Submarine vs submersible: Titanic vessel Titan sparks debate over right definition
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onstellation Marine Services director Captain John Noble stated that the boys who have been on board the lacking Titan submersible are “in a resting place along with hundreds of Titanic passengers”, after US authorities confirmed all five have died.
US authorities introduced on Thursday that the vessel had suffered a “catastrophic implosion”.
The 22-foot (6.7-meter) Titan‘s tail cone and two pieces of its pressure hull were among the significant pieces discovered 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic, which rests about 13,000 feet deep in the North Atlantic Ocean.
“The debris is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel,” US Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Mauger, the First Coast Guard District commander, told reporters.
Those on board the vessel were British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman; French Navy veteran Paul-Henri Nargeolet; chief executive of OceanGate Expeditions Stockton Rush; and British billionaire and pilot Hamish Harding.
The Titan submersible disappeared on Sunday morning about one hour and 45 minutes into its expedition, around 370 miles from the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
Here is the difference between the easily confused definitions of a submarine and a submersible.
What’s a submarine?
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration web site explains the distinction between the 2.
The administration says a submarine “has enough power to leave port and come back to port under its own power.”
This implies that a submarine can drive independently to the underside of the ocean and are available again.
What’s a submersible?
The administration says: “A submersible has very limited power reserves so it needs a mother ship that can launch it and recover it.”
This means it doesn’t, not like a submarine, have the ability to drive all the way down to the underside of the ocean and are available again underneath its personal steam.
The bigger ship, Polar Prince, escorted Titan to Newfoundland, which is the closest level to the Titanic. The mothership misplaced contact after two hours.