The British millionaire who declined the Titanic expedition: “the risks were too high”
The 61-year-old British tycoon, Chris Brown, was one of the various potential passengers who backed out of the ill-fated journey aboard the Titan.
The sinking of the Titanic in the frigid Atlantic waters brought the world to a standstill. This infamous event transformed the vessel’s wreckage into a source of endless chronicles, stories, and gossip, as well as a frozen underwater graveyard found 12,500 feet below on the sea floor.
From the mythical orchestra, which never stopped playing, to the bravery of Molly Brown, the most famous survivor of the tragedy, or the legends about the brothers from the ocean liner and the rescue boats, countless tales have become embedded in popular history.
We shouldn’t forget the number of tales told in English taverns of those that spoke of the inexplicable fate of so many lucky people who had a ticket but, for one reason or another, never boarded the Titanic on its ill-fated journey.
From initial illusion to disappointment in the Bahamas
Following the Titan tragedy, numerous anecdotes and stories have resurfaced, some of which bear a striking resemblance to the 1912 incident. Among these is the tale of Chris Brown, a 61-year-old British business magnate who had originally planned to board the OceanGate submersible but ultimately declined due to a lack of trust. He now asserts that he could never bring himself to do it.
A personal friend of Hamish Harding, the British billionaire who lost his life in the failed voyage to the ruins of the Titanic, Brown is dedicated to the world of digital marketing. According to the Daily Mail, both colleagues made the decision, between beers and on a private island, to pay the ten percent deposit for the underwater journey.
Everything changed when Brown went to the Bahamas in 2018 to check the evolution of the vessel that would take the crew to the wreckage. It was 2018, and, in his words, some parts were “a bit sloppy.” Speaking to the British newspaper The Sun, he confessed to a fatal finding: “‘I found out they used old scaffolding poles for the sub’s ballast. And its controls were based on computer game-style controllers.” The visit did not leave Brown convinced, and he pulled out shortly after.
That’s not all. “If you’re trying to build your own submarine you could probably use old scaffold poles. But this was a commercial craft,” lamented Brown to The Sun.
The world stopped again
The cherry on top for Brown was the absence of any certification, which meant that those imperfections he noticed in the design were not being evaluated or corrected if found to pose a danger to those onboard.
And it seemed that they had no intention of getting any certification for going down to those depths once, let alone several times.
OceanGate moved forward without certification, but, as many predicted, the trips did not last long. The implosion of the Titan confirmed Brown’s suspicions, who, like the patrons in English bars during 1912, did not embark on the promised voyage.“I can’t get on this thing anymore,” he asserted before the tragic trip departed, and just as it happened with the Titanic, lives were lost because of hubris and a disregard for the very real threats faced by the icy arctic waters.