Missing Titanic sub: Pilot’s wife is descendant of couple who died on 1912 ship: Report
Conrad Hoyt
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The wife of Stockton Rush, the chief executive of OceanGate and pilot of the Titanic submersible stuck at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, is reportedly a descendant of one of the wealthiest couples to die on the 1912 ocean liner.
Wendy Rush is the great-great-granddaughter of Isidor Straus and his wife, Ida, according to archival records reviewed by the New York Times. The revelation adds another element to the missing underwater craft case that has captured the attention of the nation.
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Isidor Straus, born in 1845, was reportedly a co-owner of Macy’s department store. He and Ida were married for four decades when the Titanic sank in the Atlantic Ocean.
Wendy Rush was born Wendy Hollings Weil, according to the newspaper, and married Stockton Rush in 1986. She is OceanGate’s communications director, per her LinkedIn profile, which says she is also an expedition team and board member.
It is famously told that women and children were first offered seats on the lifeboats that could only save roughly 700 of the 2,240 passengers and crew on board the Titanic in 1912. But it is also known, and popularized, in James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster of the same name that the wealthy had higher chances of securing safety than those not so well-off, likely further down in the ship.
Survivors of the disaster reportedly remembered seeing Isidor Straus refuse a seat on a lifeboat when women and children were still waiting to flee the sinking ship. Ida Straus said she would not leave her husband, and the couple stayed together as the ship went down, a moment likely commemorated in Cameron’s film.
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There are five people on board the missing submersible, including Stockton Rush. The Coast Guard has underscored the severity of the group’s predicament, as this time tomorrow, the oxygen inside of the craft will have run out.
A rescue crew searching for the submersible, called the Titan, heard banging sounds Tuesday and Wednesday in the area where the craft disappeared. However, it is not known what is making those noises, nor is it known if the five men are still alive. But rescue efforts continue.