New Delhi: The 19-year-old teenager Suleman Dawood, who died in the Titan submersible alongside his father, took his Rubik's Cube with him because he wanted to break a world record, his mother told the British broadcaster BBC News.


Christine Dawood told BBC that her son Suleman was “so excited” to try and solve the puzzle 3,700 metres below the ocean surface. "He said, 'I'm going to solve the Rubik's Cube 3,700 metres below sea at the Titanic'."




He had applied to Guinness World Records and his father, who also died, had brought a camera with him to capture the moment.


She told the broadcaster that her son loved the famous square puzzle so much that he carried it with him everywhere and dazzled onlookers by solving it in 12 just seconds.


The family boarded the Polar Prince on Father’s Day.


Christine said she had initially planned to go with her husband to view the wreck of the Titanic, but she said that trip was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.


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


Dawood and her daughter were on board the Polar Prince, the sub's support vessel, when word came through that communications with the Titan had been lost.


Dawood and her daughter stayed on board the Polar Prince as the search and rescue mission shifted from hopeful to desperate, according to BBC.


She said she “lost hope” when 96 hours had passed since her husband and son boarded the submersible, which indicated they had run out of oxygen.




She said that her daughter held out a bit longer. "She didn't lose hope until the call with Coast Guard. When they basically informed us that they found debris," she told BBC.


She revealed that’s when she sent a message to her family saying she was ‘preparing for the worst.’


The family returned to St John's on Saturday, and on Sunday held a funeral prayer for Shahzada and Suleman. 


Dawood said she and her daughter have vowed to try to learn to finish the Rubik’s Cube in Suleman’s honour, and she intends to continue her husband’s work.


She said, “He was involved in so many things, he helped so many people and I think Alina and I really want to continue that legacy and give him that platform when his work has continued and it’s quite important for my daughter as well."




"I miss them," she said. "I really, really miss them."


Apart from Suleman and his father Shahzada Dawood, three other people died on board: Stockton Rush, the founder and chief executive officer of OceanGate Expeditions who was piloting the vessel, British businessman Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henry Nargeolet, a former French navy diver and renowned explorer.