EVERETT — Workers and tenants at the Port of Everett were solemn Wednesday in discussing their neighbor, OceanGate, whose submersible has been missing since Sunday in the Atlantic Ocean near the wreck of the Titanic.
It was business as usual at the boatyard, aside from being harried by national media outlets.
“I’m trying to run a business here,” said a tenant who declined to be interviewed.
Those who offered comments were casual acquaintances or on friendly terms with OceanGate employees.
Don Downhour repairs boats at a facility next to OceanGate’s office and warehouse at the port.
“It was just ‘Hi and good-bye,’” Downhour said, as he put down his paintbrush.
Founded in 2009, OceanGate moved operations from Seattle to the port in 2015 for the water access and space.
OceanGate shares its street address with Scuttlebutt Family Pub and the Port’s Waterfront Center.
Punch in the address to Scuttlebutt and it will take you to 1205 Craftsman Way, a popular place to go for a cold one and enjoy the water view and breeze.
Punch in OceanGate’s address and good luck finding it. In a row of boatyard bays, it’s the most nondescript, with an unmarked door. The four windows in the bay are covered.
The company’s headquarters are only accessible from a back lot behind the port, which discourages unauthorized visitors. This week, however, reporters and photographers from national outlets were stationed outside OceanGate’s door in hopes of talking to any employees.
Other than a sticker that says “OceanGate Titanic Survey Expedition 2019,” there is no indication what goes on inside.
A FedEx delivery sticker dated June 21 was taped to the door.
A Daily Herald reporter on a December 2021 tour of OceanGate’s open-concept office and workshop remembered it as hip and edgy with design space, component shelving and storage for submersibles.
For a week in December 2021, the Titan, a 21-foot capsule, was displayed in front of the marina.
“That’s the OceanGate that everyone is talking about?” said a Scuttlebutt server. She said a few workers would come in for carryouts.
Bryan Dennis, the owner of Puget Sound Composites a few bays down, said he had just concluded an interview with a national news station.
“We’ve been proud to have them as a neighbor,” Dennis said. “They’re a great team. We’re praying for them.”
Dennis said he knew some of the engineers at OceanGate.
“We worked on some projects for them,” he said. “We did a part that wasn’t a structural part of the sub. It was exterior of the hull, it wasn’t very important.”
Ardi Kveven is the founder and executive director of the Ocean Research College Academy at the Waterfront Center. The academy for high school students offered internships at OceanGate. Four years ago they were discontinued, Kveven said.
“We’re concerned about him and all the other people that were part of their mission,” Kveven said.
The OceanGate Foundation, the charitable arm of the company, was active in local schools, encouraging students to consider careers in STEM, Kveven said.
“I know Stockton, so it’s just incredibly sad,” she added. “My distillation of Stockton is he’s just this explorer. He has what could be considered a crazy idea to go to the Titanic and pushed the envelope to do so.”
Andrea Brown: 425-339-3443; abrown@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @reporterbrown.
Janice Podsada: 425-339-3097; jpodsada@heraldnet.com;
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