Paul Henri Nargeolet, the French diver known as “Mr Titanic”, spent more time than any other explorer at the wreck of the ill-fated liner.
In an interview in 2019, the then 73-year-old was asked whether he ever got scared diving 3,810m to reach the wreck.
“If you are 11m or 11km down, if something bad happens, the result is the same,” the former French naval captain, who is feared to be on board the missing Titan submarine, told the Irish Examiner.
“When you’re in very deep water, you’re dead before you realise that something is happening, so it’s just not a problem.”
After 22 years in the navy in mine disposal, Mr Nargeolet – who specialises in deep-diving and piloting submersibles – had a variety of jobs. He participated in the Five Deeps expedition, exploring the deepest parts of all five of the Earth’s oceans, breaking the record for deepest submersible dive, at 10,928m below surface level.
But for the most part, his career has revolved around the Titanic. He was in the first human expedition to visit the ship in 1987, just two years after the ghostly wreck was discovered by an autonomous sub.
“That’s it, we’ve done it!” he exclaimed when they came across the prow. He was the first to recover a remnant of the wreck – a silver plate. Since then, PH, as he is known, visited the wreck at least 35 times.
Mr Nargeolet and the company he worked for, RMS Titanic Inc, went on to salvage many items from the debris field but not inside the wreck.
In the year of the Titanic’s centenary, 5,000 artefacts from the ship – including personal possessions such as eyeglasses and jewellery, as well as ship’s fittings including a cherub which once adorned the famed grand staircase – were auctioned by RMS Titanic in New York as a single lot, with a value of over $189 million (£148 million).
Beyond salvage, Mr Nargeolet helped to map the site and chart the course of its deterioration.
“At the beginning we were scared to recover artefacts owned by passengers but then we realised we could learn a lot about the passengers,” he said.
“We are resurfacing the history of these families, and for me that’s a good thing.”
He lives in Connecticut, while his adult children live in Cork, Ireland.
At the release of his book in France, In the Depths of the Titanic, last year, Mr Nargeolet admitted that he pushed the envelope when diving to see the Titanic.
“You stand down four, five, six, seven eight hours, which is the longest, and even then you don’t really want to come back up,” he said.
“Sometimes I go to the end of the (sub) batteries and sometimes even more than to the end. Indeed, I’ve been told off for doing so several times.
“Then the resurfacing takes just as long, so one can be down between 10 to 12 hours.”
He said the first time he came across the wreck with his two crew members, they were stunned into awed silence for “10 minutes” as “we were at the foredeck, the most beautiful part where you saw the anchor chains, bronze winches still polished by the water and sediment … you could read perfectly they were made in Glasgow”.
Asked why the Titanic fascinated him still a century on, he said: “The word Titanic is magic in my opinion because it always sparks a reaction.
“There are those who are interested in the construction of the boat, as it was a new type of boat. There are those who are interested by the billionaires of the time on board as they were the stars of the time, some are interested in the immigrants looking for a new life in North America … everyone can find an interest in the Titanic.
“Once you’ve put your head in the Titanic, it’s hard to take it out.”
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