This morning, we're all being greeted with the news that a debris-field has been spotted by our brave xhes in uniform where a privately-owned tourist submarine went missing. Given the Pentagon's recent history with weather balloons, UFOs, and expertise in the Ukraine Conflict, we shouldn't jump to any conclusions; but, that aside, the critical levels of oxygen onboard are nearly exhausted and the outlook for the passengers isn't looking especially promising.
The company that owns the submarine and offers tours for a quarter-million dollars per trip is OceanGate, which is based in Everett, Washington. For those not living on the West Coast, let's just say that that fact alone raised a red flag. Seattle-area businessmen have a certain reputation well-known to any independent contractor; and the ones catering to exclusive clienteles are among the worst. Whenever one gets involved with a company like this, it's best to guard both one's back and one's wallet.
So it wasn't much of a surprise to learn that CEO Stockton Rush---who is among those trapped on board---once boasted that the submarine could be navigated "with a cheap Amazon video game joystick." Rush also signalled his commitment to Political Correctness by stating publicly that he "didn’t hire 50-year-old white guys with military experience to captain his vessels because they weren’t inspirational." Apparently Rush forgot that he himself was a 60-year-old White guy.
My intuition tells me that being trapped on a submarine with panicked and probably vengeful customers facing death is not going to be a pleasant way to end one's life, but there's some poetic justice to it. As if this all weren't bad enough, the US Coast Guard---which was too busy celebrating Pride Month to monitor a submarine in American waters---has botched the search from start to finish: even blocking a British team which actually had some expertise from assisting. From what I can tell, this submarine had less safety regulations and licensing involved than any local owner of a canoe would have to deal with.
This is one of those situations where one doesn't know whether to feel sad or exasperated. All morning long, lyrics from an 80's hard-rock band keep playing in my head: "History shows us again and again that Nature undoes the follies of men." I haven't been deep-sea diving (yet); but places like the Sea and even Outer Space are a lot like our wildernesses. Nature has a lot to offer Mankind---provided one plays by Nature's rules. Nature can be quite unforgiving to those who don't: and one's status among men doesn't enter into Nature's equation of things. When I do get around to exploring the deep waters, I'm certainly not entrusting my fate to a rich dunce with an Xbox controller who thinks that experience is irrelevant. Nor should one rely heavily upon the US Coast Guard in case things go wrong.
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At least here, the sun is shining, there's a cool breeze outside, and a jaunt to the river sounds in order. Maybe some Indian artifacts and a enough clams for some chowder tonight would put Nature in a proper perspective.
My guess is that their end was catastrophic. By that, I mean instantaneous. No suffering, no hanging about waiting for rescue. One second there, the next second gone. Six-thousand pounds per square inch doesn’t allow for much contemplation — and they weren’t even at maximum depth.
ReplyDeleteIf the Coast Guard's report is credible, that seems to be exactly what happened. What I've seen since about the structural defects of the vessel and the company's disregard for safety and lack of any real oversight, it's probably true.
DeleteA real problem that our culture has right now is that these super-rich pricks are capturing regulatory agencies and hiring 'experts' who tell them what they want to hear. Thus we end up with characters like Gates who go off seeding the atmosphere to fight 'global warming', making synthetic meats, inventing unsafe vaccines, etc. These guys are a danger because they think they're too big to fail: but God and Nature hold all the trump-cards.