<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">Teenager Suleman Dawood, who died in the Titan submersible, took his Rubik's Cube with him because he wanted to break a world record, his mother has told the BBC.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The 19-year-old applied to the Guinness World Records and his father, Shahzada, who also died, had brought a camera to capture the moment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Christine 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.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I didn't comprehend at that moment what it meant - and then it just went downhill from there," she said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In her first interview, Mrs Dawood said she had planned to go with her husband to view the wreck of the Titanic, but the trip was cancelled because of the Covid pandemic.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Then I stepped back and gave them space to set [Suleman] up, because he really wanted to go," she said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As well as Suleman and his father Shahzada Dawood, three other people died on board: Stockton Rush, the 61-year-old CEO of OceanGate which owned the Titan, British businessman Hamish Harding, 58, and Paul-Henry Nargeolet, 77, a former French navy diver and renowned explorer.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Speaking of her son, Mrs Dawood said Suleman loved the Rubik's Cube so much that he carried it with him everywhere, dazzling onlookers by solving the complex puzzle in 12 seconds.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"He said, 'I'm going to solve the Rubik's Cube 3,700 metres below sea at the Titanic'."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Suleman was a student at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, in the UK. Businessman Shahzada Dawood, who was British, was from one of Pakistan's richest families.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The family, including daughter Alina, 17, boarded the Polar Prince on Father's Day.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mrs Dawood said they hugged and made jokes in the moments before her husband and son boarded the Titan submersible.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I was really happy for them because both of them, they really wanted to do that for a very long time," she said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mrs Dawood described her husband as infectiously curious about the world around him - the kind of person who made the family watch documentaries after dinner.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"He had this ability of childlike excitement," she said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mrs Dawood and her daughter stayed on board the Polar Prince as the search and rescue mission shifted from hopeful to desperate.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I think I lost hope when we passed the 96 hours mark," Mrs Dawood said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">She said that's when she sent a message to her family. "I said: 'I'm preparing for the worst.' That's when I lost hope."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Alina held out a bit longer, she said. "She didn't lose hope until the call with Coast Guard. When they basically informed us that they found debris."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The family returned to St John's on Saturday, and on Sunday held a funeral prayer for Shahzada and Suleman. Mrs Dawood said she was touched that the Imam said a prayer for all five of the men killed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mrs Dawood said she and her daughter will try to learn to finish the Rubik's Cube in Suleman's honour, and she intends to continue her husband's work.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"He was involved in so many things, he helped so many people and I think I really want to continue that legacy and give him that platform... it's quite important for my daughter as well."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mrs Dawood declined to discuss the ongoing investigations into the tragedy. But when asked how she and her daughter would find closure she said: "Is there such a thing? I don't know."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I miss them," she said, taking a deep breath. "I really, really miss them."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>