Pembroke College, Cambridge, unable to change underwater-theme of May ball held as search for alumnus Hamish Harding on board deep-sea Titan vessel goes on

The Cambridge college attended by Hamish Harding - the billionaire missing on the Titan submersible - held an underwater-themed May Ball last night (June 21), as the search for him went on.

Organisers of the ball said they wished they could have changed the theme, which was chosen months ago.

It has been reported that Celine Dion’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’ song, famously used in the film Titanic, was among the music played at the ball, which had the theme ‘Nautilus - ‘Into the Depths’.

Meanwhile, posters saying ‘Wanted: Dead or Alive’ were visible in pictures from the event, and a large diver’s helmet was illuminated outside.

Adventurer Mr Harding is among five on board the missing deep-sea vessel, which lost communication on Sunday while about 435 miles south of St John’s, Newfoundland, during a voyage to the Titanic shipwreck off the coast of Canada.

OceanGate Expeditions has estimated the oxygen supply on the 6.7m (22ft) vessel would last the crew 96 hours, meaning it was expected to run out at about midday today (Thursday), just hours after Pembroke’s May Ball came to an end..

The ball’s website and Instagram account have since been made private.

But a statement on the ball's website, posted before it took place, said: “We are aware of the worrying news about Pembroke alumnus Hamish Harding.

“Today's May Ball theme was chosen many months ago and if we could change it now, we would.

“All we can say is that we sincerely hope that Mr Harding and the others on board the submarine will be found safe and well. Our thoughts go out to the Harding family at this very difficult time.”

The event was supporting two charities - Plastic Oceans and the Blue Marine Foundation.

Meanwhile, the search for Titan continues.

Also in the submersible are UK-based businessman Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman Dawood, a student at the University of Strathclyde, OceanGate’s chief executive and founder Stockton Rush, and French submersible pilot Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

Mr Dawood also has Cambridge links. He co-founded the Karachi School of Business and Leadership (KSBL) to help Pakistani students who could not afford Cambridge admission and in 2011 it launched an MBA programme in collaboration with the Cambridge Judge Business School.