The stepson of adventurer Paul-Henri Nargeolet thought his stepfather’s ill-fated journey to study the Titanic’s remains at the bottom of the ocean would be just another routine trip.
“I honestly thought nothing of it,” John Nathaniel Paschall told NBC News. “It’s another exciting trip for PH down at the Titanic.”
Paschall said his 77-year-old stepdad, a former French Navy captain who reportedly visited the Titanic at least three dozen times, told him in May he planned to board the Titan submersible on June 18.
Nargeolet worked as director of underwater research for an American company that owned salvage rights to the Titanic, according to the New York Times. He was known as “Mr. Titanic.”
“He’s been on so many different deep dives that I didn’t bat an eye,” Paschall said.
The plan was for Nargeolet to do his thing and see his stepson again in July. But he and four other passengers died aboard Titan, which is believed to have been destroyed in a “catastrophic implosion” during its final deep dive.
Paschall wonders if there were safety issues that were not properly addressed by Titan’s operators.
“At the same time, anyone who gets in those submersibles knows the risks that could happen,” he told NBC News.
“Titanic” director James Cameron said he was friends with Nargeolet, who he met around the time he was making his 1997 Oscar-winning film about the famous ship.
“For him to have died tragically in this way is almost impossible for me to process,” Cameron told ABC News.
Paschall said his family was “living a nightmare” throughout the week as search-and-rescue crews searched for his stepfather. Their worst fear was realized Thursday when the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed a debris field found near the Titanic was the scattered remains of Titan. No bodies have been recovered.