called off the initial search, prompting another week of efforts that nevertheless failed to find the bodies of Russell or his mate, Joey Jenkins.
Tragedy struck the St. John’s area again last year, he said, when a pair of boaters hunting for turr hit a shoal and flipped their vessel.
“They found the boat, but didn’t find the bodies,” Law explained.
Based on his past experience with maritime accidents, Law said he is not hopeful the Titan’s crew — whom some are calling the “Titanic Five” — will be rescued.
Follow the Post’s live updates of the Titanic sub disaster
‘I think it’s extremely unlikely they’ll be found. I’m really, really hoping for the best, let me be clear. But it seems like the odds are something bad has already happened,” he admitted.
“And when you’re down that deep, with that much pressure, that far away, it looks like a really tough situation.”
Law added that he is well acquainted with the reality of life on the water, but said that knowledge does not make the crew’s disappearance any easier to grapple with.
“You live on the ocean, there are a fair number of tragedies,” he said.
“But it doesn’t occur to you that something bad is going to happen, until afterwards. They all seemed quite cheery before they left.”
The OceanGate Expeditions Titan submersible lost contact with its mothership on Sunday morning.
Like most of the public, Law is also troubled by the eerie connection between the sub’s disappearance and the Titanic, which claimed over 1,500 lives when it sank off the coast of Canada in 1912.
“I saw something on the internet saying something along the lines of, ‘the Titanic has taken more lives,’” he said.
“It’s insanely crazy to think that they stopped in here [at Terre]. It feels sad, eerie.”
As of Thursday morning, the status of the Titan and its crew remains unknown.
Less than two hours after the sub’s oxygen supply is believed to have run out, the US Coast Guard confirmed that a remote-operated vehicle (ROV) had reached the ocean floor as the search became more dire.
The French ship L’Atalante is also expected to launch its ROV shortly, officials said.
“Today will be a critical day in this search-and-rescue mission, as the sub’s life support supplies are starting to run low,” OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Söhnlein said Thursday.
“I firmly believe that the time window available for their rescue is longer than what most people think,” he insisted.
