A senior engineer with the American Bureau of Shipping, which classes and certifies submersibles in the United States, told US Coast Guard hearings in South Carolina yesterday that carbon fibre pressure hulls must be stored in a climate-controlled environment.
Roy Thomas was asked about the Titan submersible which had over-wintered in the outdoors at Holyrood in the months before its fateful trip.
The submersible suffered a catastrophic implosion while descending to the site of the Titanic wreck in June of 2023, killing all five people on board.
Thomas, who literally helped write the book on ABS rules for building and classifying manned submersibles, told the hearings that rules are in place for the proper storage of both the raw materials, and the finished product.
“You have to store it in a controlled environment,” says Thomas. “It has to be well ventilated, away from the sunlight. The temperature has to be controlled between 60 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit, humidity has to be controlled, you should not exceed 80 per cent of relative humidity. So the storage of the finished product should be in a controlled environment. To expose it to the elements can possibly cause degradation of the material.”