Wife of Titanic sub pilot and OceanGate CEO is the great-great-granddaughter of Titanic victims

They say truth is stranger than fiction. In the case of the missing OceanGate Titanic Expedition submersible, truth is certainly turning out to be stranger than fiction. The wife of OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, currently on the missing Titan submersible, is related to a New York couple who died on the RMS Titanic.

Yes, the original Titanic that the OceanGate submersible set out to see the wreck of.

Wendy Rush, wife of Stockton Rush, has ancestral ties to New York couple Isidor and Ida, who were onboard the original Titanic when it set sail in 1912, and died on it.

Wendy is the great-great granddaughter of Isidor and Ida.

What

• On Sunday noon, June 18, the submersible embarked on its voyage undertaking a dive to visit the wreckage of the Titanic in the North Atlantic Ocean.
• Approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes into its descent, the vessel lost communication with the Polar Prince, the support ship responsible for transporting it to the location. 
• Currently, an extensive search operation is actively underway, as oxygen on the submersible runs out.

Isidor and Ida 

• Isidor Straus and his wife, Ida, were among the first class passengers on the Titanic during its inaugural voyage in 1912.
• Isidor Straus, who was born in 1845, held a significant stake in Macy's department store as one of its co-owners.
• Their tragic story was also immortalised in the fictional portrayal of the 1997 film Titanic directed by James Cameron. 
• In the movie, they were shown holding on to each other on a bed while the ship was flooded with water.

• In reality, both Isidor and Ida were offered seats on a lifeboat during the Titanic tragedy. 
• Ida was offered a place as a woman, and Isidor due to his prominent status as a former Congressman and co-owner of Macy's department store. 
• However, Isidor selflessly declined the offer, insisting that he would not leave until all the women and children had been saved.
• Ida also refused to leave without her husband, whom she was married to for four decades.
• Isidor Straus’s body was found at sea roughly two weeks after the Titanic sank. Ida Straus’s remains have never been recovered.

Wendy and her relations

• According to archival records accessed by The New York Times, Wendy is connected by ancestry to Ida and Isidor.
• Wendy Rush is the wife of Stockton Rush, one of the five individuals who are currently trapped inside the Titan submersible. 
• Isidor Straus is Rush's great-great-grandfather. Isidor co-owned Macy's with his brother.
• Wendy Rush, born Hollings Weil, married Stockton Rush in 1986.
• Wendy has been actively involved in three OceanGate expeditions to explore the wreckage of the Titanic within the past two years. 
• She holds the position of communications director within OceanGate and has served as a board member for the company's philanthropic foundation for a significant period.

What is the latest on the Titanic submersible? 

• The submersible Titan typically carries approximately 96 hours of life support when embarking on each expedition to explore the Titanic wreckage. 
• The oxygen is supposed to last till 12 noon GMT (5.30 pm IST).
• It went missing on Sunday afternoon, sending US and Canadian forces to scour the ocean surface and under the sea for any trace of the vessel.
• Banging sounds have been detected beneath the water in the extensive search area on Tuesday and Wednesday.
• The people onboard Titan include pilot Stockton Rush, the head of OceanGate, the company that developed the submersible; Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French underwater wreck expert who has written about the Titanic and visited the wreck dozens of times; British entrepreneur Hamish Harding, and British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Sulaiman.

ALSO READ: Missing Titanic submersible that faced a lawsuit is also a PR diaster for Elon Musk

ALSO READ: Hamish Harding, onboard missing Titanic sub, had a big role in bringing cheetahs to India