A journalist who once took a trip to the wreckage of the Titanic on a research submersible described his “extraordinary experience” heading two miles down to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
Martin Phillips, who is currently a freelance journalist, had the opportunity to make the journey back in 2001 when he worked for the British newspaper “The Sun.”
Only three people were able to fit inside the sub, which was unrelated to the one that recently went missing.
The sub that Phillips was on came from Moscow’s Shirshov Institute of Oceanology.
“There was a sense of trepidation when you climbed into the capsule,” Phillips explained. “When the hatch shuts, it’s very claustrophobic.”
“It feels very, very small and you settle in as best you can,” Phillips said.
There was enough room for the pilot to sit in the middle of the sub, while the two passengers were able to lie down on bunks and see their surroundings through small portholes.
There wasn’t enough room for them to stand up.
“We just sank like a stone for two hours in darkness, listening to the echoing ping of the sonar,” Phillips said.
The dangers were clearly laid out for them.
“They said that if the submarine developed even a pinprick hole, the strength of the water being forced through the hole would be enough to cut a man in two, but we shouldn’t worry because we’d instantly implode and we would be liquidized,” Phillips said.
When the sub eventually approached the wreckage, Phillips said it took his breath away.
He described it as being “astonishing” and “haunting.”
“What I saw was just mind-blowing,” Phillips said. “It was an extraordinary experience.”
At one point, Phillips said he had a “sense of danger” because the top of the sub clipped the underside of the wreckage, causing rust to rain down on them.
“I realized that if we got stuck under there, we wouldn’t rise,” Phillips said.
When it was time to leave, Phillips said he thought he’d only been down there a “short while.”
“I looked at my watch and we’d been down there four hours,” Phillips said. “It had passed in a flash.”
