The new book by Guillermo Söhnlein
Titan Unfinished: An Untold Story of Exploration, Innovation, and the OceanGate Tragedy
A firsthand, never-before-told account of the creation of OceanGate, the heartbreaking Titan tragedy and the supposed villain behind it all, Stockton Rush, as told by the only person who can: his co-founder and friend.
Titan Unfinished is more than a recounting of the events that led to the tragedy—it’s an up-close, personal account of Stockton’s journey, from the conception of OceanGate to his sudden death, told by one of the few people who was with Rush from the very start. Fellow co-founder Guillermo Sohnlein examines the full humanity of the man behind OceanGate’s ambitious mission and offers insights extending far beyond the attention-grabbing headlines, detailing Rush’s temperament, motivations, and tendencies, as well as the technology, operations, and key events at play in a story that has thus far been massively oversimplified.
What Guillermo Söhnlein says about the book:
“My primary motivation for writing this book is to ensure that anyone who forms an opinion regarding these events does so with a proper factual foundation and adequate context. I do not intend to defend Stockton as a flawless individual, OceanGate as a perfect venture, or Titan as an ideal of technology innovation, because they were none of these. However, I also know from personal experience that the media’s characterizations of Stockton, OceanGate, and Titan are nowhere close to being accurate. The truth lies somewhere in the nuances between the two extremes, and this is where I hope to shine a brighter light.”
The Explorers Club Titan Memorial Fund
The Explorers Club’s “Titan Memorial Fund” preserves the memory of the five crew members of the research submersible Titan, which perished on 18 June 2023 during a test dive to the wreck of the Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
The submersible was designed, built, owned, and operated by OceanGate, Inc., a company founded to increase humanity’s access to the deep oceans and built around a culture of “exploration through innovation.” To ensure the long-term future of humanity, the company also encouraged young explorers, scientists, and engineers by hiring high school and college interns and by recruiting recent graduates.
The Titan Memorial Fund awards grants to explorers under the age of 25, who demonstrate similar commitment to these principles by organizing or participating in exploration expeditions that are innovative in their business, operations, or technological approaches.
