Giant adventure

Steve Wickens is one of about 160 people who have travelled 3.8km down into the ocean, courtesy a lucky win at the Hard Rock Café Dubai. It has given him new respect for nature.

Steve Wickens is one about 160 people who have travelled 3.8km down into the ocean. And he viewed the wreckage of the ill-fated ship Titanic.

"More people have gone up into space," Wickens said after returning from an adventure trip of a lifetime — courtesy a lucky win at the Hard Rock Café in Dubai.

Describing the experience of travelling out to St Johns, Newfoundland, Canada, and then heading out to the wreckage site at sea by the RV Akademik Keldysh to finally dive by a submersible and actually view what he had only heard of, the former student of naval architecture still struggles for words.

"Overwhelming, unbelievable, life-changing in a sense," he said of the journey.

Great facilities

"I was particularly impressed and amazed with the organisation and facilities offered for this trip," he said of the adventure dive that is undertaken by Deep Ocean Expeditions with the support and help of the PP Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, in Moscow.

"Naturally the pre-preparation made a huge difference. From the moment I knew that I was going on the trip and initiated correspondence with the organisers, I was given a booklet outlining all my requirements," he said.

Right from the photo and video checklist to the clothing, visa, medical and miscellaneous needs, nothing was omitted.

"They even suggest carrying small gift items such as magazines, T-shirts, candy and gum to share with the Russian crew in case we make friends," he said.

Though the highlight of the trip was to go on a dive that views the Titanic wreck, it is not Titanic-centric.

"That's what made it interesting. The fact that there were many talks by experts on oceanography," he said.

They did, of course, screen James Cameron's blockbuster Titanic one evening.

"By the time we had to go on the dive itself, we were well-informed enough about the Titanic and had a fair understanding of the way oceans operate."

And why not? With Dr Don Walsh on board, adventure exploration could not be in better hands. Walsh was one of two men who went to the deepest point in the world's oceans — the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean.

He managed this in 1960, during his stint as the first commander of the US Navy's Bathyscaphe Trieste.

The guides

"He [Walsh] was on board as an oceanographer and lecturer. With him was Peter Baston, an author and lecturer, Dr Anatoly Sagalevitch, who was heading the submersible programme and Mike McDowell and Belinda Sawyer, both from Deep Ocean Expeditions," Wickens said.

Each night the passengers would find the programme for the next day taped to their cabin door and this would include every activity from meals to lectures and movie screenings.

The two submersibles, the MIR I and MIR II, are two of only four in the world that can reach such depths and are stored in special hangars in the ship.

"Even the wreckage footage that we see in his movie right in the beginning was filmed by the two MIRs," he said.

The actual sphere of the submersible, where a pilot and two divers can sit, is only 2.1 metres in diameter.

"The rest is the machinery and gadgets that are needed to make it work – like the battery etc," Wickens said, quickly sketching a diagram to indicate its size.

"We were asked to wear special thermal clothing and given a non-flammable suit to wear on top. It was boiling hot until we got into the water after which the temperature dropped to about 10C. But the inside shell of the MIR attracts moisture so we could have felt really cold," he said.

With no food and no smoking for the 13 hours of the dive, Wickens seized the opportunity to quit smoking altogether.

"It's only been two weeks, but it's a life-changing decision and hopefully should be permanent," he said.

At first sight

Armed with a basic Canon digital camera, Wickens recalled his first sighting of the Titanic.

"The thing is it wasn't as exciting as you would think because on the ship they prepare you so much for it and what's in store and how it appears that there's no immediate impact," he said.

After the three-hour descent, it is the bow of the ship that is first visible. From about 200 metres deep into the ocean, there is no light at all and the submersible knows exactly where to go using radar and staying constantly in touch with the main ship.

"What struck me as amazing was the amount of life that is down there. You'd think that there's nothing, but there is so much unknown about the oceans and how life can actually sustain and proliferate without any light and warmth is incredible," he said.

Wickens pauses at some photographs he has taken and compares the constant flow of plankton to almost as if it was continuously snowing underwater.

"The bow is still remarkably intact and it's about 800 metres away from the stern," he said recreating the events of the tragedy.

When the Titanic hit an iceberg in 1912, the bow started to submerge, raising the stern steadily out of the sea and revealing the three propellers