James Cameron’s Titanic expert delivers stark warning about lost submarine

James Cameron is synonymous with perhaps his most popular movie of all time, Titanic, which told the touching love story of Jack and Rose on the famous sinking ship.

Since the film’s release in 1997, OceanGate Expeditions have been carrying out tours of the real Titanic under the sea by taking tourists underwater in a highly secure deep-sea vessel.

This week, one of these vessels went missing and has since lost contact with the surface.

Parks Stephenson is a deep-ocean historian and shipwreck analyst who worked as a technical advisor with Cameron while he was bringing Titanic to life.

He dived to the Titanic’s wreckage in 2005 for a documentary and returned to the site five times. Today, he has given his damning opinion on what the recently lost vessel means for its five inhabitants.

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Writing on his Facebook page, Stephenson said: “No matter what you may read in the coming hours, all that is truly known at this time is that communications with the submersible have been lost and that is unusual enough to warrant the most serious consideration.”

He added: “I am most concerned about the souls aboard, whose identifies have not yet been made public.” (Via Mirror)

Cameron previously revealed the visitable wreckage was one of the key reasons he wrote and directed the Titanic movie in the first place.

Cameron told Playboy: “I made Titanic because I wanted to dive to the shipwreck, not because I particularly wanted to make the movie.”

He added: “When I learned some other guys had dived to the Titanic to make an IMAX movie, I said: ‘I’ll make a Hollywood movie to pay for an expedition and do the same thing.'” (Via SlashFilm)

The film was, of course, hugely successful as well. For a long period, it was the highest-grossing film of all time and is still ranked fourth in the list with a $2.25 billion box office.

The vessel that was lost this week reportedly had up to five tourists in the submersible, and was venturing around 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.

The private company that arranges these visits, OceanGate Expeditions, released a statement on the event which read: “We are exploring and mobilising all options to bring the crew back safely. Our entire focus is on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families.

“We are deeply thankful for the extensive assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to reestablish contact with the submersible. We are working toward the safe return of the crewmembers.”

You can watch Titanic on Disney Plus now.