In 1998, Freshwater’s Andrew Rogers became the first Australian to visit the Royal Mail Ship (RMS) Titanic in its final resting place.
Andrew’s Titanic tale began at Franklins supermarket when his wife Winnie entered a competition to win a trip to Newfoundland, Canada, followed by a submersible dive to lay eyes on humanity’s most enigmatic shipwreck. Winnie wrote her husband’s name on the ticket, without telling Andrew about it, and moved on with life until…
“G’day, I’ve what?” Andrew answered the phone in India, on holiday with Winnie and their son Terence. “Gee, you’re keen, you’ve tracked me down all the way to India to tell me I’ve won tickets to a movie!” No free movie tickets here, Andrew had been chosen from 270,000 entries for the trip of a lifetime.
Unlike most $70,000 prizes, this epic journey would have to be kept top secret thanks to a global litigious storm brewing about who owned the salvage rights to the buried treasure, a situation likely not helped in the eyes of the US judicial system when the vessel Andrew would be travelling on was a Russian research ship. Surely the Yanks would see the peacemaking side of the submersible’s name, “MIR”, Russian for “Friendship”.
Lips were sealed, but once in Canada and undergoing final preparations, the Dr asked a rather personal question, “Do you suffer from flatulence?” Andrew lied and said no. He was joined in the cramped quarters by American undertaker Roman Sugden and submarine pilot Genya Cherniaev.
Provided with fireproof overalls, Andrew found the fit too uncomfortable, the sizing too small. He chose instead to wear the more traditional Australian garb, Ugg boots, trackie pants and t-shirt, beholden to sound reasoning, “If there’s a fire down there, let’s just go enjoy ourselves.”
As the descent got underway, Genya informed Andrew he was sitting where James Cameron sat when filming the underwater footage for the movie (watch the documentary here.) The crystal-clear water turned pitch black within 150metres. For two and a half hours Genya guided Andrew and Roman to the ocean floor, before the quiet pilot finally spoke, “We’re getting close.”
From the darkness, there she was. As Andrew explains, “The Russians call it ‘inner space’, this completely other world beneath the ocean. Getting down there, seeing this man-made vessel in another world, my simple mind didn’t really know how to cope.”
For over five hours Genya explored the wreckage, Andrew and Roman’s eyes glued to their respective four by four inch viewing ports, absorbing the other world so few eyes will ever witness. Of all the wreckage items, pots and pans, chandeliers and warped steel beams, a lone boot on the ocean floor brought home to Andrew the magnitude of what he was privy to, knowing that a man perhaps much like him had walked, worked, lived and ultimately drowned with that boot on, the inner space taking on grand meaning.
The ascent to the surface took three hours, followed by the Russian vessel’s mission- concluding tradition of a sauna, ice bath, more sauna and huge volumes of food and vodka, precisely how lifelong friendships are formed. Safe and sound on deck, Andrew stared across the bitter cold Atlantic, thankful to have survived the adventure and to be heading home to Winnie, Terence and Freshwater.