{"id":31081,"date":"2023-06-23T09:36:29","date_gmt":"2023-06-23T13:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=31081"},"modified":"2023-06-23T09:36:29","modified_gmt":"2023-06-23T13:36:29","slug":"payne-inside-titan-with-my-friend-oceangate-pioneer-tock-rush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/payne-inside-titan-with-my-friend-oceangate-pioneer-tock-rush","title":{"rendered":"Payne: Inside Titan with my friend, OceanGate pioneer Tock Rush"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">OceanGate brought its Titan submersible to Oakland County Airport on Nov. 6, 2021, looking to sell $250,000 tickets for a seat to the Titanic shipwreck 13,000 feet below the Atlantic Ocean\u2019s surface off Newfoundland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">I was invited, though I didn\u2019t have the financial means \u2014 or the claustrophobic tolerance \u2014 to join the expedition in the cramped, single-porthole vessel. But I did have a keen interest in the pilot, my friend and former classmate Stockton \u201cTock\u201d Rush.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">From test pilot Chuck Yeager to Mount Everest explorer Sir Edmund Hillary, risk-takers are a special breed. OceanGate CEO Tock was one of them. Unlike the astronauts and explorers who lived to reach the summit of mountains and outer space, however, Tock was fascinated by going to the bottom of the ocean. Since he founded OceanGate in 2009, I followed his progress \u2014 occasionally visiting his headquarters in Everett, Washington, north of his Seattle home.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.detroitnews.com\/gcdn\/presto\/2023\/06\/22\/PDTN\/082eedf2-eaee-4dcb-806e-da287a57fde1-Oceangate_tock-wide.jpg?width=990&amp;height=558&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Tragically, Tock died this week \u2014 along with four other adventure seekers \u2014 aboard the Titan when the craft imploded, according to the U.S. Coast Guard, at the bottom of the Atlantic, just 1,600 feet from the Titanic\u2019s bow. It was the Titan\u2019s fourth trip to the 111-year-old shipwreck since 2021.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"gnt_m gnt_x gnt_x__lbl gnt_x__al\" aria-label=\"advertisement\">\n<div id=\"ad-slot-7103-mi-detroit-C1561-native-article_link-money-2\" class=\"gnt_x_sl gnt_x_al\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-method=\"lazyLoadX\"><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Ask anyone in my Princeton University Class of 1984 which one of us would be brave enough to dare such a mission, and Tock would be at the top of the list. Coming from a family of car racers, I have a need for speed that has taken me to some of America&#8217;s greatest race tracks, and Tock took great interest in my motorsports adventures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">But he had much bigger boundaries to explore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">When we were 19 years old, he became the world\u2019s youngest commercial airline pilot, commanding Saudi Airlines planes during our college summers. After graduating with an engineering degree in 1984, he went to work as an aerospace engineer for McDonnell Douglas in California, but he chafed at working in the bureaucratic corporate world funded by government tax dollars.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"gnt_em gnt_em_img\"><div align=\"left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.detroitnews.com\/gcdn\/presto\/2023\/06\/22\/PDTN\/fb14c19b-e206-4f41-9e59-445836bb5a6a-Oceangate_titan-inside.jpg?width=980&amp;height=552&amp;fit=crop&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush shows Henry Payne, not seen, and Payne's wife, Talbot, around the interior of the Titan.\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"gnt_em_img_i\" src=\"https:\/\/www.detroitnews.com\/gcdn\/presto\/2023\/06\/22\/PDTN\/fb14c19b-e206-4f41-9e59-445836bb5a6a-Oceangate_titan-inside.jpg?width=980&amp;height=552&amp;fit=crop&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp\" srcset=\"\/gcdn\/presto\/2023\/06\/22\/PDTN\/fb14c19b-e206-4f41-9e59-445836bb5a6a-Oceangate_titan-inside.jpg?width=1960&amp;height=1104&amp;fit=crop&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp 2x\" alt=\"OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush shows Henry Payne, not seen, and Payne's wife, Talbot, around the interior of the Titan.\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"gnt_em_img_ccw gnt_em_img_ccw__cap gnt_em_img_ccw__crd\" data-c-caption=\"OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush shows Henry Payne, not seen, and Payne's wife, Talbot, around the interior of the Titan.\" data-c-credit=\"Henry Payne, The Detroit News\"><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">In the summer of 1985 \u2014 during one of McDonnell Douglas&#8217;s frequent military project shutdowns while they waited for Congress to pass defense appropriation monies \u2014 my wife, Talbot, and I met up with him outside St. Louis (my wife\u2019s hometown) in order to help him get an Ultralight airplane off the ground. A plane that Tock had built himself.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"gnt_m gnt_x gnt_x__lbl gnt_x__al\" aria-label=\"advertisement\">\n<div id=\"ad-slot-7103-mi-detroit-C1561-native-article_link-money-3\" class=\"gnt_x_sl gnt_x_al\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-method=\"lazyLoadX\"><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">With a parachute strapped to his back and the Ultralight&#8217;s single propeller whirring away, he skimmed west St. Louis county cornfields while we chased him in our car. He eventually landed his maiden flight \u2014 on target \u2014 in a farm field he had designated miles away.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Like many pioneers, Tock came from a family of means. He was an heir to the Standard Oil fortune by virtue of his grandfather, director Ralph Davies. His namesakes \u2014 Benjamin Rush and Richard Stockton \u2014 were signers of the Declaration of Independence, and their portraits hang in the foyer of his Seattle home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Like those American pioneers, he was determined to explore new frontiers, and the ocean floor became his obsession. On a visit to Everett last decade, we boarded the first prototype sub that Tock and his engineering team had developed to test the lightweight construction that could transport a crew to the Titanic. Determined to explore the secrets of the world&#8217;s vast oceans, Tock saw the Titanic fascination \u2014 and the adventure-tourist revenue it could produce \u2014 as key to financing multiple adventures.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"gnt_em gnt_em_img\"><div align=\"left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.detroitnews.com\/gcdn\/presto\/2023\/06\/22\/PDTN\/843e44dd-967f-439b-9c83-925045eba52d-Oceangate_presentation.jpg?width=980&amp;height=552&amp;fit=crop&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"Oceangate presentation at Oakland County Airport by Tock Rush and his crew.\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"gnt_em_img_i\" src=\"https:\/\/www.detroitnews.com\/gcdn\/presto\/2023\/06\/22\/PDTN\/843e44dd-967f-439b-9c83-925045eba52d-Oceangate_presentation.jpg?width=980&amp;height=552&amp;fit=crop&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp\" srcset=\"\/gcdn\/presto\/2023\/06\/22\/PDTN\/843e44dd-967f-439b-9c83-925045eba52d-Oceangate_presentation.jpg?width=1960&amp;height=1104&amp;fit=crop&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp 2x\" alt=\"Oceangate presentation at Oakland County Airport by Tock Rush and his crew.\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"gnt_em_img_ccw gnt_em_img_ccw__cap gnt_em_img_ccw__crd\" data-c-caption=\"Oceangate presentation at Oakland County Airport by Tock Rush and his crew.\" data-c-credit=\"Henry Payne, The Detroit News\"><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The project was laborious in financing, building and transporting the vessel to the Bahamas and other deep-sea locations to test. On a trip to Newfoundland in 2018 to test a new GMC Sierra truck, I learned that Tock was nearby as construction on the Titan was completed, and he had turned his focus to the big prize: taking passengers to the Titanic.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"gnt_m gnt_x gnt_x__lbl gnt_x__al\" aria-label=\"advertisement\">\n<div id=\"ad-slot-7103-mi-detroit-C1561-native-article_link-money-4\" class=\"gnt_x_sl gnt_x_al\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-method=\"lazyLoadX\"><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The vessel would make some 50 deep Atlantic simulation dives before completing its first Titanic trip in 2021. Shortly thereafter, the OceanGate team towed the Titan to a hangar in Oakland County Airport before a small audience of thrill seekers to sell the experience. The team included Tock\u2019s wife (and Talbot\u2019s college roommate), Wendy, a mission specialist whose great-grandparents had, coincidentally, perished aboard the Titanic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">My wife and I ascended the steps onto the Titan&#8217;s platform and ducked our heads into the low-lit passenger compartment behind the single, bow-mounted porthole. Inside, Tock gave us a tour of the controls and safety procedures. I can only remember thinking how my claustrophobia \u2014 not to mention my 6-foot-5 size \u2014 would be a problem for the 2.5-hour dive down to the Titanic.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"gnt_em gnt_em_img\"><div align=\"left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.detroitnews.com\/gcdn\/presto\/2023\/06\/22\/PDTN\/2725df45-84a0-4f05-a96d-8f11b01b69df-Oceangate_titan-nose.jpg?width=980&amp;height=552&amp;fit=crop&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"The nose cone of OceanGate's Titan where interested customers could crawl inside and get a peek at their confines at Oakland County Airport.\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"gnt_em_img_i\" src=\"https:\/\/www.detroitnews.com\/gcdn\/presto\/2023\/06\/22\/PDTN\/2725df45-84a0-4f05-a96d-8f11b01b69df-Oceangate_titan-nose.jpg?width=980&amp;height=552&amp;fit=crop&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp\" srcset=\"\/gcdn\/presto\/2023\/06\/22\/PDTN\/2725df45-84a0-4f05-a96d-8f11b01b69df-Oceangate_titan-nose.jpg?width=1960&amp;height=1104&amp;fit=crop&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp 2x\" alt=\"The nose cone of OceanGate's Titan where interested customers could crawl inside and get a peek at their confines at Oakland County Airport.\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"gnt_em_img_ccw gnt_em_img_ccw__cap gnt_em_img_ccw__crd\" data-c-caption=\"The nose cone of OceanGate's Titan where interested customers could crawl inside and get a peek at their confines at Oakland County Airport.\" data-c-credit=\"Henry Payne, The Detroit News\"><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Never mind bobbing on the surface for days in the Titan\u2019s mothership \u2014 the Canadian research icebreaker Polar Prince \u2014 patiently waiting for the weather to clear for the dive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The presentation included thrilling pictures from previous expeditions, but Tock and his team were blunt about the risks. Like the Apollo 1 crew fatalities or the multiple fatalities of explorers who have tried climbing Everest \u2014 the risk of death would always shadow you when pushing the envelope of the exploration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Tock lived to conquer those risks. He \u2014 and his fellow passengers \u2014 died doing what they loved.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\"><em>Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OceanGate brought its Titan submersible to Oakland County Airport on Nov. 6, 2021, looking to sell $250,000 tickets for a seat to the Titanic shipwreck 13,000 feet below the Atlantic Ocean\u2019s surface off Newfoundland. I was invited, though I didn\u2019t have the financial means \u2014 or the claustrophobic tolerance \u2014 to join the expedition in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31081"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31081"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31082,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31081\/revisions\/31082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}