TITANIC DIVE 2005
A journey to the Titanic, 3.8km deep under water (First Japanese to reach the Titanic Wreck)
Beginning
The Titanic was once called “the ship of dreams” and is now lying 3.8 kilometres below the surfaceof the Atlantic Ocean. I was eager to go and see the Titanic with my own eyes, and decided to takethe adventure into the deep sea. The journey involved going in a submersible and travelling into
the deep sea for 13 hours to get there and back. I heard about the Titanic Dive a few years ago
from an organizer on board of the Russian Nuclear Ice Breaker “Yamal “ during my trip to theNorth Pole. I later contacted the organiser, carefully made preparations, worked hard and saved
up a lot of money, then participated in thetour in July 2005.
On 6th of July 2005, I flew to St John’s in
Newfoundland on the Eastern part of Canada
from Narita Airport in Japan in about one
whole day. Because of the time difference, I
arrived there after midnight of the same day,and checked in to the hotel. In the afternoon
that day, every one gathered and had ameeting with the organiser, and went of theRussian ship, Academic Kildish. That was thesame ship where the movie Titanic, directedby James Cameron, was filmed. From St John
port to where the Titanic had sunk, it was
about a one and a half day sea trip (approx.
590 km). During that time, we were given thedetails of inside the ship, emergence drills,
tips on how to take photos and videos usinga camera, and lectures by the staff. Then wewere explained about submersible Mir(means “peace” in Russian), and had someexperiences inside the submersible. The Mirwas 7.8 metres in length, and 3.6 metreswide, weighed 18.6 tonnes, andaccommodate three passengers, including
one pilot. Inside the submersible, thediameter was only 2.1 metres, but was a standard size for this type of submersible. There were1

three windows in the submersible; one of 200 millimetres in the middle, and two of 120
millimetres to the right and left. I thought it’d be virtually impossible to take photos and videos
from such small windows. There are two of the Mir, “Mir I” and “Mir II”. Of course, thesesubmersibles appeared in the film Titanic, and director James Cameron himself travelled in thesubmersible and which used in the filming of the movie.

On July 9, at around eight in the morning,
we arrived at the site where the Titanic
had sunk (above the ocean). It wasannounced the first trip of thesubmersible will take place the next day,on the 10th. It was decided that I will
participate in the first submersible voyage.
The pilot was Dr. Anatoly Sagalevich, thescientist who designed and invented theMir. He also largely contributed to thefilming of the Titanic, and appears at the
beginning of the film as submersible pilot. “I will guide you to the Titanic that lies at the bottom of
this ocean, so please do not worry and have a great time”, he said with confidence, and at the end
added “our most important job is to bring you back to this ship safely” and dissipated everybody’s’fears straight away. I was also one of those such people. I had come to this point after several
years of hard work, and had supposed to dispel all fears, but as the time to ride the submersible
approached, my fears came back. In the past, when I had gone to places such as the North Poleand the South Pole, I was able to overcome my fears by preparing carefully and gaining relevant
knowledge, but for some reason this did not work with the trip to the bottom of the sea. Perhaps
because this was an experience that was completely different from what I’ve experienced so far,or it may have been because I was scared of leaving all of the submersible technology in the pilot’s
hands and going in this small submersible that had no escape. However, after talking with Anatolya couple of times and talking with the other experts among the organisers who had gone in thesubmersible before, my fear turned into excitement and I couldn’t wait to ride the submersible.
Yet, there was also another reason for my fear. It was about the toilet. There was no toilet in thesubmersible so we have to use a urinal pot. Fortunately, my co‐passenger was a female so I didn’t
need to worry too much, but the pilot is a male. But I didn’t need to worry about this either. He is
used to female passengers doing their business, and it was he himself who was to explain how to
use it to us. However, he explains that many of the past passengers have been able to hold it for
13 hours. Each person’s body is different and there is no single method to solve this problem, but
after talking to several people, I came up with my own plan. First, I’ll have a big lunch on the day
before. Then I will exercise and let everything I’ve eaten out of my body during that day. Before
2sleeping, drink a lot of water to store up sufficient fluid. That too, I’ll excrete it all the next morning.
Thus, I made sure my intestine and bladder were mostly empty, and I input this information into
my brain that they’re both empty. After that, I just needed to control it mentally. I wasn’t sure if
this plan would actually work out, but planning and preparing myself in such did ease my mind
about the toilet, and my excitement just grew and grew. The day before, I was able to follow myplan accordingly. He also mentioned that when the sea is rough, the submersible sways a lot. To aperson who wasn’t particularly strong to motion, seasickness was a big worry. I was one of them.
No medication was allowed to take. So I decided not to worry and put up with the sickness. Then
my dive day has arrived.

July 10th
I woke up before 6am. After drinking a little bit ofwater, I decided to do some light exercise on the rear
deck. Of course, I skipped breakfast. When I arrived at
the deck, my pilot, Anatoly, was doing some stretches
there already. He will sit in the submersible for 13hours, so it is necessary for him to move his body now.
After this, I wore my underwear, fleece, tights, andsocks and so on as instructed beforehand. On top of
that, I wore a white and blue jumpsuit (men wore
blue only), that looked like a space suit, and myexcitement heightened. It was time for departure!
There was a meeting with the staff at 8am. It was
decided Mir I will depart at 9:15am, and Mir II willdepart at 10am. An American couple will ride in Mir II.
Oxygen masks, sandwiches, fruit, snacks, drinks, cold weather protection gear were prepared aswell. We were instructed to minimise belongings as much as possible. There was also an
introduction of the team members. Among them were technicians and all the staff who pulls thesubmersible up and down to the sea surface with a crane. Everyone was Russian. Team work isnecessary for this procedure. This meeting only lasted for 10 minutes, but my fears had vanishedand I was overfilled with excitement. I returned to my room one last time to go to the toilet. At
8:45am, I went to the place where I will embark on Mir I.

After greeting the staff, I had a short chat with my pilot, Anatoly. He said, “the sea is calm, and thesubmersible won’t sway much. It’ll be an easy ride. We’re lucky.” When I looked closely at the sea,3

there were no tall waves. Before our departure, there was aphoto shoot and an interview recorded on video. I was thefirst to dive, so most of our team members and fellow
passengers cheered from the deck. From there I heard loudvoices cheering “Masayo!” “Masayo!” I was to go in the firstsubmersible, so I responded by gesturing “No.1”. When I
climbed the ladder and arrived at the hatch, there wasanother cheer. I had climbed to a high place, so this time I
was able to see the people’s faces clearly. I gave a big wave
back. I took my shoes off, put them in a case, and crawled
through the narrow 60cm hatch and sat in my seat. I was
given my belonging, and put them behind my seat. Anatoly
embarked the submersible last. The hatch was closed soonafter. Then the submersible was pulled by the crane andlowered to the sea surface. For the 10‐20minutes when
preparations to lower the submersible were made above, it swayed a little, but not so much that it
made me feel sick. Then soon, they lowered the submersible. Here began my two‐hour journey tothe bottom of the sea, to the Titanic wreck.

9:45 amWhen looking out the window, I was clearlyable see the bubbles both sinking and rising.
After going a few hundred meters down,
the sunlight was gone, and it was pitch
black outside the window. However, thesubmersible was stable and I couldn’t feel
any swaying, so I didn’t feel like I was reallysubmerging. It even felt as if there was justa black material covering the submersible
windows, and the submersible itself was
stopped. But according to Anatoly, thesubmersible was going down gradually,
forming a swirl pattern. The thermometer
inside the submersible indicated 18 degrees Celsius. I didn’t feel cold at all. Anatoly was good atcontrolling the submersible with his arms, while closely communicating with the people above thesurface. At times he turned the light on outside the submersible and showed us what was outside.
The level and positioning of the submersible can be checked by the radar and numbers displaying
4

the front, sides and back. The last digit showing the meters was changing every few seconds. Afterchecking the position of the bow of Titanic on the radar, Anatoly aimed the submersible there andsubmerged straight down. The navigation tour at the bottom of the ocean over the next five hours
was planned as follows: firstly, take a look at the bow of the ship, then look at the top of the shipat the front and go around, look at the guest rooms, grand staircase, the bridge, thecommunication room, then go towards the stern of the ship, look at the engine room, andpropellers. During this quest, the submersible will stop at or land on famous spots and stop for a
picnic lunch. I wanted to avoid food or drinks, and take a lot of photos and videos, so I didn’t reallycare about it. Either way, I didn’t have that mental ease to enjoy a picnic lunch under the deep
ocean.
After descending about 2000 meters, I started to feel a little cold. However, the temperature wasstill just above 18 degrees. Anatoly told me there were cold weather gears at the back of the seat,
and for the time being decided to wear just the socks. It was a warm pair of big socks as if it could
fit Santa’s presents inside. But it was blue, not red. When I wore them, my whole body became
warm, and I felt somewhat relieved. After a while, I gradually grew sleepy. “You can take a nap. I’ll
wake you up when we reach the bottom”, said Anatoly. But I couldn’t bring myself to sleep,
leaving Anatoly alone to do all the work. He himself also nodded sleepily at times, so I was a little
worried about the submersible. I was ready to grab the controller when he began to sleep…..so, I
couldn’t sleep. Of course, this would’ve been nothing but meaningless worry. I was taking photos
and videos inside the submersible at times. I brought two digital cameras and one digital video
camera inside the submersible with me; one for inside the submersible, and one for the Titanic.
This was my own idea based on battery life and the number of photos they hold. I bought new
digital cameras with a single‐lens reflex camera. I took photos and video using the one prepared
for the submersible. However, there weren’t many things around to take a photo of, and after awhile, I became bored. The submersible wasn’t swaying at all, and it was stable, so to ease mynerves and tiredness, I decided to rest a little. After some time, when I opened my eyes, thedistance reached 3000 meters. In about another 800 meters, we’ll arrive at the Titanic. Anatoly
adjusted the positioning of the submersible a little, so that we can land at the bow. After about 30
minutes, we landed at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. It was a soft landing.

At the bottom
After turning on the outside light of the submersible, the submersible landed 3800 meters deep at
the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. This was my very first time landing at the bottom of the sea.
Then the fish in the deep sea greeted me. I was surprised to see there were fish even here. There
were star fish and creatures like crabs nearby. After a while I saw the titanic that I had been
waiting to see. It was the bow. With only the outside light of the submersible, I was only able to5see where the torch lit. The surrounding was pitch black. I was worried whether I could takephotos or videos, but the light was bright enough, and it seemed that would not be a problem. I
prepared my camera and video camera for the Titanic, and I set my digital camera so that a photoin Row and Jpeg format will be taken at the same time. I had 2 GB of memory, but I took care todelete the bad photos immediately so that I’ll be able to use as much memory as possible. My firstaim was to take photos and videos of the bow. I’d spent over 30 minutes doing that. Then Mir II
arrived as well. They lit their light beautifully around the bow. Perfect timing!

I took many photos making use of this opportunity. I also had to imprint this sight in my mind, andnot only take photos. I kept examining the bow and its surroundings with my bare eyes. This sightI’d imprinted has come to be a sight I will never forget. I imagined Rose and Jack standing together
just like the movie scene. However I had mixed feelings. The Titanic was a gorgeous ship as well as
a dream ship. It has now turned into a pitiful sight. However, the Titanic which was still standing
up straight on the seabed honourably seemed to still have its majesty and beauty. I see the Titanic
as ship of beauty, rather than a tragic ship that took away 1500 peoples’ lives or a ghost ship thathas now become an ugly look. The Titanic further heightened my passion for adventure.

6

Then we went above the Titanic. From thewindow I was able to see huge chains andwinches (lifting device). Then I saw the mast.
“Iceberg!” “Iceberg!” Anatoly shouted. Yes, thiswas the exact spot where the iceberg was sighted,
and the alarm bell echoed. The mast is still lying
on its side.

We travelled left from there, and saw the steering wheel. The
steering wheel was intact and was clearly seen from the view.
Anatoly stabilised the submersible and let us take a photofrom close by. It was so clear, that I could almost reach myhand out and touch it. I was able to take many beautiful
photos and videos of the steering wheel. This is exactly
where a crew turned the wheel to the full to desperately
avoid the iceberg.
After that we went to the guest room. The window
and widow frames were still pretty. I also saw theroom of Morley Brown, an American tycoon who
joined the rich people. After a while I could see theexpansion joint hugely split. I felt as if I had a glimpseof the tremendous fear when the ship collapsed. Justat that time Anatoly seemed to be having terrible
problems with the control. The submersible seemed
to be caught in something. Perhaps we couldn’t
escape? This couldn’t be true! The submersible remained still for a while. Anatoly said to us,“Please chat about something”. Anatoly who said it was his first time to have two female
passengers, seemed to be tired at times with our excitement and chatting, but this time it wasdifferent. “He must be joking!” I hoped for the better, but I had come to the point that I had anervous breakdown, and finally said “I’ve seen enough of the Titanic. Maybe we can go back to thesurface now.” I am not certain how much time passed by, but eventually the submersible started
to move again. “Now we’re alright”, said Anatoly confidently. I do not know if the incident was real.
But it does not matter anymore, and I keep it as a memorable story. We finally settled again andstarted our trip again. After looking at the promenade deck for first class passengers, we went to
the grand staircase. The beautiful scenery in the movie Titanic was not to be seen anywhere. It
7was unrecognizable unless you were told that it
was the grand staircase. We passed above the ship
and went to Captain Smith’s cabin. The room had
kept its shape, yet it was severely worn. Few hours
flew by. Anatoly suggested we should have our
picnic lunch now, but both of us did not care about
food. I thought it was a better idea not to put
anything in my stomach so that I won’t need to go
to the toilet and won’t get sick when thesubmersible sways after reaching the sea surface.
Without anyone eating, we went back to the bow again, and viewed it from the side, the top,
diagonally, and from above. My feeling towards the Titanic still didn’t change, and I was just struckat its majesty and beauty.
Soon we saw Mir II coming from the opposite direction and it was coming closer and closer. We
were just about to bump each other but I thought the pilots would avoid the collision, but didn’t.
Boon! We have collided. I thought we would die of the deep sea accident because the impact wasstrong, but my pilot said this would happen from time to time, so not a big deal! For me it was athreatening moment, but it was actually an exciting adventurous moment.

3 pm
After that we went to the back of the ship and went to the stern of the ship to see the engine
room and see the propeller. It’ll take 30 minutes to get there. Anatoly suggested we take a goodrest, and we nodded in consent. That moment, something cold dripped on me. I was horrified that
instant. Fear surrounded me. There was water running on the window glasses too. I was scared tolook above at the hatch, but there seemed to be nothing wrong. “Yes, water drops”, said the co‐passenger. “It’s just water drops” also said Anatoly, and he wiped the water on the windows andinside the submersible with a towel. Then I remembered, I was told there would be water drops inthe submersible after some time. It was something we had been told about before, so my fears
vanished instantly. But the water drop on my forehead was not something nice to experience. The
room temperature was now 17 degrees Celsius. I didn’t feel that cold. Feeling relieved, I felt theneed to go to the toilet, as if I’d just remembered. But it wasn’t urgent. This was because mybladder was virtually empty. But just in case I do want to go to the toilet, I told Anatoly and the co‐passenger I might go to the toilet soon. In the meantime, we arrived at the back of the ship. Thiswas where the Titanic had split in to two, and unlike the bow, the stern had sunk upside down.

8

First, we saw the engine room. The engine wasas big as eight stories high. The hugeness of it
was immeasurable. We were able to see a largepart of the engine, which still remained in its
original form, called the blow off valve. I was alsoable to see a little bit of the sign that said
“Titanic”. Seeing the engine that has been
severely damaged, I felt as if I could sense thegreat terror at the time of the crash. According
to Anatoly, the Titanic only took a few minutes
to get the bottom of the sea. That is how fast theship reached the bottom of the ocean. The front of the ship sank vertically, and now more thanhalf of it is above the seabed. The back of the ship sank at a right angle, and most of it is buried
under the sand, but the part that is still above the ground is standing vertically.
After looking at the engine room for a while, wewent to see the propeller. Only two out of threepropellers were seen, but the submersible could
only approach one of them. At first, I couldn’t tellwhich one was the propeller as it was so huge. But
eventually, I was able to see a big propeller in thefull view with my own eyes. Anatoly explained thiswas inside the Titanic. That is because the stern of
the ship is now above the submersible. Finally we
had arrived to the inside of the Titanic. This is thelast place of the Titanic tour. It was 5:30pm. Therewas still 30 minutes until we had to start going backup. Anatoly suggested we have a stroll around the
Titanic. He told us there was a place where somebelongings of the passengers still remained. He
parked the submersible on the sand with its legs,
and searched the seabed as if it was crawling.
Bottles, plates, cups, most of them had been
scattered without braking. Among the cups andplates, there were items that were still in perfectcondition and can be used now, immediately. We
spent 30 minutes searching for an item, then taking
photos and videos, and so on. Then the time tostart heading back up came.
96:00 pm
I continued to be overwhelmed by the sceneries that came before me, which I had not seen on
this earth before. The six hours had gone by quickly. “I want to stay here longer”, I joked, to which
Anatoly replied “should we stay here for the night?” Apparently, when doing formal research, hedoes stay at the bottom of the ocean overnight. “Not this time, no thank you”, I replied, and could
not wait going back to the surface. I felt that time passed very slowly and one hour was felt likeone full day. I am not sure even now whether these five hours was short or long, but I felt like it
was a space trip where I travelled to a different time and space. It takes one and a half hours toreturn back to the surface, the quickest. From about 2000 meters below the water, the room
temperature rose to 18 degrees Celsius again, but this change in temperature somewhat felt
colder. I decided to wear the remaining cold weather gear and make myself warm. Then at about
7:30 pm we arrived back at the surface. The sun was still shining on the water, and it was justbefore sunset. However, this time the submersible swayed, and there was the possibility I’ll get
sick. I prepared a bag in my hand. The crane didn’t lift the submersible from the water for sometime. What on earth had happened? Was the preparation just taking time? After about 20 minutes
we were finally lifted above the surface. There was a beautiful sunset, and I could see the faces ofthe staff. I have come back. I was relieved. Anatoly safely fulfilled his promise to bring us back tothe ship.

8:30 pm
The submersible safely arrived back at the sea
surface. The hatch opened. There was no change in
air pressure, so my ears did not go funny, and not tomention, I did not get sick at all either. I was able tosee the faces of the staff from above the hatch.
Then they helped us out of the submersible. When
we arrived at the top of the hatch, the staff andfellow passengers cheered me loudly. “No.1
Japanese!” many of them congratulated. I shouted
back ‘I safely came back. It was the most wonderfultime I ever had in my life.” I then put my shoes on
and went down the ladder and arrived back on the ship. The tour leader gave me a bottle ofchampagne. With the champagne in one hand, say cheese! I took a memorial photo of landing at
the place where the Titanic sank. After that, from a cameraman inside the ship, and a German
cameraman, I received an interview. “After reaching the North Pole, and the South Pole, I became10the first Japanese to reach the Titanic wreck lying at the bottom of the ocean. This is an extremely
happy moment in my life.” I was able to reply in the interview. My excitement did not ease forsome time. However the time was up. The Russian woman who was to wash my jumpsuit was
waiting for me to take it off. “Whoops!” I wanted to relax a little more, but I had to take them off
quickly. More importantly, I had to go to the toilet. Ultimately, I’d completely forgotten about
going to the toilet until then. It was about 16 hours since I last went. “This also is a self record”, I
thought proudly to myself. That night, I had dinner, had a shower, and thought of going to bed
early, but my excitement from the Titanic came back, and I ended up sorting my photos until lateevening, thinking over my trip to the Titanic again and again. I also strolled around this ship where
the Titanic was filmed, and reflected back on scenes from the movie as well.

11

Epilogue
All of the Titanic events had finished and the day for us to go back to St. John’s had come. I left on
July 15, in the afternoon. I stayed at the hotel one day early. Then the next day, an unexpected
incident occurred. This was a perfect ending to my trip to the Titanic. I was able to meet James
Cameron, the director of the film Titanic. Not only did I meet him, but I was able to take a photo
together. He praised me saying, “congratulations of being the first Japanese to land at the Titanic”,
and also gave me a hug. I have captured that on video as well. Asking in English, “Are you reallythe director, James Cameron?” he replied, “Honto (True)” in Japanese. He was tall, handsome andborn in Canada. I instantly became a fan. I succeeded in a short interview with him after, whichlasted a couple of minutes. Is this a dream, a ghost or real? Of course it was real. He had come tobroadcast on TV live footage of the Titanic, for the first time in the world ever. He said he’ll go in
the submersible the following day. I met his brother and the filming staff. It was the most precious
time in my life, and that had let me give a great ending to my travelogue. It became an experience
I’ll never forget.

Lastly, this is a poem I wrote myself on the Titanic:

Titanic has known to be the ship of dream, but it is no longer the ship of dream. It is the ship ofadventure. It enables us to explore the deep ocean. Titanic is as beautiful as ever before and its
beauty will never fade away, as long as our adventure continues. Masayo Goto

12