Original OceanGate sub on sale for $800k - as interview reveals CEO Stockton Rush hoped for deep sea mining operations
13 July 2023, 17:17 | Updated: 14 July 2023, 19:00
A broker trying to sell an old OceanGate submersible fears it will never sell following the catastrophic implosion of the company’s Titan craft.
The Antipodes was the first sub purchased by Stockton Rush - the pilot and one of five who died on a trip down to the wreck of the Titanic.
Steve Reoch, a yacht broker for the company, confirmed the old sub is listed for sale at $795,000, telling Insider: “I don’t want to have anything to do with it.”
He told the outlet the sub would likely be “tied up in litigation for years” and would probably never sell, despite going on many successful trips including a shark-spotting expedition.
A listing for the craft shows the Antipodes was built by Perry Submersibles in 1973 and can go 1,000 feet deep into the ocean on 'deep-water expeditions' to 'access underwater environments.'
It is currently docked at OceanGate's headquarters in Everett, Washington and listed for $795,000.
The detail comes as it emerged that Rush planned to turn the doomed Titan vessel to deep-sea mining operations.
In a 2017 interview he said he planned for the sub to do more than simply take people down to the wreck of the Titanic.
He wanted to use it for deep sea mining operations as well.
“The biggest resource is oil and gas,” he told the business magazine Fast Company.
“But oil and gas [companies] don’t take new technology. They want it proven, they want it out there,” he added.
“The long-term value is in the commercial side. Adventure tourism is a way to monetize the process of proving the technology. The Titanic is where we go from startup to ongoing business.”
He believed the “long-term value” in deep sea exploration was commercial opportunities such as deep-sea mining - a controversial practice that is viewed as potentially extremely damaging to the planet.
The practice is mired in controversy because of the damage it is expected to cause to biodiversity on the ocean floor.
