The shock household item discovered in 'sludge' of OceanGate sub wreckage

29 May 2025, 11:12 | Updated: 29 May 2025, 13:52

Debris from the Titan submersible, recovered from the ocean floor near the wreck of the Titanic, is unloaded from the ship Horizon Arctic at the Canadian Coast Guard pier in St. John's, Newfoundland in June 2023. Picture: Alamy

By Ruth Lawes

Investigators have discovered an unlikely 'still intact' household item among the wreckage of the OceanGate Titan submersible.

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The US Coast Guard has been examining the debris of the Titan sub's implosion in June 2023, which killed all five people on board.

An undamaged ink pen owned by OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, 61, who was present on the fatal dive, was among the items found.

It was concealed in a piece of his suit sleeve that was 'caked in sand', an investigator told Discovery.

Other objects retrieved from the debris included Titantic-themed stickers, clothing remnants and business cards.

They have all been catalogued by the Coast Guard's Marine Board of Investigation.

Mr Rush died during the expedition along with passengers British explorer sub Hamish Harding, 58, British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son Suleman, 19, and French deep-sea explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet (known as “Mr Titanic”), 77.

Last week, footage emerged showing Wendy Rush, the wife of Mr Rush, hearing the sound of the sound of the implosion while watching from the sub's support ship, asking: "What was that bang?"

The video has been presented as evidence to the USCG Marine Board of Investigation, which has spent the last two years looking into the sub's failure.

Moments later, a message arrives from the sub saying "dropped two wts" - referring to the Titan shedding weights to control its dive.

Mr Rush's intact in pen was found in the wreckage. Picture: Alamy

According to investigators, the sub had already imploded by the time the message was received.

Earlier this year, an eerie recording of the last moments of the Titan submersible was released.

It is believed that the noise is the 'acoustic signature' of the sub imploding on 18th June 2023 before it disappeared off radars, sparking an international investigation to determine the cause of the implosion.

The sub lost contact with its support boat, Polar Prince, about an hour and 45 minutes into the two and a half hour dive.

The vessel was descending 12,400ft, twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, in the North Atlantic Ocean.

After the manhunt began, the US Coast Guard announced that the passengers had 70-96 hours left before they ran out of oxygen.