Sunderland guest lecturer speaks of 'hostile environment with no hope of escape' as search continues for Titanic submersible

An underwater explorer who has shared his vast knowledge with Sunderland students as a guest lecturer at the city's university has given his grim insight into the plight of those aboard the missing submersible in the Atlantic.

Teams are racing against the clock to find the vessel which went missing during a dive to the wreck of the Titanic.

Dik Barton, who knows the underwater terrain better than anyone, is a University of Sunderland guest lecturer, who has regularly shared his business and career experience over the last five years inspiring students on campus and at our global partner college sites.

 During his time as Vice President (Operations), with RMS Titanic, Inc. working on the TITANIC Project, he was the first Briton to ever dive to the wreck of the Titanic and has completed 22 dives to the wreck.

Sadly it means he understands only too well the plight of those aboard.

“This is incredibly sad news, and in light of recent events, sadly the Titanic exploration community always anticipated that this would be the case," he said.

“The vessel is not designed to survive those depths for this duration, time sadly is running out. This is a hostile environment with no means of escape.”

However, he said the group on this current ill-fated trip had “good leadership”, having previously worked with French submersible pilot Paul-Henry Nargeolet.

“He is the kind of man who will keep them calm, but it’s not easy in a tube at the bottom of the ocean,” he said.

“It’s tragic.

“He is an extraordinary explorer and an incredible individual and he knows the wreck better than anybody I know.”

“It’s an incredibly hostile environment at the depths we are talking about.

“The pressure down there is 2,500lbs per square inch, that’s the equivalent of two adult elephants on your thumb nail.

“If something goes wrong, it goes wrong very quickly.”

He believed the submarine had lost either power on its descent, or its structural integrity at great depth.

“It’s completely pitch black and then you get to the sea bed, put on your lights and there you are with the Titanic before you, if you land in the right place.

“It’s not easy, the wreck site is two miles across.”

The Titanic retained its grip on the public consciousness, Mr Barton said.

“There’s much more glamorous and more incredible maritime disasters and wrecks, but this one has been romanticised over the years,” he said.

“It is a place of fable that people want to go and see, and they are prepared to pay a lot of money to do so.”

He has previously said to picture the scene, people should imagine the “best hotel in the world 600 miles off the coastline, crack it in half like and egg and spread the contents on the seabed”.

 Dik, aformer Army officer, has a breadth of experience operating globally in corporate level risk management and a particular knowledge of working in the oil & gas and utilities industries operating at ministerial and board room management level, latterly owning and operating his own medical splinting device business.

He managed ‘The Titanic Artefact Collection’ of over 6,500 recovered artefacts, ensuring the logistics of storage and shipping, installation and security at exhibition, supervising the installation and conservation team.

An experienced diver, Dik has worked as an underwater cameraman and the footage been used in numerous documentaries including those produced by the BBC, Channel 4, CBS, History Channel, Discovery and National Geographic.

 In addition, he was a consultant on the making of the 1997 movie TITANIC with James Cameron and team and subsequent ongoing documentaries and operations.

Dik, from Cumbria, is now an Innovator and Chief Operating Officer of Sunderland-based ArmaTrex, which has engineered and designed a unique splinting system utilising expanding foam chemistry, which when applied forms a supporting splint.