Wife of OceanGate CEO Onboard Missing Tourist Submarine Is Descendant of Titanic Victims: Report

The OceanGate logo is pictured on a trailer at the Port of Everett Boat Yard in Everett, Washington, on June 20, 2023. Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images

The wife of the OceanGate CEO on board the tourist submarine that went missing while surveying the Titanic shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean is a descendant of two passengers who died on the Titanic, according to a new report.

OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, 61, founded the company in 2009 and also oversees its financial and engineering strategies, according to the company’s website.

The company, which provides submersibles for tourism and research purposes, confirmed that Rush is onboard the missing vessel in a statement earlier this week, noting that he’s “a member of the crew.”

The CEO and aerospace engineer married Wendy Rush—born Wendy Hollings Weil—in 1986, according to a New York Times wedding announcement. She’s the communications director at OceanGate, according to her LinkedIn profile.

She’s also a great-great-granddaughter of businessman and politician Isidor Straus and his wife, Ida, both of whom were passengers on board the Titanic and were among the wealthiest first-class passengers to die, according to The New York Times.

Joan Adler, executive director of the Straus Historical Society, told the publication that Isidor and Ida Straus had a daughter named Minnie Straus, who married Dr. Richard Weil in 1905.

Their son, Dr. Richard Weil III, is Wendy Rush’s father, according to Adler.

Isidor Straus previously co-owned Macy’s department store with his brother Nathan, according to the National Archives.

A submersible vessel named Titan used to visit the wreckage site of the Titanic. OceanGate Expeditions via AP

‘Where You Go, I Go’

“After a visit to their native Germany, Isidor and Ida were traveling back to the United States with Ida’s recently-appointed maid, Ellen Bird, and Isidor’s manservant, John Farthing,” the National Archives read. “Though the Straus’s [sic] usually traveled on German vessels, the lure of the newly-commissioned Titanic and all the luxury she could offer probably proved too much of a temptation for the journey home.”

Both Isidor and Ida died when the Titanic hit an iceberg on the night of April 14, 1912, according to the National Archives, despite the couple being directed toward lifeboat eight.

“The aging Isidor refused to board the lifeboat while there were younger men being prevented from boarding,” the National Archives read. “Ida also refused to get into the lifeboat saying, ‘Where you go, I go’. Her maid Ellen was put into the lifeboat and Ida gave Ellen her fur coat, saying she had no further use for it.”

The couple were reportedly last seen together holding hands on deck before they were swept into the sea.

Isidor’s body was later recovered, and he was buried in New York’s Woodlawn Cemetery. Ida’s body was never found.

Her maid survived the sinking of the Titanic and died in 1949, but Farthing’s body was lost with the ship and never recovered, according to the archives.

Along with Stockton Rush, four other passengers are onboard the missing tourist submarine reported missing on June 18 about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Representatives for OceanGate didn’t respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for further comment.

U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Capt. Jamie Frederick speaks to reporters about the search efforts for the Titan submersible that went missing near the wreck of the Titanic, at Coast Guard Base Boston on June 21, 2023. Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images

‘Underwater Noises’

Billionaire Hamish Harding, chairman of Dubai-based Action Aviation, a global sales company in business aviation; Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman; and French diver and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet were also on board.

Multiple agencies, led by the Boston Coast Guard, are currently conducting a search and rescue operation to find the submersible, called Titan.

On June 20, the U.S. Coast Guard said a Canadian P-3 aircraft had picked up “underwater noises“ in the search area, prompting remotely operated vehicles to be relocated to explore the origin of the sounds.

However, those searches had ultimately yielded “negative results,” according to the agency.

Experts have said that the oxygen supplies onboard the missing vessel—which was only on its third trip since OceanGate Expeditions began offering trips in 2021, according to reports—is quickly running out.

According to OceanGate, such trips to view the wreckage of the Titanic cost $250,000 per person.

In an interview with CBS journalist David Pogue last year, Stockton Rush stressed that expeditions on board vessels such as the 22-foot (6.7-meter) carbon-fiber one that’s currently missing are generally safe.

“You know, at some point, safety is just pure waste. I mean, if you just want to be safe, don’t get out of bed, don’t get in your car, don’t do anything. At some point, you’re going to take some risk, and it really is a risk-reward question,” Rush said.