Titan sub: British teenager took Rubik’s Cube to break record, mother says in BBC interview

In a recent interview, the mother of teenager Suleman Dawood, who died on the Titan sub, told the BBC that her son took his Rubik’s cube on the submersible because he wanted to break a world record. 

Suleman, 19, applied to the Guinness World Records and his father, Shahzada, who also died, took a camera so he could capture the moment. 

Christine Dawood and her daughter were on board the Polar Prince when communications were lost with the Titan. The vessel was the sub’s support. 

In her first interview, she said: “I didn’t comprehend at that moment what it meant – and then it just went downhill from there.”

She said she had planned to go on the Titan herself but the trip was cancelled due to the pandemic. 

“Then I stepped back and gave them space to set [Suleman] up, because he really wanted to go,” she said.

The British businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman died alongside fellow Brit Hamish Harding, former French navy diver Paul-Henry Nargeolet and CEO of OceanGate – which operated the tour to the Titanic – Stockton Rush. 

Dawood said her son loved his Rubik’s Cube and carried it with him everywhere. He was able to solve the cube in just 12 seconds. “He said, ‘I’m going to solve the Rubik’s Cube 3,700 metres below sea at the Titanic’.”