Examining the Local Ties to the Titanic’s Second Tragedy

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Titan submersible Titanic
Image via YouTube.
The Titan submersible imploded on its recent expedition to view the remains of the Titanic more than 12,000 feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.

More than 100 years since it sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean on its maiden voyage, the Titanic’s death toll of 1,500-plus people has essentially increased by five.

As news broke late last week that all five members of the Titan submersible had died during an expedition to see the Titanic’s wreckage more than 12,000 feet below the surface of the ocean, comparisons are now being drawn between the two tragedies that highlight their connections to the Philadelphia area.

Aboard the Titan was Pakistani billionaire Shahzada Dawood, who earned a master’s degree in Global Textile Marketing from Philadelphia University (now Thomas Jefferson University) in 2000. Rear Admiral John Mauger, a 1987 graduate of Jenkintown High School, led the U.S. Coast Guard’s search for the ill-fated submersible.

Philadelphia and Montgomery County both suffered immense loss when the Titanic sank in 1912 in one of the largest peacetime maritime disasters in modern history.

Killed were Philadelphia native Benjamin Guggenheim, whose family name is synonymous with American museums, and members of a prominent Montgomery County family. George Dunton Widener and Harry Widener, the son and grandson of industrialist Peter A.B. Widener, died when the ship sank. Eleanor Elkins Widener, George’s wife, survived the disaster. Peter A.B. Widener never recovered from the loss and died three years later at his home, Lynnewood Hall, in Elkins Park.

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Check out this CBS report on the catastrophic implosion of the Titan submersible.

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