Larry Connor, 74, who made his wealth in real estate, said he’s building a new acrylic-hulled submersible that will be certified and rigorously tested to show that deep sea exploration is safe.
A real estate billionaire in Ohio is planning an underwater voyage to the site of the Titanic shipwreck, where a submersible imploded on its approach to the sea floor a year ago, killing all five passengers on board.
Shortly after the OceanGate disaster, Larry Connor, 74, a real estate investor and amateur adventurer, contacted the co-founder of Triton Submarines, Patrick Lahey, imploring him to build a submarine that could reach the depths of the Titanic safely and repeatedly, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The two men aim to explore and conduct scientific research at the site, located off the coast of Newfoundland, 12,500 feet under the sea, in a two-person submersible that Triton is designing in the summer of 2026.
“Our is just not a trip to the Titanic,” Mr. Connor said in an interview on Tuesday. “It’s a research mission.”
“The other purpose is to demonstrate to people around the globe that you can build a revolutionary, first-of-its-kid sub and dive it safely and successfully to great depths,” he added.
The custom sub, which Mr. Connor plans to call “The Explorer — Return to the Titanic,” is still in the design phase and will be based on an existing submarine design that Mr. Lahey had worked on for years. It is listed on the Triton website as the Abyssal Explorer, an acrylic-hulled vessel than can reach depths of 13,000 feet, “the perfect submersible for repeated trips to the deep ocean.”