EXCLUSIVE: ‘They were excited to go’: Titan Five’s last moments above water are revealed as barista who served them coffee says the crew – dressed in blue OceanGate Titanic jackets – were keen to dive after waiting days for the weather to break
- The crew of the missing Titan submersible stopped into a café just before their fateful adventure
- ‘They were saying they were excited for a good expedition. And a few of them seemed in a rush,’ barista James Law, 27, said. ‘They were excited to go’
- About 10,000 square miles of ocean surface have been searched to no avail
It was their last cup of coffee before heading off to sea.
The crew of the missing Titan submersible stopped into a local café just before their fateful adventure.
After waiting for days for the weather to break, they seemed excited that the fog had lifted Friday morning. They entered the Terre Café around 8am Friday, staff there exclusively told DailyMail.com.
‘Before leaving on their last expedition, a bunch of the crew came in here and ordered a bunch of coffees before going out,’ barista James Law, 27, said Wednesday from the same café where he served them freshly ground coffee.
‘It was about nine or 10 of them. I could tell who they were because they’re all literally wearing jackets that say Titanic on them. Everyone was wearing that blue OceanGate Titanic jacket.
‘Whenever we see guys wearing those expedition jackets, we just say, ”what are you guys up to?”’ Law pointed out. ‘The group came down, and they’re like, ”we’re heading out,”’ he said.
‘They were saying they were excited for a good expedition. And a few of them seemed in a rush. They were a little behind schedule. That was the first day there was a break in the fog for a while. They were in a rush to go. They were excited to go,’ Law said.
French explorer PH Nargeolet and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush are among those trapped on the submersible
Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman are also on board, along with British billionaire Hamish Harding
‘They were saying they were excited for a good expedition. And a few of them seemed in a rush,’ barista James Law, 27, said. ‘They were excited to go’
The crew of the missing Titan submersible stopped into their hotel café just before their fateful adventure
The crew boarded the Polar Prince vessel, docked just outside the hotel.
‘Literally, right where that buoy is, that’s where OceanGate left from,’ he said. ‘At the moment, I did not know who they were.’
The Titan submersible began its dive to the Titanic wreck site on Sunday morning, 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland.
Hours later, the main vessel lost contact with the five-member crew. The news broke Sunday night after they were reported missing, with oxygen supply running out.
Law noticed a few of the crew members when their identities were revealed.
‘I recognized one of the faces, the CEO, Rush,’ Law told DailyMail.com. ‘And I also recognized that British explorer guy.’
He was referring to OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush and British billionaire Hamish Harding. Also missing are Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman, along with French explorer PH Nargeolet.
His first reaction was to think of a friend’s brother, Marc Russell, who died along with his boatmate Joey Jenkins while fishing for cod a few miles out in September 2021.
‘This whole Titanic situation has got me thinking about that, to be honest,’ Law said.
‘Marc was a codfish captain, and they were just out fishing when the boat disappeared. The Canadian Coast Guard launched a massive search. Then after a few weeks when they called off the search, they sent sonar boats onto the ocean to see if they could find the ship.
‘They couldn’t even find it. The only thing they found was a bait bin floating.’
‘The sad thing is that the last radar ping they got from that boat was three kilometers from the harbor,’ he added. ‘The parents would be able to see where the boat went down from their bedroom window, if the weather wasn’t completely fogged up that day.’
He said when the Coast Guard initially called off that search, locals protested.
Law’s first reaction was to think of a friend’s brother, Marc Russell (left), who died along with his boatmate Joey Jenkins (right) while fishing for cod a few miles out in September 2021
The missing OceanGate submersible, the Titan, lost contact with the mothership during its descent to the shipwreck Sunday morning
‘There were protests here in town because they initially called off the search after a few days, and people pushed them to continue the search for another week or so. It was certainly a big deal down here.’
‘And then last year, a couple guys went hunting for turr, hit a shoal and the boat flipped,’ he said. ‘They found the boat, but didn’t find the bodies.’
Law is not optimistic the Titan crew will be rescued in time.
‘I think it’s extremely unlikely they’ll be found,’ he said. ‘I’m really, really hoping for the best, let me be clear. But it seems like the odds are something bad has already happened. And when you’re down that deep, with that much pressure, that far away, it looks like a really tough situation.
‘It’s not something you expect,’ he said of his encounter with the Titan crew the morning they set out.
‘You live on the ocean, there are a fair number of tragedies,’ Law said. ‘But it doesn’t occur to you that something bad is going to happen, until afterwards. They all seemed quite cheery before they left.
‘I saw something on the internet saying something along the lines of, ”the Titanic has taken more lives,”’ he added. ‘It’s insanely crazy to think that they stopped in here. It feels sad, eerie.’
This image shared by the US Coast Guard is the first from the search site, some 900 miles off the coast of the US. It shows Deep Energy, a rescue ship that has deployed remote operated subs to go looking for the Titan underwater
Ten ships are on their way to the Titanic wreck site to try to find the missing submersible as its oxygen supply dwindles to just 20 hours
A flotilla of international rescue ships are now steaming towards the Titanic rescue site to try to locate the missing submersible.
Boats from France, Canada and the US Navy are racing towards the site carrying the only specialist equipment in the world capable of making the 12,500ft dive to try to find the missing vessel.
The sub lost communications with its operator, OceanGate Expeditions, less than two hours into its dive to the famous shipwreck on Sunday.
A glimmer of hope lit up the bleak search yesterday when the Coast Guard announced that ‘banging’ sounds had been detected underwater. It remains unclear if the banging came from the submersible, but it has now become the ‘focus’ of the mission.
Some experts say the fact the sounds were even detected could suggest that the sub is closer to the surface than initially feared.
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