OceanGate Was Far from the First Submarine Tragedy
On June 18, an OceanGate submersible imploded in the northern Atlantic Ocean, killing all five passengers on board.
The fate of the doomed vessel, bound for the wreck of the Titanic, dominated headlines for nearly a week.
Thankfully, accidents involving submarines and submersibles have not occurred often in the twenty-first century, but they have occurred, in some cases with fatal consequences.
Near Hawaii on Feb. 9, 2001, the nuclear submarine USS Greeneville made a rapid ascent from a depth of 400 feet.
When it reached the surface the sub tore through the Ehime Maru, a Japanese fishing boat carrying 35 unsuspecting passengers.
Nine of the 35 passengers aboard the Ehime Maru lost their lives, including four high-school students.
If the Ehime Maru disaster serves as any indication, the people associated with the OceanGate submersible tragedy will feel its effects for many years.
In 2021, as the disaster’s 20-year anniversary approached, the former commander of the USS Greeneville wrote an open letter of apology to the families of the nine people who died.
According to the Honolulu Star Advertiser, a Hawaii-based daily newspaper, retired Commander Scott Waddle took full responsibility for the disaster.
“I alone am solely responsible for the accident. The collision was avoidable and I failed in my duties to prevent it,” Waddle wrote.
The anguished former commander added that he has “carried the shame, sorrow, burden and remorse every day since then and will do so until the day I die.”
The Ehime Maru disaster was the only fatal accident involving a U.S. submarine in the twenty-first century, but other nations have suffered similar maritime tragedies.
On Oct. 25, 2017, the Argentine submarine ARA San Juan vanished after leaving its base at Mar del Plata, an Argentine resort city.
The submarine’s wreckage was discovered a year later in the southern Atlantic Ocean. All 44 crew members perished.
In 2019 the Buenos Aires Times, Argentina’s only English-language newspaper, reported an ongoing investigation in which five Navy officers already faced criminal charges.
The loss of the ARA San Juan represents the world’s second-costliest submarine disaster of the twenty-first century.
The costliest occurred on Aug. 12, 2000, when the Russian Oscar II class Kursk nuclear submarine exploded in the Barents Sea, killing all 118 crewmen aboard.
According to Navy General Board, a website devoted to naval history, Norwegian seismographs detected the Kursk’s massive double-explosion.
From the moment human beings first put sails on wooden vessels, the Earth’s oceans and waterways have claimed countless lives.
Recent events remind us of that centuries-old danger.
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