On April 10, 1912, the RMS Titanic set sail on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City. Four days into the trip, at 11:40 p.m., the Titanic struck a glancing blow off of an iceberg. It sunk at 2:20 a.m., less than three hours later.

The wreck of the RMS Titanic was discovered by oceanographer Robert Ballard in 1985. What was not known to the public at the time was that the discovery of the wreckage only came about due to Ballard’s involvement in a secret U.S. Navy mission. Ballard was employing the use of certain technology that would help him to find the Titanic that the U.S military wanted to use to find two sunken submarines. During the mission, Ballard discovered the Titanic and the artifact field surrounding it.

Blue Marble Private’s eight day long journey starts off of the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, and will transport travelers in a titanium submarine to the Titanic’s final resting place, more than two miles below the Atlantic Ocean’s surface. Tickets are available for the exceptionally high price of $105,129 per person. This is almost twice as expensive as the $59,000 Deep Ocean Expeditions charged when it last brought tourists to the site in 2012. The first voyage is already fully booked. Blue Marble Private claims that this is the equivalent of the price of a first class ticket aboard the Titanic, accounting for inflation.

“I would love to go if I had the chance. I think that the tragedy of the Titanic is something that completely changed safety regulations and is something we continue to refer to,” Joy Lin ’19 said.

For the extravagant price of the ticket, clients will be known as ‘Mission Specialists” versus being called tourists, they will learn to assist the expedition’s team on board both the submarine and the yacht, and they will have three potential days to dive, with each diving trip lasting about three hours. Mission Specialists also have the opportunity to spot rare, bioluminescent ocean creatures and explore the Titanic’s massive debris field, whose artifacts have remained untouched for over a century. “I would love to go if I had the chance. I think that the tragedy of the Titanic is something that completely changed safety regulations and is something we continue to refer to,” Joy Lin ’19 said. The company also stresses that this is not a tourist expedition. Any paying customer is welcome to book, but must bear in mind that the wreckage of the Titanic is a gravesite where hundreds of people died.

And if you can’t afford a ticket aboard the submarine, China is building a life size replica of the Titanic. The $145 million dollar project will reproduce all of the Titanic’s features, including a replica of the iconic grand staircase, a swimming pool, a theater, and a ballroom. This Titanic will never face the risk of sinking, as it will be permanently docked in a reservoir in the Quijang River.

Recent studies have claimed that extremophile, iron-eating bacteria will eat away what’s left of the shipwreck within fifteen to twenty years. Many people are jumping at the chance to see something so historical and famous and that has been romanticized by movies such as James Cameron’s Titanic. If you can, see it before it decays completely.