Relatives of the British billionaire feared dead following the discovery of debris in the hunt for the missing submersible last night slammed his old Cambridge college for going ahead with an 'under-the-sea' themed ball.
As the search for Hamish Harding and his four fellow crew members beneath the Atlantic reached a critical stage, students from Pembroke College were drinking prosecco and cocktails at the £175-a-head black tie event.
Photographs from Wednesday night's event show deep blue lighting and posters of submarines, while music included a rendition of Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On, from the film Titanic.
Last night the 58-year-old's cousin said it was 'unbelievable' that the 600-year-old college had gone ahead with an event in such 'extremely bad taste'.
However Pembroke said that by the time the OceanGate expedition to the Titanic had become an international rescue mission, it was too late to change the theme of the ball.
The traditional end-of-exams May Ball - which saw students at the historic college partying until 5am yesterday - was entitled 'Nautilus: Into the Depths' in a reference to Jules Verne's classic science fiction novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
A giant illuminated deep sea diver's helmet was placed in the main quadrangle, while students were entertained with live sea shanties as they queued.
Promotional poster featured images of submarines and signs reading 'Wanted - dead or alive' while decorations included giant jellyfish-shaped lighting.
Slamming the decision to go ahead amid fears that Mr Harding and the rest of the crew were hours away from running out of oxygen, his cousin Kathleen Cosnett accused the college of being disrespectful.
'I was shocked about that,' she told the Daily Mail. 'Unbelievable - at his college of all colleges.
'Hopefully, they didn't play "We all Live in a Yellow Submarine".'
Asked if the event should have been cancelled, she said: 'Yes, certainly. Someone should have taken a second thought.'
Earlier the 69-year-old told The Daily Telegraph the theme of the ball was 'terrible', adding 'polite courtesy has missed out on quite a few generations'.
She also slammed the delay before the submersible's support ship raised the alarm on Sunday, saying it had taken 'far too long'.
One student who was at the ball told student newspaper Varsity it had been 'insensitive given the circumstances'.
She added: 'It's a really heartbreaking situation [and] I think it'd be wrong to blame the committee.' But another told MailOnline: 'The ball itself had no references to submersibles or the like and the theme was mainly interpreted through decor relating to aquatic sea life and pirates.'
A statement placed on the ball's website just hours before it was due to take 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.'
The ball saw money raised for charities Plastic Oceans and the Blue Marine Foundation.
A spokesman for the college said: 'Our thoughts go out to the Harding family and all the affected families at this very difficult time.'
Founded in 1347, its other alumni include comic actors Peter Cook and Eric Idle as well as Marvel star Tom Hiddleston.
Mr Harding, a Dubai based private jet broker and father-of-two, attended Pembroke in the 1980s, graduating with a degree in natural sciences and chemical engineering.
The aviator holds three Guinness World Records - including the longest time spent at the bottom of the sea after exploring the Mariana Trench, the deepest place on Earth - and has been to space on the Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin rocket.
Also yesterday it emerged that 19-year-old Suleman Dawood, who was on board with his Pakistani-born businessman father Shahzada, 48, was studying for a business degree at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.
A spokesman said it was 'deeply concerned about Suleman, his father and the others involved in this incident' and was hoping for a 'positive outcome'.