The US Coast Guard recovered a still intact ink pen, along with other items, while sifting through the remains of the ill-fated OceanGate Titan submersible.
In a recent video, a member of the US Coast Guard detailed the painstaking recovery process of the Titan wreckage, revealing how the pen – identified as belonging to OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush – was discovered among the waterlogged wreckage of the deep-sea tragedy.
Alongside the pen, investigators recovered various items, including business cards, Titanic-themed stickers, clothing remnants and human remains. The recovered artifacts have been cataloged by the Coast Guard’s Marine Board of Investigation.
The Titan submersible, a carbon fiber and titanium vessel designed to take paying customers to view the wreck of the Titanic nearly 3,800 meters below the surface, suffered a catastrophic implosion during a June 2023 descent, killing all five people on board.
In the video, posted to TikTok by Discovery, a member of the US Coast Guard broke down the process of sorting through the remains explaining that the Titan’s ‘endcap’ was still intact.
‘Let’s consider the endcap to be a bowl, a mixing bowl,’ the Coast Guard official explained. ‘Items that were inside of the Titan at the time now become incased inside of the endcap.’
The US Coast Guard recovered a still intact ink pen, along with other items, while sifting through the remains of the ill-fated OceanGate Titan submersible
Alongside the pen, investigators recovered various items, including business cards, Titanic-themed stickers and clothing remnants
The Titan submersible suffered a catastrophic implosion during a June 2023 descent, killing all five people on board. Pictured: From left, Shahzada Dawood, Suleman Dawood, Paul-Henry Nargeolet, Stockton Rush, and Hamish Harding
Once drained of all the water, officials were then able to sift through the submersible’s ‘sludge-like’ remains – which included carbon fiber, fiberglass, electronic parts – only to discover a still intact sleeve of Stockton Rush’s suit.
‘We were all just kind of getting all-hands-in and separating what needed to be considered as human remains and what was just other wreckage pieces,’ the official said. ‘As we were pulling it apart that is how we realized it was Mr. Rush’s clothing.’
The official explained that the Titan pilot’s clothing was found ‘caked inside’ of sand.
‘It was a piece of his sleeve that survived, not the whole suit, just that. Inside of the sleeve of it was the ink pen, business cards and stickers for the Titanic and there was nothing else but that.’
The survival of any item in such conditions was unexpected, but the ink pen’s intact state stunned investigators.
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush (pictured)
‘Each one of those pieces, even the pen, was still intact. It hadn’t been broken. All of this debris, all of these things shattered but his pen was still intact,’ the Coast Guard official said.
Rush had championed innovation in deep-sea exploration and was one of the major driving forces behind the Titan’s creation and use for tourism.
The MBI continues to examine recovered debris.