FOG BLOG CANADA LOG: PIECES OF THE TITAN SUBMERSIBLE ON BOARD SHIP BOUND FOR ST. JOHN'S NL!

Pieces of Titan wreckage taken off ship in St. John's as investigations begin

Debris expected to be crucial part of investigations into 'catastrophic implosion' A blue ship cut through a blanket of grey fog on Wednesday morning, navigating between the steep cliffs at the entrance to St. John's harbour with precious cargo on board.

The Horizon Arctic returned to port carrying the shattered pieces of the Titan submersible, 10 days after it went missing off the coast of Newfoundland with five souls on board.

A crane lifted the submersible's nose cone, pieces of its hull and a section of the tail into the air and lowered them to the Canadian Coast Guard dock in St. John's.

"It's just a very eerie feeling here this morning, knowing that people were on that, and that's all that's left," said Sarah Grenning, who stopped her morning run to watch the pieces being offloaded. "Those are people's sons and fathers and relatives. It's just unfortunate." All five people on board are believed to have been killed by a sudden implosion. That includes OceanGate Expeditions CEO Stockton Rush, whose company built the Titan with an experimental design using carbon fibre and titanium.

In previous interviews, Rush acknowledged the materials were not standard for deep-sea submersibles.

"I'd like to be remembered as an innovator," Rush told vlogger Alan Estrada in 2021. "I've broken some rules to make this. I think I've broken them with logic and good engineering behind me. The carbon fibre and titanium, there's a rule you don't do that. Well, I did."

The remnants of the submersible — those pieces of carbon fibre and titanium — will now be turned over to investigators to figure out what went wrong. Transportation safety boards from the United States and Canada, as well as the U.S. Coast Guard and RCMP are now probing the incident.