“Titan”'s Support Ship Felt a 'Shudder' When It Lost Contact with Doomed Sub That Imploded: Hearing

“At the time, we thought nothing of it”

The Polar Prince’s master told Coast Guard investigators that he recalled feeling his ship “shudder” around the same time its communications with the Titan submersible were lost last year during the Titan's doomed dive down to the wreck of the Titanic.

On Friday, Sept. 27, during the two-week hearing into the 2023 Titan tragedy held by a U.S. Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation, officials were shown an exhibit featuring a written October 2023 interview with the master of the Polar Prince, the Titan's support ship, about the incident on June 18, 2023.

In his written answers to the Coast Guard's questions, the master (the Polar Prince's captain) said that "with the benefit of hindsight," he believes he had “felt the Polar Prince shudder at around the time communications were reportedly lost" but did not realize it until later.

“At the time, we thought nothing of it,” the master said, noting, “It was slight.”

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At the hearing on Friday, Jamie Frederick, the Coast Guard captain who oversaw the Titan search-and-rescue mission, said this was “the first” time he had heard about the “shudder.”

Not sharing that information with the unified command, he added, “would be unconscionable.”

“It’s a piece of info we didn’t have,” Frederick said. “It’s information that could have had a drastic impact on the search efforts.”

Earlier during the multi-day hearing, the last messages sent by the Titan submersible before it imploded were revealed.

At 10:15 a.m. local time, about a half hour before communications between the Titan and Polar Prince abruptly ended, the Titan told its support ship “all good here.”

Related: New Details of the Titan Passengers' Final Moments and 3 More Highlights from Coast Guard Investigation

The Coast Guard said Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a noted explorer who was aboard the submersible when it imploded, is believed to have been sending the final round of messages.

The last one, just seconds before contact was cut, was apparently about the vessel dropping weights while near the Titanic.

All five people who were onboard the Titan died in the implosion: Nargeolet; Hamish Hardin; father and son Shahzada and Suleiman Dawood; and Stockton Rush, who co-founded OceanGate, the company operating the Titan.

Human remains were subsequently found as part of the recovery mission, Coast Guard officials have said.

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