OceanGate Sub Passengers Honored At 2 Titanic Museums - Alongside Victims Of The 1912 Tragedy!

Well, this is a bit quick — and unexpected.

On Thursday we learned the missing Titan submersible, lost on a routine trip down to see the Titanic wreckage, had suffered a catastrophic implosion, killing all aboard. The five souls lost were French explorer and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his teenage son Suleman, British billionaire Hamish Harding, and Stockton Rush — CEO of OceanGate, the company behind the deep-sea expedition.

Over the weekend, per TMZ, two Titanic museums — institutions dedicated to preserving the memories of the lost ship and its doomed passengers — had already held memorials for the Titan. The Titanic Museum Attraction — one located in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and the other in Branson, Missouri — held the ceremonies. To be clear, if you hadn’t guessed by the towns, these are tourist attractions more than scientific institutions. But it’s still surprising to hear they decided to hold memorials honoring fallen… well, tourists, for lack of a better word.

Co-owner Mary Kellog-Joslyn explained that her husband and business partner John had a personal connection to Nargeolet. The two were on the second expedition ever to explore the Titanic wreckage together — back in 1987. It makes sense for him to honor his friend. But the tributes sound less personal and more general.

About 250 visitors showed up to hear a speech for the fallen and see the laying of a wreath to honor the Titan passengers. Stranger, the names of the five men were also etched permanently into the memorial for those lost in the actual Titanic sinking. That means these museums are considering the folks who died going to look at the Titanic more victims of the Titanic — officially. Huh…

We’re sure that’s going to bother a great deal of people. First, there’s the idea of accuracy. These men died over 110 years later, so it’s just historically way off to group them together. Then, of course, there are many who considered the Titanic wreckage visits to be ghoulish. And for these “tourists” to be honored alongside the victims of the 1912 maritime disaster? They find it wholly inappropriate.

Also, there are already people blaming the deaths of the four high-paying passengers on Stockton Rush. After all, he openly bragged about having “broken some rules” of submersible construction to make the Titan — rules James Cameron and other experts believe got everyone on board killed. So for him to be honored, well… Yeah, we’re sure there’s going to be plenty of controversy surrounding the decision.

What do YOU think, Perezcious readers??

[Image via 20th Century/OceanGate/YouTube.]