OceanGate CEO Who Died in Titan Submersible Had Real-Life Connection to Titanic

etonline.com:

presumed «dead» along with the four other passengers on the vessel, was married to the descendent of a couple who died in the very shipwreck his expedition aimed to see.Per, the , Stockton's wife, Wendy Rush, is the great-great-granddaughter of Isidor and Ida Straus, who remained onboard the sinking Titanic so that others could escape to safety in their place.The couple was the real-life inspiration behind the heart-wrenching scene in James Cameron's movie, in which an elderly couple holds onto each other in bed as water rushes into their room.Wendy's Titanic connection was confirmed by the  through genealogical records and by the Straus Historical Society — an educational nonprofit.

She is also a direct descendant of Minnie Weil, one of the Straus' seven children.Per her her LinkedIn page, Wendy was also involved in OceanGate, serving as the company's communications director since the start of its Titanic expeditions in 2021.Outside of his familial ties, Stockton himself had long desired to make viewing the famed ocean liner a reality, for both professional and scientific reasons.When researchers found that the Titanic was slowly decaying due to metal-eating bacteria in 2019, Stockton told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle that he felt a «pressing need to document the world's most famous shipwreck, combined with a huge demand of people who wanted to go see it.»«It made perfect sense,» he added. «We just had to make the submersible to get there.»On Sunday, Oceangate Expeditions CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Nargeolet, embarked on what was supposed to be a 10-hour journey in the 21-foot submersible that would take them to the site of the Titanic.