Titan submarine disaster: How the sinking of the Titanic changed congressional hearings forever

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Titanic sub debris brought ashore after deadly catastrophe

Debris from the OceanGate Titan submersible that suffered a deadly catastrophic implosion was brought ashore Wednesday. (Reuters)

Congressional "hearings" only occupy a slice of what consumes the time of lawmakers on Capitol Hill. 

However, hearings, especially blockbuster ones, are what the public often is aware of when they think about Congress.

Watergate hearings. Iran-Contra hearings. Confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh. Even the recent hearing before the House Judiciary Committee with former Special Counsel John Durham. A significant hearing looms in mid-September before the Judiciary panel with Attorney General Merrick Garland. 

It is far from clear if Congress has any genuine interest in hearings or investigating what went wrong with the Titan submersible, which imploded 2.4 miles underwater on a mission to explore the Titanic. 

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Debris from the Titan submersible, recovered from the ocean floor near the wreck of the Titanic, is unloaded from the ship Horizon Arctic at the Canadian Coast Guard pier in St. John's, Newfoundland, Wednesday, June 28, 2023. (Paul Daly)

However, it will be ironic if Congress were to probe the deadly Titan disaster. That is because the model for the first modern, sensational Congressional hearing was the inquest into the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.

Congress has always conducted hearings. Such conclaves date back to the formation of the republic. Lawmakers conducted an investigation in 1792 after the defeat of U.S. troops under the command of Gen. Arthur St. Clair by Native Americans in what was then the Northwest Territory near what is present-day Fort Recovery, Ohio.

President Washington ordered St. Clair to "execute an effective battle plan." More than 1,000 members of the Shawnee, Miami and Delaware tribes met U.S. troops at the Battle of Wabash. It is regarded as the worst defeat ever of American troops at the hands of Native Americans.

Congress wanted to investigate, but there was no precedent and the concept of Congressional oversight is only implied in the Constitution. There was even chatter of President Washington leading the inquiry. However, lawmakers rejected that idea, establishing one of the current models of Congressional oversight which persists to this day. 

The House in fact called for "papers" as part of the investigation, and President Washington allowed access to the documents. Cabinet heads and various lawmakers testified before the committee. Lawmakers determined that the military failed to recruit enough troops before heading into battle. There were also delays in providing supplies to U.S. soldiers.

This file image provided by OceanGate shows the Titan submersible being towed in the Bahamas. (OceanGate Expeditions)

Congress conducted other major hearings in the succeeding decades, including some serious investigations after the Civil War.

However, the hearings investigating the Titanic established a new paradigm — made possible in part by new construction on Capitol Hill.

Congress opened the "Senate Office Building" — now the "Russell Senate Office Building — across the street from the Capitol in 1909. The Capitol itself lacked a gigantic space to hold large groups of people besides the House and Senate chambers. The "House Office Building" — now Cannon Building — featured a massive, yawning room on the third floor. The same with the new Senate facility.

Just two days after the Titanic sank, Sen. William Alden Smith, R-Mich., proposed a special investigation.

Smith acknowledged that the Titanic sailed under the flag of another nation, but he argued that "it was vital that the entire matter should be reviewed before an American tribunal if legislative action was to be taken for future guidance on international maritime safety." He noted that "many of our own countrymen had been sacrificed and the safety of many had been put in grave peril."

From left to right, Suleman Dawood, Shahzada Dawood, Stockton Rush; Paul-Henry Nargeolet and Hamish Harding were aboard the OceanGate Titan submersible. (Engro Corp. | Reuters/Shannon Stapleton | @OceanGateExped/Twitter | Felix Kunze/Blue Origin via AP | Ocean Gate/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

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Smith was particularly interested in hearing from J. Bruce Ismay, the highest ranking official of the White Star line who survived the accident. Messages sent from the Carpathia (which rescued some passengers from the Titanic in the water) indicated that Ismay and others tried to scurry back to England and never set foot on U.S. soil. Thus, they would never be subject to any investigation by the U.S.

Smith issued subpoenas to Ismay and others who escaped to the Carpathia.

The hearings began just a week after the Titanic sank — not on Capitol Hill or in the new Senate office building, but at the posh Waldorf Astoria in New York City.

The hearings then moved to the gigantic hearing room in what is now the Russell Senate Office Building. That room was known for decades as the "Russell Caucus Room." The Senate named the space the "Kennedy Caucus Room" after the death of late Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.

The public was captivated by the tale of the Titanic. People poured into the hearing room to witness the proceedings in person. In fact, the attention focused on the Titanic through the Congressional investigation likely amplified the mythos of the accident into an iconic episode. That is to say nothing of how the hearings later drove the pop culture popularity of the Titanic - ranging from the panned 1980s movie "Raise the Titanic" to the financial juggernaut "Titanic" in the late 1990s.

Smith conducted 17 hearings in all, taking testimony from 82 witnesses, which included 34 crew members and nearly two dozen passengers. The hearings toggled back and forth between Washington and New York. The investigation revealed that the Titanic ignored ice warnings and lacked enough lifeboats. Lawmakers also learned that other vessels failed to respond to distress calls from the Titanic.

In this undated photo, Paul-Henry Nargeolet poses for a photo alongside OceanGate's Titan submersible in 2022. (@OceanGateExped/Twitter)

The hearings helped establish an accurate record about what happened to the Titanic. It also gave a boost to maritime law. Some believe that Smith’s investigation prevented the British from whitewashing the episode or conducting no inquiry at all.

The hearings shaped new laws on how many lifeboats and life jackets were required on ships. The incident is also one of the reasons Congress passed the Radio Act of 1912, which mandated ships to stay on radio alert while at sea and be prepared to respond to distress calls.

A plaque in the Kennedy Caucus Room denotes the significance of the Titanic hearings which unfolded there more than a century ago. Other big hearings followed, including: Teapot Dome, Watergate, Iran-Contra, and numerous Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

A Congressional inquiry into the Titan submersible disaster is far from clear.

"Could this have been resolved differently if leadership had acted sooner and actually put options on the table instead of just assuming, ‘Well, it doesn’t matter because they’re dead?’’ asked Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Tex., before it was clear what happened to the Titan.

A U.S. Coast Guard ship arrives in the harbor of St. John's, Newfoundland, on Wednesday, June 28, 2023, following the arrival of the ship Horizon Arctic carrying debris from the Titan submersible. The submersible owned by OceanGate Expeditions imploded on its way to the wreck of the Titanic. (Paul Daly)

Crenshaw characterized this as "an epic failure in leadership by the U.S. military," specifically calling out the Navy and the Coast Guard.

However, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., was not as quick to blame the military.

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"We are not omnipotent. We can’t solve every problem that comes along," said Smith. "If there’s a particular capability that someone is lacking in an emergency situation anywhere in the world and we’re in a position to help them, I’d like us to take a look at it. [But] it is not always possible."

Congress may not get involved in the failed mission by the Titan to explore the Titanic, but the sinking of the Titanic forever changed the landscape of blockbuster Congressional hearings and how we think of them today.