OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush Wanted to Join ‘Titanic Mythology,’ Friend Says

OceanGate founder Stockton Rush allegedly designed the Titan submersible’s fatal dive as a way to secure his place in “Titanic mythology,” according to a longtime friend who described the vessel as a “mousetrap for billionaires.”

Karl Stanley, a commercial submersible specialist and longtime acquaintance of Rush, made the claim in author Matthew Gavin Frank’s new book, Submersed: Wonder, Obsession and Murder in the World of Amateur Submarines.

Stanley told Frank that Rush’s ego was so enormous he was prepared to risk his own life—and endanger others—to become the central figure in the story. “He wanted to go [die] at the wreck [of Titanic],” Stanley said, adding that the greater the publicity, the better. He alleged that Rush did not simply cause the deaths of four wealthy passengers while collecting roughly $1 million; he believed the victims and the disaster would become part of the enduring Titanic legend.

The Titan stopped communicating with its support vessel on June 18, 2023, during its descent toward the Titanic wreck in the North Atlantic. The communications failure triggered an international search effort. Four days later, officials located debris and confirmed that the submersible had imploded, killing all five people aboard: Rush, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Hamish Harding, Shahzada Dawood and Dawood’s son, Suleman.

Those who joined the expedition reportedly paid as much as $250,000 for a seat aboard the Titan.

A subsequent investigation by the U.S. Coast Guard concluded that the catastrophe could have been avoided.

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Frank wrote that Rush’s ambitions, as described by Stanley, extended beyond simply dying during the expedition. The book also examines the significance of the name Titan, which was drawn from the fictional ocean liner in Morgan Robertson’s 1898 novella Futility. In that story, a British ship named Titan strikes an iceberg—an eerie detail that echoes the real-life Titanic disaster.

Frank summarized Stanley’s theory by writing that Rush allegedly wanted to make himself part of a larger, ongoing narrative. To do that, Stanley believed, Rush knowingly created a supposedly “futile” vessel, gave it a name evoking the Titanic and turned it into what he called a murder weapon.

Frank directly asked Stanley whether he believed Rush knew the submersible would implode—or deliberately intended that outcome—and whether Rush had knowingly placed everyone aboard in danger to secure a role in the Titanic mythos.

“I know this is what happened,” Stanley replied.

Stanley further alleged that “most everyone” involved with OceanGate understood what could happen to the Titan, claiming that those individuals were now terrified after the implosion.

Brandi Young, a former federal and state prosecutor, told News Outlet that prosecutors likely would have struggled to establish a first-degree murder case because Rush himself was aboard and exposed to the same danger. In her view, a manslaughter charge would have been more plausible.

Young said prosecutors could potentially argue for second-degree murder if they believed Rush acted with an extreme and reckless disregard for human life—conduct more serious than ordinary manslaughter. “You have a lot of direct evidence of just the pure recklessness of someone going forward with complete disregard for the other human life,” she said.