Who is ‘Mr. Titanic’ Paul-Henri Nargeolet? French Navy veteran, 77, of five on missing submarine

With 37 dives to the Titanic shipwreck to his credit, famed oceanographer Paul-Henri Nargeolet has earned the title of “superhero” in his native France.

Dubbed ‘Mr Titanic’, the 77-year-old spent more than two decades in the French Navy before leading several expeditions to the famed Atlantic Ocean wreck.

His ‘unparalleled’ knowledge of the Titanic and the images he captured during his world-famous dives there inspired his friend James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster.

But on his latest expedition to the Titanic, the famed sailor along with four others became trapped in the missing Titan submarine, with time running out for rescue crews to rescue them before the skies run out in less than two hours.

Nargeolet’s friends have said he is an “extraordinary leader” in crisis situations, and if anyone can keep the composure aboard the Titan’s claustrophobic conditions, it’s him.

Here, MailOnline takes a look at Nargeolet’s career and why friends think he’ll be the key to keeping those aboard the submarine calm.

Dubbed ‘Mr Titanic’, the 77-year-old spent more than two decades in the French Navy before leading several expeditions to the famous Atlantic wreck (pictured)

His ‘unparalleled’ knowledge of the Titanic and the images he captured during his world-famous dives to the wreck (pictured) inspired his friend James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster

Nargeolet’s love of diving and the oceans started at the age of nine when he discovered his ‘first wreck’ by following divers in Morocco.

And that passion led him to join the French Navy, where he served 22 years in mine clearance before becoming a “leading authority” on the Titanic.

Born in Chamonix, France, the sailor was the first person to surface an object – a silver plate – from the Titanic in 1987 and in 2022 told Le Parisien that he had read “200 to 300 books” about the wreck.

Since that first dive in 1987, the esteemed sailor has led several expeditions to the sunken cruiser off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, and even oversaw the recovery of thousands of artifacts, including the 20-ton portion of the Titanic’s hull.

“He’s the world’s specialist on the Titanic, its conception, the shipwreck, he’s dived in four corners of the world – he’s a superhero to us in France,” says Mathieu Johann, his editor at Harper Collins.

Nargeolet served 22 years in the French Navy when he was chosen in 1986 by the French ocean research institute Ifremer to oversee underwater research on the Titanic. At that time, the French naval commander was clearing the Suez Canal.

“I wasn’t more interested in the Titanic than that,” Nargeolet recalled Le Parisian. “Although I had seen or read reports on the subject, I hadn’t imagined it would play such a big part in my life.”

In his position at the Ifremer, Nargeolet took part in the Five Deeps Expedition, exploring the deepest parts of all five of the Earth’s oceans and even breaking the record for the deepest underwater dive – at 10,928 meters or 35,853 feet below sea level.

In 1987, he led the first expedition to the Titanic, two years after its discovery.

He later said that when he first encountered the wreck site, he and his two crew members were stunned for 10 minutes because “we were on the foredeck, the nicest part where you can see the anchor chains, bronze winches and still polished by the water and the sedimentation… you could perfectly read that they were made in Glasgow.’

“That’s it, we did it,” Nargeolet exclaimed when they found the wreckage.

He has since become the director of underwater research for RMS Titanic, which owns the rights to the ship’s remains, and has made more than 35 trips to the shipwreck.

During an interview in 2019, the then 73-year-old Nargeolet was asked if he was afraid of diving 12,500 feet below the water’s surface to reach the Titanic.

“If you’re 11 meters or 11 kilometers down, if something bad happens, the results are the same,” the sailor told the Irish Examiner at the time.

“If you’re in deep water, you’ll be dead before you realize something’s going on, so that’s not a problem.”

Nargeolet (pictured for one of his expeditions to the Titanic) is widely regarded as a ‘leading authority’ on the sunken cruiser, who led several expeditions to the Titanic’s wreck off the coast of Newfoundland

Paul-Henri Nargeolet is pictured on the right with some friends after catching fish on a boat

Commander Paul-Henry Nargeolet, left, smiles with Millvina Dean, 84, of England at Boston’s Black Falcon Pier on Sept. 1, 1996

Nargeolet is aboard the missing OceanGate submarine, the Titan (file image)

During his explorations of the Titanic wreck, he brought to the surface about 5,500 items, including passengers’ personal items such as binoculars and letters, Johann said.

One of those personal items was a watch, which Nargeolet gave to the victim’s daughter after tracking her down.

The Nargeolet finds – including the ship’s equipment, including a cherub placed near the famous staircase – were auctioned off by New York’s RMS Titanic worth more than $189 million (£148 million).

Johann said the only part of the ship the diver hadn’t explored so far was the safe room, where gold and jewels would have been kept.

The 1997 film “Titanic,” directed by Nargeolet’s friend James Cameron, was inspired by footage shot by the French explorer, who was amazed at the quality of the film’s reconstructions, shot in a swimming pool, Johann said.

In 2010, before his sixth expedition to the Titanic, Nargeolet was tasked with finding the missing Air France A300, which disappeared off the coast of Brazil in June 2009, but was unsuccessful.

His colleagues and fellow divers praised Nargeolet as a ‘great professional’.

“Paul-Henri is a great professional, both in diving and underwater robots,” Bertrand Sciboz, one of his friends, told Le Parisien. ‘During each dive he is perfectly aware of the risks he runs.

“He’s a pure scientist, a fan of machines and technology, he didn’t care about money,” said another friend.

Johann convinced Nargeolet to write his book ‘In the depths of the Titanic’ because he said his children were super fans. He said the underwater explorer needed persuasion to write the book because he wanted to spend all his time diving.

“He wakes up in the morning and wants to go to the sea,” Johann said.

He is the director of underwater research for RMS Titanic, Inc, and has appeared in numerous films and documentaries on the ship

He led the first Titanic recovery expedition in 1987 after specializing in deep submersibles

Nargeolet’s French wife, Anne, lives in Connecticut and his adult children live in Cork, Ireland.

Nargeolet was previously married to American journalist Michele Marsh, who died in 2017. They met after Marsh contacted the explorer to contact a Frenchman who had survived the Titanic.

RMS Titanic president Jessica Sanders said in a statement Wednesday that Nargeolet’s experience was unparalleled and that “no one has a better chance of navigating equipment failures than he does.”

Those who know Nargeolet have said his expertise and experience will mean he will keep everyone aboard the Titan ‘in a stable mindset’ now that they are ‘at the mercy’ of the sea.

Joe MacInnis, a renowned diver and physician, told CNN about Nargeolet, “He’s been in all kinds of problematic situations and he’s solved them. He’s the man you want next to you in situations like this.’

Dik Barton, who has made 22 dives of the wreck at 12,500 feet, said Nargeolet is “reliable” and “100 percent” the man he would want to be with if he gets stuck on a submarine.

Sunderland University visiting lecturer Mr Barton told MailOnline on Wednesday that Mr Nargeolet would be a huge asset to the explorers: ‘There is no comparison.

‘HP [as he is known] is a consultant in underwater sciences, an expedition leader, very reliable, he becomes the man who keeps everyone in a stable mind.

“That is crucial to maintain normality. Everyone gets claustrophobia, panic attacks, but you have to limit it because you have nowhere to go.’

He continued: “You are in the danger zone from the moment the craft is released from the mother craft. From that moment on you depend on the technology, integrity and power of the ship.’