(RNN) - For 100 years now, the Titanic has had a gripping, almost mythical pull on society's collective curiosity.
But for a select few, their interest in the ill-fated ship that took three years to build and three hours to sink goes much deeper - approximately 12,500 feet deep, to the bottom of the ocean floor where the ship lies.
For around $60,000 you can dive to the actual wreck site of the Titanic to commemorate the 100th anniversary of its April 15, 1912 sinking.
The Bluefish, a company specializing in unique and sometimes out of this world travel, is sponsoring four trips to the wreck site this summer. They've also sponsored trips to outer space.
"The fact that it's the 100th anniversary, that's one thing that makes it a grand expedition to take. But more people have been to the top of Everest or space than have been to the ruins of the Titanic. Space isn't going anywhere and neither is Everest, but you've got about 20 to 25 years left to visit the Titanic," said Steve Sims, with The Bluefish.
The ship, thought unsinkable at the time, plunged to the bottom of the North Atlantic after hitting an ice berg and breaking apart. More than 1,500 people died in the icy waters. Around 700 survived.
If money isn't an object, time definitely is.
Age, pressure and the ocean itself has corroded the once-grand liner. Scientists say bacteria are eating away of what remains and the ship may be little more than rust on the ocean floor by 2030.
The trip to the wreck site is made in a small submersible that fits a pilot and two passengers. The units are built to withstand the intense pressure of deep ocean travel and air is recycled much like on an airplane.
About 2 1/2 hours into the trip, the bow comes into breathtaking view.
"You'll be about 15 feet away from it, so to say you're close is an understatement. You'll really be that close," Sims said.
And with the physical closeness comes an emotional closeness. Amid the deteriorating frame of the ship are the relics of lost lives and the historic can turn heartbreakingly personal very quickly.
"They've been able to research how pressure and the lack of sunlight holds some things together and rips others apart. You'll see toothbrushes, porcelain, shoes just strewn across the floor. When you see kid shoes laid on the floor bed, you suddenly start going, 'This was a real tragedy,'" he said.
"Your sensitivity suddenly kicks in and your senses are captured by the immense tragedy."
The Titanic sunk on its way from Southampton, England to New York, many of its passengers on board in hopes of starting a new life in America. Sims says it's the spirit of the American dream - one that died in the icy North Atlantic - that still leaves people captivated by the tale of the Titanic a century later.
"It was a marvel it was even built, there was the invincibility complex. This was such an architectural feat," Sims said. "For it to sink with 1,500 dreams on board that ship, different financial and social class, and these people just perish ... When you suddenly find out it was social classes trying to better themselves in America, which at the time was the land of hopes and dreams, to me, it symbolizes people trying to better themselves."
Since the ship's debris field was discovered in 1985, only a handful of expeditions to the site have been undertaken.
So, who's got all that cash lying around for such a trip? Apparently, a lot of people.
Of the 80 available slots for the summer trips, all but 14 are spoken and paid for.
As far as physical requirements?
"You gotta have a hefty checkbook and you have to be able to fit through the porthole and that's it," Sims joked. "Your only exertion is to walk up seven steps, fit through that hole and stay seated about eight hours."
Copyright 2012 Raycom News Network. All rights reserved.
(Source: The Bluefish)
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