OceanGate
Cyclops 1 submersible on display at Seattle's Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Tourism, expeditions, underwater diving |
| Founded | 2009 |
| Founders | Stockton Rush |
| Headquarters | Everett, Washington, U.S. |
Key people |
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| Website | oceangate Archived June 21, 2023, at the Wayback Machine |
OceanGate Inc. is an American privately-owned company based in Everett, Washington, that provided crewed submersibles for tourism, industry, research, and exploration. The company was founded in 2009 by Stockton Rush and Guillermo Söhnlein.
The company acquired a submersible vessel, Antipodes, and later built two of its own: Cyclops 1 and Titan. In 2021, OceanGate began taking paying tourists in Titan to visit the wreck of the Titanic. In 2022, the price to be a passenger on an OceanGate expedition to the Titanic shipwreck was $250,000 per person.
On June 18, 2023, Titan imploded during a voyage to the Titanic wreck site, killing all five occupants on board, including Rush. An international search and rescue operation was launched, and on June 22 the wreckage was found on the seabed about 500 meters (1,600 ft) from the Titanic wreck site. On June 21, it was announced that OceanGate's Everett office was closed indefinitely, and on July 6, OceanGate suspended all operations. Since August 2023, Gordon Gardiner has served as the company's CEO. Gardiner was appointed "to lead OceanGate through the ongoing investigations and closure of the company's operations," as the company still exists as a legal entity; however, Gardiner has stated that OceanGate has "permanently" ceased all business operations.