My Job Interview at Oceangate
A true story
I published this piece on Best4Boats.com about my experience being interviewed for an Oceangate job at the company’s headquarters in Everett, Washington, in March 2021—about two years before the infamous submarine implosion that rocked the world.
Titan Implosion Audio Released
The US Coast Guard (USCG) released a National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) audio recording on February, 12 that is believed to be the implosion sound of the Titan submersible of Oceangate infamy. The submersible implosion that occurred on June 18, 2023 made international news and resulting in the loss of all five souls aboard—including Oceangate founder and CEO, Stockton Rush. The failed tourism expedition to the Titanic wreck site off Cape Cod, Massachusetts also lost British adventurer Hamish Harding, French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood with his son Suleman Dawood.
The catastrophe has been both a global cultural touchstone and multi-year, ongoing USCG investigation. What’s often forgotten or overlooked about the saga is that Oceangate was at one point an exciting and lauded Everett, Washington-based manned deep sea exploration company. They were so interesting in fact, I, editor of Best4Boats.com, applied for an open Oceangate position in 2021 and even visited the facility for an interview. Clearly I didn’t get the gig, which admittedly stung at the time.
I was a believer.
Details and speculation of the Oceangate implosion will continue up to, and probably beyond, the final USCG investigation verdict. But I thought I’d share my brief and inconsequential Oceangate experience, less with the aim of breaking news or contributing to a body of evidence and more in the spirit of humanity and adding context to the company in the triumphant years right before the disaster. Perhaps readers may glean a little more understanding about the saga that’s more than simply audio files, courtroom testimonials, and hot takes on social media.
Job Interview At Oceangate
The deepest corners of the abyss, with all its pure blackness and living horrors, called to me. I answered with a job interview on an unremarkable March 2021 morning. The interested employer? An enticing, up-and-coming deep-sea tourism company called Oceangate in Everett. I drove up from Seattle about as excited as a person can be after my inquiries into an open marine technician position led to this tangible reward. My draw to the abyss was a years-long affliction. Meeting American hero Don Walsh during my past life as a Florida-based fledgling oceanographer only deepened the fascination.
For the uninitiated, it was US Navy submarine officer, Korean and Vietnam wars veteran, and diver Don Walsh who first ventured to the record maximum depth of Challenger Deep on January 23, 1960 with Jacques Piccard in the bathyscaphe Trieste. When I met him, he was a featured speaker at a swanky BLUE Ocean Film Festival in St. Petersburg, Florida. I volunteered at the event for free admission and went to talks with aquatic celebs like Sylvia Earl and more recent Challenger Deep diver James Cameron—his hagiographic documentarian at least. I guess the film festival couldn’t afford Cameron in the flesh. Over a hundred slick, visually gorgeous ocean-themed films were shone over several days. For someone like me who had been educated in oceanography and held a deep interest in boats and the oceans, it was euphoric. Perhaps even psychedelic. But most magnetic to me was old man Walsh himself.
Called the “Yuri Gagarin of the ocean” in Russia with a regular bit “I’m working on a book called Right Stuff, Wrong Direction”, Walsh carried himself like an elder who’d done it all and now just likes to hang out and be positive. A professor emeritus of Humanity University. I don’t want to misquote the guy, but his talk had a lot less to do with science and lot more to do with encouraging confused young people to chase their dreams. There was not one shred of want or envy in him. A human fully realized. Young people ought to seek and bask in such an aura.
“There’s honor in everything you do well,” I recall him saying, insisting goodness and glory aren’t just for those diving to the deepest corners of the sea. Being great is not about chasing greatness. After his talk, I got an autograph from him and he even sketched Trieste, happy to shoot the breeze. I expressed my desire to go to the unknown deep places of the planet. I had a newly minted marine science degree and was trying to figure out what the hell to do with it. I was an unsatisfied, underpaid contract researcher stuck in labs looking at sediments and Excel spreadsheets. I was going insane like a gorilla in a tiny iron bar cage.
“You gotta go for it,” Walsh said, sharing how his legendary trip with Piccard started by responding to a call for volunteers posted on a bulletin board. Stay awake. Strike when the iron’s hot. I incorporated this chat with Don Walsh into my very soul. Walsh’s shimmering form led me to Oceangate’s Everett facility like Obi Wan Kenobi’s jedi ghost guiding Luke Skywalker to Dagoba. All this weird seagoing crap I’ve been doing was finally going to make sense…
You can read the full article here on Best4Boats.com.
If you’re into sea salty storytelling, I’m editor of this brand new digital media outlet Best4Boats.com. We’ve got regular new content, an email newsletter, and more in the works. Check it out! Best way to support us is to sign up for the free e-newsletter.
Consider buying my book, Salmon in the Seine: Alaskan Memories of Life, Death, & Everything In-Between. Available wherever books are sold. Leaving reviews on Amazon and Goodreads helps a ton too.
I wouldn't say it's off Cape Cod. I grew up there and never once saw a Titanic souvenir. We do have the Andrea Doria.