Deep End
OceanGate and the Race to the Bottom of the Sea
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Pub Date Jan 26 2027 | Archive Date Dec 31 2026
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Description
From the writer who’s been covering OceanGate from the beginning, the astonishing story behind one of the most shocking disasters of the century.
In June 2023, OceanGate’s experimental Titan submersible went missing on a dive to the wreck of the Titanic. People around the world were transfixed, waiting for word of the sub’s passengers: its charismatic pilot, a legendary explorer, a billionaire businessman, and a father with his teenage son. Days later the horrifying news came: The sub had imploded, killing all five on board. In Deep End, Mark Ellis Harris combines heart-stopping narrative and rigorous reporting to tell the full story for the first time: how millionaire Stockton Rush, the maverick CEO of OceanGate, shouldered his way into the competitive world of deep-sea exploration; how he wowed investors with the promise of carbon-fiber subs to unlock the ocean depths for all; and how he prioritized thrift over safety, press over process, and ultimately glory over survival. Deep End is an unforgettable tale of high-seas adventure, technological folly, and innovation gone wrong.
About the Author: Mark Ellis Harris is an investigative science and technology reporter based in Seattle. He has been a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT and won the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Gold Award. This is his first book.
Advance Praise
"Stockton Rush is a protagonist for our times: a thin-skinned, cheapskate heir exuding unearned wisdom down to his deck shoes. With riveting storytelling and sharp-eyed reporting, Mark Ellis Harris reveals how this would-be disrupter led the unwitting to tragedy. Deep End is a klaxon warning for those in thrall to Silicon Valley hype." -Peter Robison, bestselling author of Flying Blind: The 737 MAX Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing
"This is the rare book where knowing the ending—and most of us sadly do—makes it better. Mark Ellis Harris's most impressive achievement in this tour de force of reporting and storytelling is to keep the reader riveted to the question of how an all-too-predictable disaster could have come to pass, brilliantly weaving a forensic investigation of mechanical failure into a parable of tech-world hubris." -Julian Sancton, bestselling author of Madhouse at the End of the Earth
"Deep End chronicles the fatal downfall of a modern Icarus consumed by his own ambition. A great read and damning account of startup culture run amok." -Rachel Slade, bestselling author of Into the Raging Sea
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781324123910 |
| PRICE | $31.99 (USD) |
| PAGES | 336 |
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Average rating from 3 members
Featured Reviews
Patricia B, Bookseller
Easily one of my new favorite nonfiction books.
I fittingly, albeit accidentally, read this after Challenger by Adam Higginbotham. So you can imagine my surprise when o-rings came up again. I mean, my god.
Genuinely couldn't believe what I was reading here. Maybe that's just because going into a tiny submersible and going to see a shipwreck is genuinely nightmare fuel for me, even if survival was guaranteed on the expedition. Hard pass, couldn't pay me enough.
I have most of this book highlighted (electronically). I cannot wait to buy a physical copy to annotate it all over again. A master in journalism.
dale d, Reviewer
A thoughtful and in depth account of the Titan sub disaster. I learned more from this book than I did from any of the endless reports that came out as the Titan disaster unfolded. The author not only unfolds the story and, looking at the history, the inevitable implosion with care and detail and you feel for the victims but also those who raised the red flags along the way, or at least tried to. Thrilling from beginning to end.
Natalie P, Bookseller
You reap what you sow.
Wow. This is a phenomenal play by play account of the entire history of the Titan submersible alongside a broad scope portrayal of its creator, Stockton Rush.
The author, Mark Ellis Harris, is a greatly qualified person to narrate the events of Titan’s rise and fall. A journalist by profession and with personal experience on board an early tour by OceanGate, Harris details first hand encounters, reports and whistleblowing accounts with considerable attention to accuracy.
He is able to relay this real life horror story in an ominous but strictly factual account. I find the ability to depict a narrative in this way extremely useful as a nonfiction author. It’s wonderful to read an account like this and trust every statement and source while simultaneously feeling on the edge of your seat, where you can’t wait to flip to the next page to see what other horrible mistakes were part of its long laundry list of catastrophes, all leading to a highly predictable demise.
I have to recommend this to any reader, really. The OceanGate disaster is quite recent in history, occurring in June of 2023 and I’m sure most people will recall the exact news broadcasts about the search and inevitable discovery of the Titan submersible. A remarkable incident of a millionaire’s arrogance actually harming himself instead of strictly just innocents duped by him. Just the rich taking out the rich.
Thank you to W. W. Norton & Company for providing this copy for review via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.
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