Titanic historian whose relatives survived disaster calls for an end to tourist trips

A Titanic historian whose great-grandmother and great-uncle survived the disaster more than 100 years ago has called for an end to ‘tacky and obnoxious’ trips to visit the doomed liner.

Shelley Binder condemned deep-sea tourism trips to the Titanic ‘grave site’ after five men were killed instantly last week when an OceanGate submersible suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’ on its way to see the 1912 shipwreck.

The victims were British billionaire Hamish Harding, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, French navy veteran PH Nargeolet and wealthy Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman. 

Ms Binder, whose great-grandmother Leah Aks and great-uncle F. Phillip Aks were among around 700 survivors of the Titanic disaster, is certain that her relatives would not have approved of the $250,000-a-head trip to visit the shipwreck.

‘My gut feeling is [that my great-grandmother] would not be in favor of it. She died in 1967, so she probably wouldn’t be able to comprehend such an idea,’ she told The US Sun.

Ms Binder’s great-grandmother Leah Aks (right) and great-uncle F. Phillip Aks (center) survived the Titanic disaster

Ms Binder (center) wants to put an end to the Titanic tourist trips after five men were killed instantly on their way to see the 1912 shipwreck

This is the first full-sized digital scan of the Titanic shipwreck. The disaster killed around 1,500 people in 1912

‘But would she sanction it? No. Her experience on the Titanic affected her tremendously for the rest of her life. She was completely devastated by this [and] tortured by this.

‘And I know my great-uncle was not in favor of it. When they found the Titanic in 1985, he told me: “I wish they would just leave the ship alone.”

Her great-uncle was just 10 months old when he got separated from his mother in the early morning hours of April 15 when the ocean liner collided with an iceberg and began to sink.

Somehow, the pair ended up on the same rescue boat – the Carpathia – and were reunited in the ship’s hospital wing. 

Ms Binder added that those who lost loved ones on the Titanic view the wreck as a mass burial site as opposed to a tourist attraction.

She said that it was a ‘miracle’ she was here today because her two relatives survived, but that some families’ bodies were never recovered and it’s their ‘last resting place’.

‘For those families… they think it’s tacky and obnoxious to go there,’ she added.

Ms Binder described the disaster as a ‘horrific’ incident in which men, women and children died ‘in the most painful way possible’. She added that you can see the wreckage without having to physically go 12,500ft deep down into the Atlantic.

The retired professor continued: ‘Is there really much they were going to see by looking out those windows? Why don’t you just get a huge pit in your backyard and burn $250,000 and then watch the 8k footage of the wreck they recently uploaded online?’ 

The Titan submersible, pictured here, imploded last week with five men on board the vessel

University student Suleman (left), 19, and his father Shahzada Dawood (right) were two of the five victims who were killed instantly when the OceanGate submersible suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’ 

British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding (pictured) lost his live in the devastating implosion

French Navy veteran PH Nargeolet (left) was also in the sub along with Stockton Rush (right), CEO of OceanGate

Other relatives of those aboard the Titanic also share the same view that it should be left alone. Helen Richardson, 40, from Norfolk, is the great-great granddaughter of Christopher Arthur Shulver, a fireman on the Titanic who survived the sinking before dying in an explosion on the RMS Adriatic, another White Star Liner, in 1922. 

Speaking to MailOnline last week, Ms Richardson said: ‘It should be left alone. It is a site where all those poor people lost their lives, and a tragic site even for those who survived.’ 

Meanwhile, Meme Bell, whose relative Sam Williams was a crew stoker fireman who died on the Titanic, told this paper: ‘It should be left alone now… Its not a tourist attraction it’s a graveyard.. Let them rest in peace.’ 

Mr Williams, who was born in Southampton in 1884, was unmarried and left behind a pregnant girlfriend who named her son Sam in honor of him. 

Marilyn Furze agreed: ‘This is my great uncle’s resting place Alfred John Harding from Southampton. l believe it should be left alone.’ 

And Ellie Bryant told MailOnline: ‘My husband’s great grandfather rests at the bottom of the sea with the ship. First class passenger John Bradley Cummings. Let him be.’ 

It comes as the US Coast Guard is investigating the cause of the undersea implosion of the Titan submersible, which vanished last Sunday, and has not ruled out finding human remains – while also hinting that the probe could lead to criminal charges.

Captain Jason Neubauer, who is chairing the US Coast Guard investigation into the implosion of the vessel, said they are in touch with the families of the five people killed, and that investigators are ‘taking all precautions on site if we are to encounter any human remains.’ 

The US Coast Guard said last Thursday that all five people aboard the submersible had died after the vessel suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion.’ 

Rear Admiral John Mauger, of the First Coast Guard District, confirmed that the Coast Guard has launched a Marine Board of Investigation (MBI) into ‘the loss of the submersible and the five people on board’

He added: ‘The MBI is also responsible for accountability aspects of the incident and it can make recommendations to the proper authorities to pursue civil or criminal sanctions as necessary.’

Following the devastating incident, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush has come under fire for hunting around for rich client to endorse his expedition because he was struggling to make a profit.

Insiders say Rush, who perished on board, used his powers of persuasion to stop clients being steered away on safety grounds by respected figures within the exploration community, The Times reports. 

Patrick Lahey, president of Triton submarines, told the newspaper: ‘He could even convince someone who knew and understood the risks… it was really quite predatory.’ 

Rush, a self-style innovator, never sought certification or classification for his vessel. He insisted regulators could not keep up with his technology.

Around 1,500 passengers lost their lives when the Titanic (pictured) collided with an iceberg and sank in the Atlantic

His combination of a cylindrical carbon fibre hull with titanium end caps was deemed by industry experts as a dangerous design flaw and it has been suggested as the likely cause of the Titan’s implosion.

Mr Lahey, who has worked for 43 years in the field and whose Triton subs featured in the BBC’s Blue Planet, added: ‘At the very time this monstrosity was being made, I was building the most capable subs of our age.’

Dozens of industry leaders and explorers also warned Rush in 2018 the company’s ‘experimental’ approach could prove ‘catastrophic’. 

That year, he fought back and said he was ‘tired of industry players who try to use a safety argument to stop innovation’. He appeared resentful of the ‘obscenely safe’ regulations that he viewed as an obstacle to development.

Tragically, it seem now seems that the failure to heed those concerns – including warnings about Titan’s ‘flawed’ carbon fiber hull – proved fatal.