OceanGate Inc. is a privately owned U.S. company in Everett, Washington, that provides crewed submersibles for tourism, industry, research, and exploration. The company was founded in 2009 by Stockton Rush and Guillermo Söhnlein.[2][3]
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 the Titan to visit the wreck of the Titanic.[4][5] As of 2022, the price to be a passenger on an OceanGate expedition to the Titanic shipwreck was US$250,000 per person.[6]
In June 2023, Titan imploded during a voyage to the Titanic shipwreck site, killing all 5 occupants on board, including Rush.[7] An international search-and-rescue operation was launched[8] and, on June 22, the wreckage was found on the seabed near the Titanic wreck site.
