Wife of missing submersible pilot is descended from Titanic victims

Hannah Murdock
·1 min read
In this April 10, 1912, file photo, the Titanic leaves Southampton, England on her maiden voyage. Wendy Rush, the wife of OceanGate Expeditions CEO Stockton Rush, is reportedly descended from a couple that died on the Titanic.
In this April 10, 1912, file photo, the Titanic leaves Southampton, England on her maiden voyage. Wendy Rush, the wife of OceanGate Expeditions CEO Stockton Rush, is reportedly descended from a couple that died on the Titanic. | Associated Press
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The wife of Stockton Rush, the CEO of Oceangate Expeditions and the pilot of the submersible that went missing Sunday on a visit to the wreckage site of the Titanic, is reportedly descended from a couple that died on the Titanic.

Wendy Rush is a direct descendent of Isidor and Ida Straus, two wealthy first-class passengers that were among the over 1,500 people who died when the Titanic sank in 1912, a report from The New York Times found.

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While the ship was sinking, Ida Straus refused to go on a lifeboat in order to stay with her husband, survivors remembered, according to the Times. Their tragic story was briefly depicted in the 1997 “Titanic” film in a shot of an elderly couple holding each other in a bed surrounded by water.

According to archival records, Rush is the great-great-granddaughter of the couple. Rush has been on at least three expeditions with OceanGate to visit the wreckage site of the Titanic prior to the Sunday expedition where her husband piloted the Titan submersible that went missing.

Search efforts for the Titan were still underway as of Thursday, as the estimated amount of oxygen was expected to run out, the Deseret News reported.