Despite her father’s fate, she still believes submarine expeditions to wreckage site must continue (Picture: Pen News)
Deep sea explorer Paul Henri-Nargeolet was one of the four tragically killed when the ‘OceanGate’ submersible imploded near the Titanic last year.
But his daughter, Sidonie Nargeolet, says she believes expeditions to the Titanic wreck should continue, despite the fate of her father.
In June last year, the vessel, which was carrying four people, was destroyed by a ‘catastrophic implosion’, killing those on board.
Days after the implosion, debris from the doomed Titan was brought to shore, with reports of apparent human remains being found – and 3D animations showed what the tragic implosion might have looked like.
Speaking to Pen News, 40-year-old Sidonie claimed nobody from OceanGate, who built the doomed submersible, had reached out to her after the devastating event.
The submersible captured international attention during the four days it was missing (Picture: AP)
She said she is ‘angry’ that nobody from the company contacted her to express sympathy for the loss of her parent.
But despite her father’s death, Sidonie believes future expeditions to the Titanic wreckage should go ahead.
‘I think they have to do it,’ she said.
‘We don’t have to make a confusion with a bad sub and a good one, you know?
‘I think it’s good that people go on the sub and it’s good to take artifacts from the Titanic, but just not to play with security, the lives of people.’
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Sidonie’s father had earned the nickname ‘Mr Titanic’ from his multiple expeditions down to the wreck.
She shared that she was ‘used’ to her father’s expeditions, and it was ‘normal’ for her.
‘I never wondered if the submersible was a good one or not. He told me that the Titan was a new kind of sub, but he didn’t tell me he was worried about it,’ she said.
The 40-year-old only began to panic when her stepmother sent her a message saying the submersible hadn’t returned to the surface in time.
She held out hope for four days, until the US Coastguard announced that the vessel had been lost.
‘We had four days to get prepared for it, but anyway, it’s hard to accept,’ Sidonie said.
‘We heard it was all done, but it’s really hard to to realise because we don’t see any body, you know?
‘So it’s like he’s gone – okay, but we have nothing to say goodbye to.’
In honour of her father’s legacy, Sidonie has helped to translate her his book, Dans les profondeurs du Titanic (In the depths of the Titanic) into English, so that more people could read it.
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