The search and rescue mission forOceanGate’sTitan , a five - person submersible that disappear en route to theTitanicshipwreckon Sunday , June 18 , has give lots of interrogative . One of them involves terminology : Why is everyone calling the vas asubmersible , rather than asubmarine ?
In short , because theTitanis a submersible , not a torpedo . The two words are n’t unmediated synonyms . Here ’s how oceanographer Edith Widderexplainedthe principal distinction in a video for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration :
“ The difference between a pigboat and a submersible warship is [ that ] a poor boy has enough power to leave port and do back to port under its own power . A submersible has very limited power reserves , so it needs a female parent ship that can set in motion it and recover it . ”
There are variouskinds of submersible warship . Some are underwater drones of sorts , either remotely operated in real fourth dimension or pre - programmed to traverse a sealed route . Others , like theTitan , nurse human crews . But whether or not people are on board , submersibles — relative to submarines — are pretty small-scale andsimply build , and only equip for short - term dive .
TheTitan , which is roughly thesize of a minivan , is entail to stay submerged for around 10 hours and has a four - day provision of atomic number 8 for its five passenger . Some bomber , by contrast , arelonger than a football field , cangenerate their own atomic number 8 , and might appease drown for a few months at a time .
Linguistically speaking , submersiblecan also be an adjective that essentially signify “ able to be deluge , ” andsubmarinecan describe anything below the aerofoil of the ocean . But if you ’re specifically talking about type of vessels , you ca n’t accurately use the terms interchangeably .
