Titan sub widow remembers husband, son’s remains returned in small boxes

Christine Dawood, a widow who lost her husband and son in the Titan Submersible disaster three years ago, said she remembered retrieving their remains nine months after the explosion by putting them in two small “shoebox”-like boxes.

Dawood: “We have not received the bodies for nine months” he told the Guardian in a story published Saturday. “Well, by body, I mean the remaining mud. They came in two little boxes, like shoeboxes.”

He added that “there wasn’t much they could find” of Shahzada Dawood, 48, and their son Suleiman, 19, from London, after the explosion.

“They’ve got a big pile of them that they can’t separate, it’s all mixed DNA and they asked if I wanted some of that too. But I said no, all you know is Suleiman and Prince.”

Shahzada and Suleman, along with OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, businessman Hamish Harding and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, died when the submarine exploded as it descended towards the Titanic wreckage in the North Atlantic Ocean on June 18, 2023.

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Dawood told the Guardian she remembers the last time she saw her husband and son on the morning they boarded the submarine, struggling with seasickness on the ship that took them to their descent.

“Solomon had the Rubik’s Cube because he planned to break the record for solving it at the deepest depth ever,” he recalled. “And we were giggling, because the Prince was clumsy and was shaking a little as he walked down the stairs. I waved. That was it. They got on a boat and sped away. It went by so fast, goodbye.”

A few hours later, in the ship’s dining room, Dawood heard someone say: “They lost contact.”

When they realized he had overheard, the person added: “‘Don’t worry, this isn’t unusual.’ What should I do at that moment? “I felt trapped on that ship and had no choice but to trust what he told me.”

He said he tried to keep his anxiety at bay and told himself they were “stuck” in the submarine.

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An OceanGate-branded vessel docks at the shipyard near the company’s headquarters at the Port of Everett complex in Everett, Washington, on June 22, 2023. (Matt Mills McKnight/Reuters)

“But I was worried. Solomon… I mean, neither of my guys are very good at being in the dark, and I knew it was going to be a very different kind of darkness out there. Nothing. You literally can’t see anything,” he said.

He said everyone on the ship was in complete denial.

“There was a crew [acting] It’s like nothing is happening,” he said, adding that the crew suggested it would take time to find the crew unharmed.

“It crossed my mind that OceanGate had ulterior motives for what they were telling us,” he added. “They were just trying to escape the truth. But if I didn’t have hope, I would have gotten worse much faster.”

While they waited, he said the team planned jam sessions and movies to pass the time.

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Former OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush stands next to the Titan submarine. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

“I think ultimately they want to distract people, keep everyone busy,” he said. “They wanted everyone inside so they wouldn’t feed anything to the press. But jam sessions? Am I really going to sit there and sing Kumbaya? I tried trying a movie, but when I got there it felt like an act of betrayal. Watching ‘Wayne’s World’ while they were stuck in the dark didn’t sit well with me.”

After an extensive search, the remains of the submarine were found on the ocean floor.

The US Coast Guard called it a “catastrophic explosion”.

“My first thought was, thank God,” Dawood said. “When they said it was a disaster, I knew that Prince and Suleiman didn’t even know about it. One moment they were there, the next they weren’t. It was very important to know that they were not suffering. They are gone, but the way they left somehow makes things easier.”

Realizing they were gone, Dawood said he had to take care of the practical details.

“What was I going to do with their stuff?” he said. “Their bags? Prince’s clothes and belongings were in my cabin, so I packed his bags. But I didn’t pack Süleyman’s bag. I couldn’t do it. Someone else did it.”

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Rear Admiral John Mauger, Commander of the First Coast Guard District in Boston, speaks at a news conference about debris found on the ocean floor that indicates a catastrophic loss of pressure on the missing submarine near the Titanic wreck on June 22, 2023. (Fatih Aktaş/Anadolu Agency)

Last year, the Coast Guard released a report calling the explosion a “preventable tragedy” and blaming OceanGate’s culture of avoiding regulations and “neglect” for safety.

“I had so many reasons to hate Stockton from the beginning, but does it really help me?” Dawood said. “He died with them. If I’m angry at him, I give him power and I refuse to do it. I’m sure people will say I’m naive, but if I start analyzing everything, where does that lead me? So I choose myself, not my own happiness… every day. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be here. I would kill myself, of course.”

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He added that he was trying to “pay attention” to his pain.

“So I go to Suleyman’s room. Sometimes I find the cat sleeping on his pillow and I sit on the bed and let the pain come,” he admitted. “And after a while I’m able to put the pain aside until the next time it gets too big. I’ve worked hard on my pain for Solomon, but I’m just starting to grieve for my husband. In public, these things are always lumped together, but they’re two different relationships. Two very different pains.”