Doc Watch: Deepsea Challenge (2014)

Watched:  06/23/2023

Format:  YouTube

Viewing:  First

Director(s):  John Bruno, Ray Quint, Andrew Wight

Like everyone else, I spent last week keeping up with the story of the Titan, the submersible that was designed by a California firm who seemed to play pretty fast and loose with fairly common knowledge about the ways in which one usually plans and develops a vehicle intended for use 3800 meters below the ocean's surface.  As details about the Titan came out, as well as photos, my eyebrows were raised as I saw how the vehicle worked and how it looked.

Look, I'm no engineer, but you couldn't have gotten me in that thing for love or money.  I'm modestly aware of how submarines look, the need for redundancy and failsafe systems that are as robust as possible when one is not going to be in a position to be rescued should something go wrong.  And while I agree that Playstation controllers are a marvel, I also don't want to lose connectivity to my controller whilst being pulled by ocean currents.  And, really, those game paddles were seen as a sign of the clear hubris suggested by the ship's design and thumbing of the nose at well-established standards of engineering, and, in fact, physics, that I think some of us were responding to.  It was less a lack of respect for other engineers and more of a lack of respect for the danger.*

Unlike officials speaking to the press in the wake of the announcement of the crew's reported demise, filmmaker James Cameron, who has spent a few decades now diving to various points in the ocean, didn't really hold back.  He was clearly outraged the OceanGate Titan had taken on customers and was in the position of a stern "I told you so" about OceanGate's materials and design being sub-par for the task.  I guess he'd told the now-dead CEO this was a bad idea to no avail.

It's important to note - Cameron wasn't just armchair quarter-backing.  Post-Titanic and after Avatar, it would bubble up in the press that Cameron was building submersibles and was out there like a modern Cousteau, diving to record depths - and piloting the craft himself.  

Cameron being Cameron, no detail went unresearched and rather than throwing out the lessons learned, he did here what he'd done with film - understand what came before and push the technology to try to achieve new things, but make sure he stuck the landing.  

And so it was that my viewing of newsclips about Titan led to the algorithm pushing the 2014 documentary Deepsea Challenge to me.  

(you can view the doc in its entirety here)

Look, if you want to see two contrasting POVs for how one goes about engineering and working toward success in a risky endeavor, and taking the risks seriously, there's really no better contrast than the first half of this doc and all of the conversation about what they're doing and why to get Deepsea Challenger - Cameron's submersible - built and what you will read about Titan.  The basic difference being a grasp that one doesn't cut corners to achieve success in risky ventures and look for ways to do this cheaply, one looks for the best way possible.

If you've ever read up on the space race, you understand what it means to actually put a human into space, and the ocean is no less forgiving.  And you get the feeling had Cameron put his eye to going up instead of down, he'd have given all the other rocket yahoos a run for their money.

I won't say there's no ego to Cameron, but there's a different approach than what others might do to reach goals.  He isn't hellbent on being right and being seen as a maverick, he's hellbent on succeeding.  There's no poseurism here.  He *is* a maverick (one does not do what he's done without being a bit outside the norm), he isn't posturing as one.  And, famously, Cameron applies pressure to his crews to get them to perform beyond their own expectations.  That isn't to say he asks them to compromise - instead he asks for the excellence he knows their all capable of.  It's impressive to see and maybe an object lesson for managers everywhere.

But it's also in hearing him talk about the how's and why's that contrast so severely to what we've seen in emails and whatnot from OceanGate's CEO.  We know he took challenges to his concept of a vehicle and approach to manufacture as cowardice.  Which...  is ridiculous.  Especially when you're putting other people's lives on the line.  Especially those who would believe that you'd done this right.

The film pays homage to those who came before, actually recreating dramatizations of the first dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.  It explores the wonder Cameron felt at deepsea expeditions as well as general ocean exploration - something recognizable to those of us who grew up in the tail end of the Cousteau-era on PBS when the ocean was pitched as much a frontier as the stars.  

And, of course, it follows the testing of the vehicle, the frustrations, failures and successes.  And, the eventual descent to the bottom of the Challenger Deep, the deepest known spot in the Mariana Trench. 

The film is far more about the effort to get there than what's down there.  It pitches the reasons why one would care to go down there (exploration and potential geological research) and is clearly a view of a prototype rather than a wildly successful venture.  And, yes, "because it's there" reasoning, which is not nothing and oddly inspiring in this era which considers renting a VRBO somewhere and taking selfies to be a grand adventure.

Cameron's wife is along for the adventure, and you get what sort of person it takes to be married to the guy (she seems very, very cool).  And, tragically, two of Cameron's longtime colleagues, friends and partners die during development of the sub/ the documentary while riding in a helicopter, which causes some introspection.

Anyway, right now the doc is free and worth a watch.  Especially in light of the needless deaths of 5 people and our bizarre belief that what makes for a good leader is ignoring sound advice and the possibility of harm to other people.  It's worth a review of the worthiness of exploration, even thrill-seeking, but what steps have to be taken to get the absolute closest to success.

*Look.  For example - I don't take any umbrage to SpaceX having a lack of a hardwired joystick in the Dragon capsule.  What I look at is whether the Dragon is made of the proper materials