Draft:Douglas Woolley
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Douglas John Faulkner-Woolley | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1936 |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | CEO of Seawise Titanic Salvage Co. |
| Known for | Claiming to own the wreck of the Titanic |
Douglas John Faulkner-Woolley is a Titanic eccentric who claims to own the legal rights to the ship's wreck.[1] He is also the founder and CEO of Seawise Titanic Salvage Co. For most of his life he planned to raise Titanic, a scheme that would never come to fruition.
Life Before Titanic[edit]
Woolley was born in Liverpool in 1936. As a child, his uncle told him a story regarding his two great-aunts, Sally and Ellen, who booked passage on the doomed ocean liner Titanic. The aunts supposedly canceled their tickets after having premonitions of the disaster.[1] Their luggage was already aboard, however, and ended up going down with the ship.[2]
Ownership of the Wreck[edit]
Woolley made several claims to the wreck of Titanic, under United Kingdom Maritime Law. Titanic was a British ship registered in Liverpool. White Star Line, the operator of Titanic, filed for bankruptcy and was purchased by their rival, Cunard Line. Cunard completely dropped the White Star name in 1950, and thus, by Woolley's logic, disowned the right to Titanic's wreck.
Plans to Raise Titanic[edit]
Woolley planned to inflate nylon balloons attached to the ship's hull to bring it up to the surface. The plan called for a bathyscaphe to attach the balloons. The ship, once raised, would be taken to Liverpool and converted into a museum.[3]
A company named Titanic Salvage Company was created to conduct the operation, and West Berlin businessmen created an entity named Titanic-Tresor to finance the company. It was calculated that it would take years to create enough gas to overcome the water pressure, and the project lost steam after Woolley was unable to find an alternate way to inflate the balloons. [4]
RMS Queen Elizabeth[edit]
Woolley soon turned his sights to the wreck of the RMS Queen Elizabeth, which had been purchased by a Hong Kong-based company, Seawise Campus, in 1970. Seawise Campus planned to convert Queen Elizabeth into a floating university campus. Once docked in Hong Kong, Queen Elizabeth was renamed to Seawise University. Construction began on converting the ship to a university campus, under direction of the Hong Kong tycoon Tung Chao-yung. On 9 January 1972, the ship caught fire and was rendered completely unusable, before rolling onto her side.[5]
Woolley sold many of his possessions and moved to Hong Kong. He planned to raise the ship as a test to prove that his Titanic endeavor would be possible. He decided to move back to Liverpool in 1973. On Woolley's last day in Hong Kong, a government commission decided that the wreck of Queen Elizabeth was in too poor of a condition to be raised.[1] The ship would be dismantled from 1974 to 1975.
Titanic and Seawise Salvage[edit]
Woolley returned to London homeless, jobless, and broke. He eventually moved in with a BBC reporter, where he met a young man named Steven while walking through Edmonton.[1] With new hope, Woolley renamed his company to Titanic and Seawise Salvage. Woolley said that if they found bodies when they raised the ship, that he would "take all the bodies and treat them with respect."
Woolley declined to join the Titanic Historical Society, and thus he was left out of the picture when the HMHS Britannic, Titanic's younger sister ship, was discovered by Jacques Cousteau in July 1976.[6]
New technology like drilling rigs helped Woolley bring his dream closer to reality. He planned to sit on the ship above as the Titanic was raised. He could have compressed air be shot, via an ROV, into pontoons and raise the ship.
Post-Discovery Life[edit]
Robert Ballard's 1986 discovery of Titanic left Woolley in excitement. However, his plans to raise the ship never came to be.
Woolley gained a reputation as the person who wanted to raise Titanic for most of his life. Children wrote him letters, articles were written about him, and he was invited to talk in universities all around England.[1] A biography about Woolley titled Titanic: One Man's Dream, was written by Clive Amphlett and was published in 1998.[7]
Woolley was interviewed by Steven Spignesi in 2016, as a part of the For Dummies book franchise.[8]
In 2020, while Daniel Stone was researching his upcoming book Sinkable, he met with Woolley for an interview in his London home. The pair talked about his expeditions and plans to raise both Titanic and Queen Elizabeth.[1]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f Stone, Daniel (26 August 2022). Sinkable: Obsession, the Deep Sea, and the Shipwreck of the Titanic. Penguin Random House. ISBN 9780593329375.
- ^ "An Expanded Interview with Douglas Faulkner-Woolley". Stephen Spignesi. Retrieved 2024-03-29.
- ^ Eaton, John P.; Haas, Charles A. (1987). Titanic: destination disaster; the legends and the reality; [new historical details and latest wreck photographs; an expert summary of the world's most famous maritime tragedy] (3. [print] ed.). Wellingborough: Stephens. ISBN 978-0-85059-868-1.
- ^ Lord, Walter (1987). The Night Lives On.
- ^ "Fire breaks out on former RMS Queen Elizabeth | January 9, 1972". HISTORY. Retrieved 2024-03-29.
- ^ "The Wreck of the Britannic". Titanic Connections. Retrieved 2024-04-01.
- ^ Amphlett, Clive (1998-01-01). Titanic: One man's dream : Douglas John Faulkner-Woolley: his claims on Britain's two most famous liners (QE1 and Titanic) : a biography. Intes International. ISBN 978-0-9533175-0-9.
- ^ "Is Douglas Woolley the Real Owner of the Titanic?". dummies. Retrieved 2024-04-01.