Footage of ‘Mr Titanic’ days before he vanished on stricken sub

Footage has surfaced of a French adventurer named ‘Mr Titanic’ – just days before he went missing along with four others on a submarine heading to explore the wreck.

Mariner Paul-Henry Nargeolet, 77, is a veteran of 37 voyages to the Titanic wreck and was part of the five-man crew on the Titan.

Now a clip has surfaced showing him floating in the Atlantic Ocean near the wreck site just days before he went missing.

The video, shared by videographer Abbi Jackson, sees Nargeolet waving as he lounges in a boat. It was uploaded with the caption “what a legend.”

Widely regarded as a “leading authority” on the sunken cruiser, Nargeolet led several expeditions to the wreckage of the Titanic off the coast of Newfoundland and even oversaw the recovery of thousands of artifacts – including the 20-ton section of the hull of the Titanic.

Based on his expertise with these deep dives, Nargeolet told the Irish examiner in 2019: ‘If you are 11 meters or 11 kilometers down, if something bad happens, the result is the same.

“If you’re in really deep water, you’ll be dead before you even realize something’s going on, so it’s just not a big deal.”

Born in Chamonix, France, Nargeolet served in the French Navy for over two decades, rising to the rank of Commander.

He retired in 1986 and joined the French Institute for Research and Exploitation of the Sea, where he led deep-sea submersibles.

In that position, Nargeolet took part in the Five Deeps Expedition, exploring the deepest parts of all five of 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.’

From there, Nargeolet continued to lead dives to Titanic, helping to map its location and chart the course of its decline.

“At first we were afraid to find artifacts from passengers, but then we realized that we could learn a lot about the passengers,” he once said, according to the Telegraph.

“We’re uncovering the history of these families, and I think that’s a good thing.”

When asked why the Titanic fascinated him more than 100 years after it collided with an iceberg and sank, he said: ‘The word Titanic, in my opinion, is magical because it always provokes a reaction.

‘There are people interested in building the boat. There are people who are interested in the billionaires of the time on board, because they were the stars of the time, some are interested in the immigrants who are looking for a new life in North America… anyone can find interest in the Titanic.

“Once you put your head in the Titanic, it’s hard to get it out again.”

Nargeolet now lives in Connecticut, while his adult children live in Cork, Ireland.

John Paschal, 31, Nargeolet’s stepson who has a Connecticut address, said only a few words about the search, refusing to say anything personal at this point, not wanting to sound like he was talking about him in the past tense.

“I don’t want to speak to him in terms of active and passive. I just want the search and rescue process to run at this point. We hope for the best possible outcome for everyone on board. We hope they return safe and sound, and we keep everyone in our thoughts and prayers. We appreciate the efforts made by everyone in the search and rescue so far.”

Also aboard the submarine is billionaire Hamish Harding, CEO of Action Aviation in Dubai. He posted excitedly on social media about starting the journey on Sunday

Shahzada Dawood, 48, a board member of the Prince’s Trust charity, and his son Sulaiman Dawood, 19, (pictured together) are also aboard the missing submarine

Nargeolet would now run out of air on a small submarine carrying British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding and a British father and son duo.

The ship began its dive Sunday morning and will run out of oxygen on Thursday morning, if intact and not imploded due to a malfunction.

In the 22-foot ship there are no seats and only one toilet – a small black box – with a black curtain over it for privacy. All passengers are barefoot and must sit on the floor.

There is no ‘door’ to get in and out of the ship.

Instead, the passengers are bolted in from the outside before their journey begins with 17 bolts, which begins with the launch of the Titan from a recovery platform, with tanks used to sink and resurface the ship.

It was also revealed yesterday that tourists who pay $250,000 to descend nearly 13,000 feet below sea level to view the Titanic wreck will have to sign a waiver saying they accept that the submarine has not been approved by any regulatory body .

But in a May 2021 lawsuit, OceanGate said the Titan had an “unparalleled safety feature” that assesses hull integrity during every dive.