Submarine

Just past midnight and I’m lying with the cat thinking about confined spaces. I have been swept up in this awful story about billionaires going to the Titanic in a submarine. That ship is over 2 miles deep, with such a weight of water over it. It was famously marketed as unsinkable, providing a helpful frame of reference for you if anyone tells you anything is anything. Like the guy three years before Grenfell who told me to take my ladder to the roof off the fire escape because “nobody will ever need to escape to the roof from here because the fire doors will stop any fire.” “What if they don’t?” “They are guaranteed to.” Everybody who sells things to us will be speculating about our safety, and most of them will fudge the figures or outright lie because profit is king.

These poor people though. They paid an astronomical sum in order to go in a tiny private submarine to that place of death on the ocean floor. Why? They have lost communication and there’s only so much air. Perhaps they just decided to cut off comms and save power. It seems likely that something big went wrong, in which case suddenly it is an impossible situation for everyone on board… if the motor is somehow bust, if they can’t get up on their own steam, then it is just more souls to the underwater horror of that famous and unprecedented hubris. Even if someone works out where they are, if they’re at depth then that’s where they’ll stay.

Right now, somewhere awful, a human drama could be playing out beyond description. An explorer, three extremely rich men over fifty and a teenage boy who has never had to think about value. A limited supply of oxygen. Pressure outside that would crush you in moments. Inside, personalities that are used to being top dog. Under pressure. Perhaps, just perhaps they’ll all be ok. But it puts this whole space / ocean tourism thing into relief. This is an expensive journey, and the CEO is there with everyone to reassure them it’s safe. It clearly isn’t. What a horror.

I went to the dodgy Kemptown pub to watch the last few overs of what has been an incredible first Ashes test match, even if the pendulum swung to the Aussies. My day largely involved playing with the cat, hoping for the England team and then worrying about the people in the sub. God what a horrible way to go. I hope they come out of it…