In St. John’s, the coastal city in Newfoundland where the Titanic Five’s journey began, residents and tourists have woken up to a new grim reality, with hope now gone that the crew will return alive.
Craig Tiernan, 23, took drags of a cigarette Thursday morning as he stared out onto the harbor, where the explorers set off on Friday aboard the Polar Prince vessel.
‘I woke up thinking about the crew, wondering if they’re still alive,’ Tiernan, who works at a local supermarket in the province capital, told DailyMail.com.
‘It’s a very sad morning for the people on board and for their families. I feel like I’m mourning with all of them.
‘I was pretty hopeful yesterday when I heard there might sounds coming from the submarine. I’d like to be hopeful now, but I don’t think there’s any more hope.
‘It’s hard to come to terms with the reality. They’re not coming back.’
St. John’s local Craig Tiernan tells DailyMail.com he awoke Thursday morning thinking about the missing Titan crew with very little hope that they will return alive
French explorer Paul-Henry Nargeolet (left) and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush are among those trapped on the submersible
Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman are also on board, along with British billionaire Hamish Harding
‘It’s scary to think about it,’ Tiernan continued. ‘They could hardly move as this was all happening. I’m sure as soon as they lost a signal, they were like, “oh my God.”
‘That’s torture. You’re down 13,000 feet below sea level, running out of air. It’s like something you experience in nightmares.’
Tiernan added that the situation is especially tragic given that the sub has made several successful expeditions in the past.
‘I’m sad for all of them,’ Tiernan said. ‘This was not supposed to happen. Last year and the year before, OceanGate had already gone down to the Titanic successfully.
‘They were confident, they paid a lot of money, a quarter of a million dollars to go down. If I had the money, I’d love to go do that, to see the Titanic sight in the flesh. That’s amazing.
Brian Smith,66, from Saskatchewan, spoke to DailyMail.com Thursday as he visited the Anglican Cathedral of St. John the Baptist to say a prayer for the missing crew
‘I would never think this would happen,’ he said. ‘I’m not sure if I’d do it now.’
Brian Smith, 66, visiting St. John’s from Saskatchewan with his wife Sharon, stopped into the Anglican Cathedral of St. John the Baptist on Thursday morning.
‘I offered up a silent prayer for the crew, and I’m praying for peace for their families,’ he told DailyMail.com. ‘I can’t imagine what it would be like to be in that submarine.
‘It’s kind of like the Apollo 13,’ he said. ‘But on the Apollo 13, they were trying to do something. Here, they were all tourists, so it’s different.
‘If they’re not going to be found, you almost wish they sprang a leak or something like that because then they say it’s an instant death,’ he said. ‘It’s a horror to think about.’
John Mercer, 63, gazed out onto ocean from a park bench.
‘It’s a sad situation, certainly sad for the families,’ Mercer told DailyMail.com. ‘I think it’s a waste. I don’t think they should have been there. You only go down for a bit.
‘And you could just turn on a documentary on the Discovery Channel to see it. Being here don’t make it any different. It’s not worth the chance of putting your life in danger.’
Earlier in the week St. John’s was the scene of a frantic effort to get underwater vehicles and heavy equipment out to the search area.
Three US Air Force C-17 aircraft landed at the airport on Tuesday and unloaded equipment onto waiting flatbed trucks, which were taken through the town with a police escort.
The missing OceanGate submersible, the Titan, lost contact with the mothership during its descent to the shipwreck Sunday morning
Ten ships sped to the Titanic wreck site to try to find the missing submersible as its oxygen supply dwindled
This image shared by the US Coast Guard was the first from the search site, some 900 miles off the coast of the US. It shows Deep Energy, a rescue ship that has deployed remote operated subs to go looking for the Titan underwater
It was taken to the waiting Horizon Atlantic ship, which is owned by the same company that owns the Polar Prince, the vessel that took out the Titan and its crew.
The equipment included at least one ROV, or remote operated vehicle, which was capable of going down 19,000ft, deep enough to reach the wreck of the Titanic.
There was also a giant spool of cable, two heavy duty generators and a double winch with a combined weight limit of 12,000kg, enough to bring up the Titan.
The Horizon Atlantic left St John’s at 5am on Wednesday, followed a few hours later by the Terry Fox, a Canadian Coast Guard ship which was also laden with supplies and equipment.
The journey to the Titanic wreck site, which is 900 miles off the coast of Cape Cod, was estimated to take 15 hours, meaning they would arrive with just a few hours to spare before the oxygen ran out on the Titan.
Earlier on Thursday DailyMail.com revealed the crew of the missing submersible stopped into a local café just before their fateful adventure.
After waiting for days for the weather to break, they seemed excited that the fog had lifted Friday morning. They entered the Terre Café around 8am Friday, staff there exclusively told DailyMail.com.
‘Before leaving on their last expedition, a bunch of the crew came in here and ordered a bunch of coffees before going out,’ barista James Law, 27, said Wednesday from the same café where he served them freshly ground coffee.
‘They were saying they were excited for a good expedition. And a few of them seemed in a rush. They were a little behind schedule. That was the first day there was a break in the fog for a while. They were in a rush to go. They were excited to go,’ Law said.
The Titan submersible began its dive to the Titanic wreck site on Sunday morning, 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland.
John Mercer said he believes the crew should have never set out on the expedition because it’s ‘not worth the chance of putting your life in danger’
‘They were saying they were excited for a good expedition. And a few of them seemed in a rush,’ barista James Law, 27, said. ‘They were excited to go’
The crew of the missing Titan submersible stopped into their hotel café just before their fateful adventure
Hours later, the main vessel lost contact with the five-member crew. The news broke Sunday night after they were reported missing, with oxygen supply running out.
A flotilla of international rescue ships steamed towards the Titanic rescue site to try to locate the missing sub.
Boats from France, Canada and the US Navy raced towards the site carrying the only specialist equipment in the world capable of making the 12,500ft dive to try to find the missing vessel.
The sub lost communications with its operator, OceanGate Expeditions, less than two hours into its dive to the famous shipwreck.
A glimmer of hope lit up the bleak search yesterday when the Coast Guard announced that ‘banging’ sounds had been detected underwater.
It remains unclear if the banging came from the submersible, but it became the ‘focus’ of the mission.
The US Coast Guard insisted on Thursday they still hoped to find the five adventurers alive despite predicting oxygen had run out – as the co-founder of the firm that organized the trip insisted rescuers ‘have longer than we think’.
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