Titan Unfinished: An Untold Story of Exploration, Innovation, and the OceanGate Tragedy

A firsthand, never-before-told account of the creation of OceanGate, the heartbreaking Titan tragedy and the supposed villain behind it all, Stockton Rush, as told by the only person who can: his cofounder and friend.

In the summer of 2023, the entire world fixated on a single news story that captured every headline on every media outlet: the search and rescue operation for OceanGate’s Titan research submersible, and the ultimate tragic fate of its five crew members. The media frenzy was fueled by many captivating storylines, but its primary focus was the villain at the center of it all, Stockton Rush: cofounder and CEO of OceanGate, and the ill-fated vessel’s pilot and designer.

But was Stockton Rush truly the arrogant, rule-breaking, risk-taking con man the media insisted he was? Or was he a visionary altruistic technologist, philanthropist, and investor, someone willing to put his own personal wealth and life on the line in the name of exploring our planet’s deep oceans?

Titan Unfinished is more than a recounting of the events that led to the tragedy—it’s an up-close, personal account of Stockton’s journey, from the conception of OceanGate to his sudden death, told by one of the few people who was with Rush from the very start. Fellow cofounder Guillermo Sohnlein examines the full humanity of the man behind OceanGate’s ambitious mission and offers insights extending far beyond the attention-grabbing headlines, detailing Rush’s temperament, motivations, and tendencies, as well as the technology, operations, and key events at play in a story that has thus far been massively oversimplified.

Told by an insider with the deepest knowledge, and honoring the legacies of all those involved in the fatal accident, Titan Unfinished paints the full picture of an important but deeply misunderstood story.

A portion of author proceeds will be donated to charitable organizations.

Guillermo A. M. Söhnlein is an explorer, entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist with a particular passion for space, oceans, and sustainability. Over the course of a 25-year entrepreneurial career, he has helped launch over a dozen for-profit ventures and nonprofit organizations. His prior efforts include Space Angels Network in 2006, OceanGate in 2009, and the Humans2Venus Foundation in 2020. He enjoys sharing his experiences with others as an advisor, mentor, Board member, teacher, and speaker. Guillermo earned his AB in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley and his JD from the University of California San Francisco College of the Law (formerly Hastings College of the Law). He served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps and was admitted to The Explorers Club in 2012. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he was raised in Silicon Valley and currently splits his time between Barcelona in Spain and the United States.