The mother of the teenager who died on board the Titan submersible said he took his Rubik’s Cube with him on the trip.
Suleman Dawood was one of the five passengers who died in OceanGate’s Titan Sub as it travelled to see the Titanic wreck.
The 19-year-old was on board with his father, Shahzada Dawood who also perished in the submersible which suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’.
According his aunt, Suleman had been 'terrified' about going on the trip but had went along with it as it was Father’s Day.
Advert
Suleman – a Strathclyde University student - could solve his Rubik’s Cube in 12 seconds, his mother said, and had planned to attempt a world record during his journey on the vessel.
“He would not go anywhere without his Rubik’s Cube,” his mum, Christine Dawood, told the BBC.
“He used to teach himself through YouTube how to solve the Rubik’s Cube, and he was really fast at it. I think his best was 12 seconds or something.”
Shahzada also bought a camera along with him to record his son’s attempt at getting a Guinness World Record.
Suleman’s mum continued: “He said, “I’m going to solve the Rubik’s Cube 3,700 meters below sea at the Titanic’.”
Christine and her daughter were on board the Polar Prince, the submersibles's support vessel, when word came through that communication with the Titan had been lost.
“By the time they were supposed to be up again, there was a time. When they were supposed to be up on the surface again and when that time passed the real shock, not shock but the worry and the not so good feelings started.
“We had loads of hope, I think that was the only thing that got us through it because we were hoping and… we talked about things that pilots can do like dropping weights, there were so many actions people on the sub can do in order to surface.
“We were constantly looking at the surface. There was so many things we would go through where we would think “it’s just slow right now, it’s slow right now”. But there was a lot of hope.’
The Titan sub, which had been set to travel over 12,000 ft down to the Titanic wreck, went missing shortly after it set off on Sunday, 18 June, prompting a huge search and rescue mission.
Debris from the vessel was discovered on Thursday, 22 June, just 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic lying on the sea bed.
The three other people who perished on board were British billionaire Hamish Harding, French maritime expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush.
Gregory Robinson