Diving the Titanic with Deep Sea Explorer Rory Golden

04/14/21 • 37 min

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Armchair Explorer: Travel and Adventure Inspiration

Follow deep sea explorer Rory Golden to the world’s most famous shipwreck: Titanic. Located 12,600-feet below sea level, in the middle of the North Atlantic, only a handful of people have ever seen her with their own eyes. Descending in a tiny Mir submersible, in a cockpit the size of a small port-a-loo, with enough pressure outside the port windows to crush him in an instant should anything go wrong, this is a once-in-a-lifetime journey into history and the dark depths of the sea.

The Titanic is the world’s most famous shipwreck. It was the largest and safest vessel ever built, or so they thought. Four days into its maiden voyage, on a calm night, it struck an iceberg ripping a 300-foot whole in its hull. Panic ensued. There weren’t enough lifeboats. There was no one to save them. Of the 2,200 people on board, 1500 perished.

It took only three hours for the greatest ship ever built to sink and for more than 50 years it lay undiscovered there, at the bottom of the ocean. Rory’s mission was to recover historical artefacts from the wreck – they found leather bags with clothes still neatly folded within, a bottle of perfume still unopened, the ship’s wheel last touched by the Captain before he walked calmly to his death in the dark sea. Through Rory’s journey we learn not just the history of the Titanic, but the individual personal stories of heroism and tragedy that he rescued from the bottom of the sea.

It’s an incredible adventure. But it’s also a ground-breaking piece of exploration. We know more about the surface of Mars than we do the bottom of the sea. 70% of our planet is ocean, yet only 5% of the ocean depths have been explored. There are creatures down there that no one knows even exist – strange bioluminescent beings living in a world of darkness and extreme pressure, creatures that are as alien to us as any little green man that may or may not one day appear from the sky. The oceans are our planet’s last frontier of exploration. Join him now as we descend into the deep to dive the world’s most famous, and dangerous, wreck. Join him to dive the Titanic.

Highlights include:

· Find out what it’s like to descend to 12,600-ft beneath the ocean in a tiny Mir Submersible

· See the Titanic through Rory’s eyes as he travels across the wreckage in search of historical artefacts to preserve

· Hear the story of the Titanic, the greatest shipwreck of all time

· Be inspired by the mysteries of the deep ocean, the final frontier of exploration on the planet

Who’s the Guest?

Rory Golden's dived all over the world, from the coasts of his home in Ireland to deep-sea off-shore rigs and some of the most iconic wrecks on the planet, including The Titanic. He is one of the most respected underwater explorers in the world and the on-board Titanic expert for Ocean Gate Expeditions, a deep sea underwater adventure company which takes ordinary people to extraordinary depths, including the chance this year to dive the Titanic alongside Rory himself. For more information: https://oceangateexpeditions.com. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook @oceangateexped.

Thank you to The Great Courses Plus for sponsoring this episode. Head over to www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/armchair to get a free month trail with unlimited streaming of 1000s of videos and audio ... it’s a great way to support the show!

The Armchair Explorer podcast is produced and hosted by award-winning travel writer Aaron Millar. Follow the show on Instagram & Facebook @armchairexplorerpodcast. www.armchair-explorer.com

"Best travel podcasts 2020: Every episode is an immersive experience" - The Guardian

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Highlights include:

· Find out what it’s like to descend to 12,600-ft beneath the ocean in a tiny Mir Submersible

· See the Titanic through Rory’s eyes as he travels across the wreckage in search of historical artefacts to preserve

· Hear the story of the Titanic, the greatest shipwreck of all time

· Be inspired by the mysteries of the deep ocean, the final frontier of exploration on the planet

Who’s the Guest?

The Armchair Explorer podcast is produced and hosted by award-winning travel writer Aaron Millar. Follow the show on Instagram & Facebook @armchairexplorerpodcast. www.armchair-explorer.com

"Best travel podcasts 2020: Every episode is an immersive experience" - The Guardian

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Previous Episode

Bonus Episode! Out There Podcast: Conservation 2.0

In this special bonus edition of the Armchair Explorer we are showcasing an episode from one of my favourite travel podcasts: Out There. The episode is called Conservation 2.0, and it's about a subject very close to every outdoor lover's heart: National Parks.

The outdoors is a place for everyone. It’s where we all come from, it’s in our DNA, our blood, it is where we all belong. That’s why we have to think carefully about how we conserve and protect it, which is what this episode is all about. Many of Out There’s shows are first person stories, told directly by the individual ... this one’s a little different in that it’s an interview with a really incredible nature writer called David Gessner about his book 'Leave it as it is: A Journey through Theodore Roosevelt’s American Wilderness'

"Leave it as it is" was the rallying cry spoken by Roosevelt at the Grand Canyon, advocating for its preservation. Roosevelt's vision was for an expansion of the national park system and conservation in general. The idea of national parks is widely heralded as one of the greatest in history, and one of the highest expressions of democracy on the planet – to preserve places of incredible awe and beauty that we all own and share equally.

But as amazing as National Parks are, they're not perfect. Much of the land that we preserve was acquired through the expulsion of the native people that had lived there for thousands of years. That’s a huge injustice of course, but it’s also an opportunity, because one way we can rectify that, in part, is by including indigenous practices, passed down for millennia, into the care and preservation of that land. By giving them a say in the preservation of their own heritage.

Let’s find a way to marry contempory environmental science with native environmental wisdom ... that’s a new vision for conservation, a vision that might help carry us into the future, into the next epoch of our relationship with nature. It’s a development of Teddy Roosevelts original vision. It’s conservation 2.0.

So, if you like this episode please search up the Out There podcast on your favourite app and hit that subscribe button – or head over to www.outtherepodcast.com, where you'll find a playlist of their favourite episodes, which is a really great place to start. The social media is @outtherepodcast across Instagram and facebook – they post cool stuff and definitely recommend following them too.

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Next Episode

Rowing Solo Across the Atlantic While Recovering from Brain Surgery with World Record Holder Kiko Matthews

Follow world record holder Kiko Matthews on a solo row across the Atlantic Ocean: 3,000 nautical miles in 49 Days 7 hours and 15 minutes. 200 women have completed this challenge, that's it. Only 18 have done it solo. Kiko is the fastest ... and before she started training she hadn't even set foot in a row boat before.

But that's not the most remarkable thing about this story. Eight months before she was due to set out Kiko was diagnosed with Cushing's Disease a rare, and often fatal, form of brain cancer. The doctors found a tumour on her pituitary gland at the base of her brain. It was life or death. Most of us would have given up at that point. Not Kiko. She received emergency brain surgery and just a few weeks later got straight back to training.

This is a story of an incredible adventure: She faced huge storms, rogue waves that nearly capsized the boat. She paddled with whales, dolphins and sharks. She saw the ocean light up like stars with phosphorescence and felt what it meant to be truly alone and humbled, in the vastness of the ocean.

But it's also a story about courage, about mental strength and resilience and her story will inspire you to face your own challenge, to follow your own dream, row your own ocean, whatever that may be.

If you enjoy this episode, please connect with Kiko she has a book out about her experience – Kiko: How to break the Atlantic rowing record after brain surgery. Find it at Kiko: How to Break the Atlantic Rowing Record after Brain Surgery and connect with her on social media at @kikomatthews – that’s with two Ts so watch out – and her website is kikomatthews.co.uk

Thank you also to Room Steals (www.roomsteals.com) for sponsoring this episode. This is the ultimate hotel hack and if you love travel you are going to want to check this out. Room Steals is a subscription service that offers you wholesale prices of more than 600,000 hotel rooms around the world. On average you will save 30% off of what the major online booking sites will charge you and their Google Chrome extension lets you check out the prices before you buy. The subscription costs $95 per year, but you're going to save loads more than that. Head over to Room Steals (www.roomsteals.com) and type in the coupon code 'armchair' for 20% off the listed price.

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