Stockton Rush – the CEO of the company that took four tourists to their deaths near the site of the Titanic wreckage in 2023 – got his wish when the submersible imploded, according to one of his friends.
This friend, Karl Stanley, was a “fellow expert in submersibles,” per the New York Post. It said that his quotes about Rush’s apparent Titanic death wish are included in the new book “Submersed: Wonder, Obsession and Murder in the World of Amateur Submarines” by Matthew Gavin Frank.
“He was in fact a good engineer, and that machine did exactly what he designed it to do… he set a new standard for going out with a bang,” Stanley told author of the OceanGate CEO, the Post reported. It said that Stanley and Rush were friends for more than 10 years.
Rush founded OceanGate in 2009 and he was 61 when he perished in the implosion of the Titan submersible along with Hamish Harding, 58, chairman of Action Aviation; Paul-Henry Nargeolet, 73, a Titanic expert; Shahzada Dawood, 48, one of the richest men in Pakistan, and Dawood’s 19-year-old son Suleman. Debris from the incident was found near the site where the R.M.S. Titanic, a luxury passenger liner, sank in 1912 after hitting an iceberg in the North Atlantic.
While the Titanic story has been famous since the liner went down and brought 1,500 people with it, including the rich and famous like Benjamin Guggenheim and Francis David Millet, it became even more famous in 1997. That’s when the film “Titanic” by director James Cameron (a deep-sea explorer himself) became a major box office success.
“Rush’s ego was so big he was willing to die and kill to be the pivotal character of this story He wanted to go [die] at the wreck [of Titanic],” Stanley told Frank just days after the Titan implosion, the Post’s report said.
According to an article in the Princeton Alumni Weekly, Rush was a 1984 graduate of the prestigious Princeton University. He was known as a “dreamer and a doer, an intelligent innovator and rigorous scientist whose adventurous spirit showed itself during his years at Princeton,” said the publication.
It noted that Rush’s wife, Wendy Weil Rush, is descended from Isidor and Ida Strauss, two of the wealthiest people to die on the Titanic. Cameron included a couple in his film based on the Strausses “Ida famously refused to get on a lifeboat and leave her husband,” the Post said, and the couple is depicted lying in bed together as the ship goes down.
“Ask anyone in my Princeton University Class of 1984 which one of us would be brave enough to dare such a mission, and Tock would be at the top of the list,” Henry Payne, a fellow Princeton grad, wrote about Rush in a blog post, per the obituary. “Tock lived to conquer those risks. He – and his fellow passengers – died doing what they loved.”
Others remembered flying with Rush, who was also an airplane pilot. David Siebert recalled Rush flying through rain and turbulence with calm and poise. That obituary from the Princeton Alumni Weekly noted that Rush had been criticized over the safety concerns related to OceanGate Expeditions.
Stanley said he had been on a 2019 dive with Rush in the Titan submersible that was made partially with carbon fiber, a material not typically used for deep-sea vessels. During that dive, Stanley said he heard cracking noises but that his concerns about them were brushed off by Rush.
He isn’t the only person who was close to Rush with concerning memories about his underwater expiditions. In 2024, Audacy reported on comments from OceanGate whistleblower David Lochridge, who spoke before the US Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation.
Lochridge said that Rush crashed a Cyclops submersible into the Andrea Doria wreck, located off the Massachusetts coast, in the summer of 2016. He said that Rush “wouldn’t listen,” and refused warnings about potential risks.
While Lochridge – who was fired from OceanGate in 2018 – said he pleaded with Rush to stay away from the Andrea Doria, Lochridge said the CEO “smashed straight down” with the Cyclops and “basically drove it full speed” towards the wreckage. Then, Rush allegedly refused to hand over the PlayStation controller used to pilot the craft until paying customers aboard shouted at him.
“Lochridge said that Rush then struck him in the side of the head in frustration and threw the controller, causing one of the buttons to fly off,” said Audacy’s report. “After reattaching the button, they rose to the surface within ‘10 to 15 minutes’ with Lochridge at the wheel.”
Retired travel industry businessman Bill Price was on of the passengers on Titan’s first launch around 12,500 feet down to the sea floor. He told Audacy’s KNX Radio there were difficulties. First, they lost communication with the support ship. Then, they had trouble releasing the weights holding the sub down so they could rise back to the surface.
“We proceeded to, all five of us, you know, go to one side to the other in a swaying type motion,” Price explained. “And then eventually, after a few attempts, we heard a clunk and the first weight was dislodged.”
Jay Bloom, a Las Vegas financier, also told KNX that he narrowly avoided being on the fatal June 2023 trip. After he and his son brought up concerns and Rush was “dismissive,” they decided not to go.
When the OceanGate implosion was making news back in 2023, James Cameron himself said the carbon fiber material used to make the hull was not appropriate for deep sea diving in an ABC News interview.
Stanley said that the Titan was essentially a “mousetrap for billionaires,” and a “murder weapon” that allowed Rush wanted to become part of the “Titanic mythology.”
EVERETT, WASHINGTON - JUNE 21: The OceanGate logo is seen on a vessel stored near the OceanGate offices on June 21, 2023 in Everett, Washington. OceanGate, owner of the missing submersible carrying five people trying to visit the Titanic wreckage in the North Atlantic, operates out of Everett.Photo by David Ryder/Getty Images“The more high-profile, the better. He didn’t just murder four wealthy people and get paid a cool mill to do it — they are allll part of the Titanic mythology now.”
As of this Tuesday, the OceanGate website simply read: “OceanGate has suspended all exploration and commercial operations.”
