Calvert County man remembers friend who died in deep sea submersible

BALTIMORE -- A Calvert County man recalls his 77-year-old friend who died onboard a deep-sea submersible after a days-long search and rescue effort.

Paul-Henri Nargeolet was one of five passengers on the submersible that set out to tour the Titanic wreckage.

He was better known as "PH" to his friend Tom Dettweiler.

"He was just an incredible person, very professional but yet a very likable person," Dettweiler said. "Everybody who knew 'PH' loved him."  

Dettweiler said his fears were realized when the deep-sea search failed to locate the submersible and officials determined that a "catastrophic implosion" likely killed PH and the four other explorers.

"For the crew, it was just like a light switch was switched off," he said. "They didn't even realize what was happening. They didn't suffer, and 'PH' was doing something that he truly loved, and, you know, it just ended."

Dettweiler said he went on many dives with PH, including dozens to the Titanic wreckage. He said the former Navy officer served as the director of underwater research at RMS Titanic, Inc., the company with exclusive rights to salvage items from the ship. 

"We all know that something like this could happen at some point," he said. "Failures do happen when you are going to these extremes."

Dettweiler said there was a lot to learn from the tragic ending, and at least PH was doing what he loved until the very end.