Home | Mark Ellis Harris

The cover of the US edition of Deep End by Mark Ellis Harris

In June 2023, OceanGate’s experimental Titan submersible went missing while diving to the wreck of Titanic. Billions around the world were transfixed as ships raced to rescue the sub's passengers: its charismatic pilot, a legendary explorer, a multi-millionaire businessman, and a father with his teenage son. After four days, the horrifying news came that the sub had imploded, killing all on board.

In Deep End, investigative technology journalist Mark Ellis Harris weaves heart-stopping storytelling, rigorous reporting, and exclusive insider interviews to tell the full jaw-dropping story of the accident, its origins, and its wider relevance.

A tightly-coiled drama set in a breathtakingly vivid world, Deep End is an unforgettable tale of high seas adventure, commercial blunders, and technological hubris.

Available
26 January

Pre-order

Pre-order (UK)

Amazon Apple Barnes & Noble Bookshop Elliott Bay Third Place

Audiobook

Advance Praise

“This is the rare book where knowing the ending—and most of us 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.”

“This gripping, meticulously reported book is not just a deep dive into the saga of the ill-fated Titan. Mark Ellis Harris lifts the lid on an unseen world of adventurers obsessed with exploring the ocean depths.”

—Julian Sancton, bestselling author of Madhouse at the End of the Earth

—tom standage, bestselling author of a history of the world in 6 glasses

"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."

“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.”

—Peter Robison, bestselling author of Flying Blind: The 737 MAX Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing

—Rachel Slade, bestselling author of Into the Raging Sea

Three quarters length photo of Mark Harris, author of Deep End. Credit Jenny Jimenez

Mark Ellis Harris

Since WIRED magazine published his initial OceanGate investigation in 2024, Mark Ellis Harris has become the leading expert on the implosion of the Titan. He has a trove of tens of thousands of internal OceanGate emails, documents, and photographs, and has talked to dozens of sources within and working with the company.

An investigative science and technology reporter based in Seattle, Harris has written about laser satellites, self-driving vehicles, giant airships, faulty defibrillators, and monkey-powered robots for WIRED, The Guardian, The Economist, MIT Technology Review, TechCrunch and Scientific American, among others. His writing has earned many awards, including the SABEW award for investigative and technology reporting, a National Press Club award for aerospace reporting, and the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Gold Award. Harris was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.

02

OceanGate Titan

Titan was the only commercial submersible capable of taking five people down to the wreck of Titanic, nearly 4,000 meters down in the North Atlantic. Its main pressure hull was a cylinder of carbon fiber composite, instrumented with tiny sensors to provide an early warning of potential problems with the material. A pilot controlled the sub’s thrusters using a wireless games controller. Its missions typically lasted 12 hours but the Titan had air supply for 96 hours.

03

Launch and Recovery System (LARS)

The aluminum LARS platform held the Titan during transport to and from dive sites. When tanks within its hull were filled with water, the LARS submerged to a depth of 10 meters, where the Titan was released. At the end of a dive, Titan reattached to the LARS and air pumped into its ballast tanks raised the two vessels together. The 5-meter- long, 50,000-lb LARS could be stored on the deck of a support ship or towed behind it.

01 / 04

Titan’s rings and domes

Titan's carbon fiber hull was glued into titanium rings at each end. Titanium hemispheres were then bolted to the rings, with the front dome hinged to allow access. This dome also housed a portable toilet. Just inside the carbon fiber, a fiberglass insert sleeve supported flooring, lighting, and touchscreens to control the sub.

02

OceanGate Titan

Titan was the only commercial submersible capable of taking five people down to the wreck of Titanic, nearly 4,000 meters down in the North Atlantic. Its main pressure hull was a cylinder of carbon fiber composite, instrumented with tiny sensors to provide an early warning of potential problems with the material. A pilot controlled the sub’s thrusters using a wireless games controller. Its missions typically lasted 12 hours but the Titan had air supply for 96 hours.

03

Launch and Recovery System (LARS)

The aluminum LARS platform held the Titan during transport to and from dive sites. When tanks within its hull were filled with water, the LARS submerged to a depth of 10 meters, where the Titan was released. At the end of a dive, Titan reattached to the LARS and air pumped into its ballast tanks raised the two vessels together. The 5-meter- long, 50,000-lb LARS could be stored on the deck of a support ship or towed behind it.