The thorny of a couple who died in the sinking of the Titanic today he says goodbye to his husbandthe recently declared dead captain and owner of the Titan submarinewhich imploded on an expedition under the Atlantic Ocean.
Wendy Rushwife of Stockton Rush, the founder of OceanGate Expeditionsis a descendant of Isidor and Ida Strausa married couple present at the sinking in April 1912. Both died holding hands, a scene immortalized in the James Cameron film published in 1998.
In the film, when the slow sinking of the ship begins, a woman is shown elderly couple cuddling in bed. They would be Isidor, who did not want to get on a lifeboat when women and children were still waiting to be rescued, and Ida Straus, his partner, who refused to leave him.
Wendy Rush, wife of Stockton Rush, is a great-great-granddaughter of those who died on the Titanic
According to an investigation carried out by the renowned newspaper The New York Times, Wendy is descended from one of the Straus daughters, Minnie. She married Dr. Richard Weil in 1905 and her son, Richard Weil Jr., Wendy Rush’s grandfather, was president of the renowned Macy’s shopping chain in New York.
While Isidor Straus’s body was found in the sea several weeks after the sinking, the remains of Ida Straus were not recovered. Regarding the tragedy that occurred this week, the landing frame and the rear cover of the submersible were found, but according to reports, the bodies of the ship’s five crew members may never be recovered of the ocean.
The body of Isidor Straus was found at sea, but the remains of Ida Straus were not recovered
According to what was communicated by the United States Coast Guard, the crew members who were traveling towards the remains of the Titanic, at a depth of about 3,800 meters, experienced a immediate deathdue to the depressurization of the submersible chamber.
In addition to Wendy Rush’s husband, the reported victims include French Navy veteran Paul-Henri Nargeolet, British billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, and their 19-year-old son Suleman.
Who was Stockton Rush?
Stockton Rush, 61, was the director and founder of OceanGate Expeditions. This is the organizing company for the trips that began in 2021, when they began to take clients to see the remains of the Titanic.
Rush expressed that these visits were a marketing strategy to promote innovation development projects for submersible craft. His career had begun in 1981, when at the age of 19 he became the world‘s youngest jet transport pilot.
In 1984 he graduated in aerospace engineering from the University of Princeton and worked as a flight test engineer on F-15 fighter jets for McDonnell Douglas.
Rush admitted on camera to breaking “some rules” when making his submersible
For years, he nurtured his dream of travel to the space, imagining that you would join a commercial flight as a tourist. However, in 2004 she changed her mind: “I had the Epiphany That wasn’t what I wanted to do at all,” Rush told Smithsonian magazine. “I didn’t want to go into space as a tourist. He wanted to be Captain Kirk on the Enterprise. wanted to explore“, he claimed.
In the last two decades, he began to undertake the creation of technology companies linked to the ocean. One of them is BlueView Technologies, a manufacturer of high-frequency probe systems.
Rush founded OceanGate in 2009 with the stated mission of “increasing access to the ocean depths through innovation.” OceanGate operated three submersibles for research, film production and “exploration voyages,” which include visits to the site where the Titanic sank, for a price of $250,000 per person.
Who were the five millionaires who traveled in the submarine to explore the Titanic
In his vocation as an explorer, Rush has often been skeptical of regulations that could stifle innovation. The commercial submarine industry is “obscenely safe because they have all these rules,” he said, adding: “But neither has it innovated nor grownbecause it has all those regulations.”
Rush admitted on camera to breaking “some rules” when making your submersible. The founders even found themselves embroiled in a lawsuit over potentially dangerous flaws in the vessel, after a safety manager spoke out about concerns with their rigging.
Previously, former tourists had raised concerns about the apparent lack of safety equipment. security and the fact that there is no emergency escape. “Some of the systems didn’t work well at all,” said the explorer and television host. Josh Gatesafter venturing into the submarine in 2021.
The remains of the Titanic submarine were found almost 500 meters from the wreck of the “Titanic”
Even Rush had emphasized that his main fear was that the submersible, run by a game controller, would be left behind. trapped underwater. “What worries me the most are the things that will prevent me from reaching the surface,” he told CBS. “Ledges, fishing nets, entanglement hazards,” he exemplified as obstacles.
Still, he dismissed the concern, saying the Titan could avoid such dangers with good handling. “That’s just a technique, a piloting technique,” she mentioned. And he added: “It’s pretty clear: if there’s an overhang, don’t go under it. If there’s a net, stay away.” “So you can avoid them if you’re slow and steady,” she concluded.
ML / ED