The co-founder of OceanGate says buying submarines from larger, certified companies was not an affordable option for their vision in making deep sea exploration accessible to the public.
Guillermo Söhnlein testified at U.S. Coast Guard hearings into the Titan disaster today.
Söhnlein addressed previous testimony from Patrick Lahey of Triton Submarines who told the hearings last week that regulation and certification is absolutely essential.
“It’s foundational,” Lahey testified. “Any machine that’s going to be carrying human beings into the deep sea has to meet the high bar of certification by an independent third-party classification society.”
Sohnlein co-founded OceanGate with Stockton Rush in 2009, with the understanding that Rush would provide the funding and he would run the business. He says the original vision for the company was to create a fleet of 4 or 5 deep-diving submersibles, capable of carrying five people available for charter, anywhere in the world with no dedicated mother ship.
That vision, according to Söhnlein, was based on the competitive landscape of the submersible community, but they soon discovered that no company was able to meet what they were looking for, not to mention the cost.
“One question that no-one asked Patrick,” Söhnlein said, referring to Lahey’s testimony last week, “was how much do subs cost? They’re expensive, they’re millions of dollars, and they’re also generally heavy. They require a mother ship,” which requires a crane big enough to move the sub in and out of the water, “which means you’re instantly talking about a very big ship.”
Söhnlein left OceanGate in 2013, transferring the title of CEO to Stockton Rush.