The Syrian Passengers on the Titanic–Almost Lost in History
By: Leila Salloum Elias/Arab America Contributing Writer
There remains, until today, a fascination with the Titanic. In an ironic twist of fate, the Titanic on its momentous maiden voyage would come to be remembered as one of the worst tragedies in seafaring history. The loss of lives was exorbitant. Over 2200 passengers and crew were aboard the ship when it struck an iceberg on the night of April 14, 1912, and only a little over 700 survived to tell the story of one of the most catastrophic events within the realm of modern history.
A multitude of nationalities boarded the ship, some returning to the U.S. or Canada, while many were making their first journey across the waters of the Atlantic. All were ready to disembark at New York’s Ellis Island.
News of the ship’s sinking gave rise to panic-stricken families whose loved ones were or assumed to be among the ship’s passengers. Before the arrival of the steamship Carpathia that carried the survivors, the White Star Line offices in New York were besieged with thousands of those seeking information. Crowds gathered hoping to confirm the survival or the dreaded loss of relatives or friends.
Almost immediately, American newspapers went full speed ahead reporting whatever information was made available from the names of passengers being wired in by telegraph. Newspapers published names of the Titanic’s passengers, first and second class initially and then the names of the third class passengers a few days later. Accounts from survivors who had been released from the hospitals were also reported many of whom were able to verify the names of other passengers. Slowly those both saved or who had fallen victim were accounted for and, in many cases, clarified.
However, for the Syrians, whose mother tongue was Arabic, confirmation of the names of their fellow countrymen took longer. Perusing lists of names in the various English New York newspapers proved difficult, vague, and confusing. Even the Arabic newspapers when providing the initial lists of the Syrian passengers depended on those names printed in the English ones. For this reason, Arabic newspapers cautioned their readers that the names being printed could not be confirmed or guaranteed to be 100% accurate. Rather, these were how they appeared in English, and how the Arabic newspapers had determined the Syrian passenger names.
Take for example the name of Syrian survivor Adāl Najīb Qiyāmah (Adele Kiamie). On April 17th, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, The Sun, and The Evening World reported this steerage passenger as ‘Hachini, Najib’ and ‘Najib Hachini. On the same date, in Arabic, the name Najīb Hashīnī appeared in Mir’at al-Gharb with an annotation of ‘so-and-so’ or ‘such and such’ (kadhā kadhā). Al-Hudà on the 17th included among its list of Syrian passengers ‘Najīb Hashīm’ and the next day listed the same passenger as among those who had drowned. Najib and Najīb are male. Yet Adāl Najīb Qiyāmah was a 14-year-old girl, daughter of Najib Qiyāmah.
In the case of Mantūrah Būlus (Musà) (Franjīyah), family and friends in Troy, Michigan would come to learn that the Syrian passenger who Mir’at al-Gharb listed in its April 17th issue as Mūsà Manẓūr and al–Dalīl’s name of Mūsà Mandūr on April 20th was indeed survivor Mantūrah from Zgharta.
Syrian passenger ‘Jurj Shacnīn’v- ‘Jurj’ an Arabic male name, was in fact Shacnīnah, wife of Jirjis from Tuḥūm/Fighāl. Quandries arose when first names appeared as surnames (Naṣr Muṣṭafà), parts of names dropped (Mārī Yūsuf), misidentifications (Jamīlah Niqūlā and her son), a female passenger’s name transcribed as that of a male (Ḥinnah assumed mistakenly to be ‘Ḥannā’) or simply incorrect names. The ‘Coterina Patros’ of the New York Tribune on the 18th of April and on the 19th the same in the New York Times, following a day later with ‘Katherine Joseph’ in the Tribune, turned out to be Syrian Kātrīnah Yūsuf from Sar’al.
With the uncertainty and then confusion of the names of the Syrian passengers and the ambiguity arising from them, Arabic newspapers in their mission to accurately report who had boarded the Titanic from among their countrymen took the decision to hold back on publishing the names of the Syrian passengers as they appeared in the American newspapers. Al-Dalīl (April 20th) and al-Bayān (April 23rd) determined that the tendency to anglicize the Arabic names would result in incorrect ones and be unreliable. This would only cause more confusion, nervousness, and concern. Al-Hudà warily published a list of names taken from the White Star Line but cautioned its readers of the uncertainty of them. Al-Dalīl in its first reports of the sinking opted to print, only confirmed passenger names, beginning with the survivors.
Indeed, there was a concern. The Syrian community in the U.S. depended on the Arabic-language newspapers of New York as their news outlet. Queries were published in these papers from those seeking clarification as to the passengers and their hometowns. Letters from the American and Canadian Syrian communities were published in the various Arabic newspapers asking if any of the survivors had information on those who had boarded from their hometowns. Many in the community knew that relatives or friends in Syria during this period had sent letters or sent word that they would be leaving for the US. Apprehension and fear that a family member had boarded the Titanic within the time frame of its departure grew.
New York’s Syrian community combined its efforts through its organizations and individual members to establish an emergency committee to find the answers. Established under the auspices of al-Muntadà al-Sūrī al-Imrīkī (The Syrian American Club), committee members went to the hospitals and met with the survivors. As the names became clear, the Arabic newspapers published their names and hometowns and the intended destinations of these passengers. These survivors were able to identify those who had traveled with them and those who had fallen victim to the sinking. Survivor Mariam ‘Assaf from Kfar Mishki caused some concern for those in Ottawa, Canada where a number of the community there originated from the same village. They did not recognize her name. This was cleared up on May 10th when Mir’at al-Gharb reported that Mariam ‘Assaf was actually Zād Naṣrallāh from Kfar Mishki and that it was she who had confirmed the loss of her fellow villagers in the sinking.
From among these survivors was the small number of Syrian passengers, some of whose stories were recounted to members of the al-Muntadà al-Sūrī al-Imrīkī (The Syrian American Club). The Club, in an emergency meeting, had established a committee to help with the relief of these passengers in whatever way possible. It was this committee whose members went directly to the hospitals to meet with and receive information from their fellow countrymen. This was the way to receive reliable names of who had boarded and from which area of Syria passengers had come. In this method of direct communication, the committee members were able to provide the Arabic newspapers in New York with valid information regarding their names and towns of origin and, in some cases, who had boarded the ship with them.
The loss of lives was profound worldwide and for the Syrian community in the U.S., it had touched something particularly deeper. Those who had boarded the ‘unsinkable Titanic’ had left the same homeland, boarded a ship, and had traveled the waters of the Atlantic – all bound for a new future – taking the same path as those Syrians who had done so before them. In the words of one newspaper (al-Hudà 16 April 1912) the hopes and dreams that possessed the hearts of these passengers were ended by fate with its mark of destruction.
Not all questions were answered. Estimates from 145 to 165 Syrian passengers were said to have boarded the Titanic according to some of the Syrian survivors. Some information on many is still unverified while some is yet to be uncovered. In my new research, I have been able to add more names, some of whom their information was found, yet others continue to garner more research. Such is the case with the 5 young Palestinian men who are said to have boarded the Titanic. The only confirmation, to date, is evidenced by one bell of five originally made that is on display in the Tulkaram Museum of Palestinian History. The five original bells were made and sent to various Palestinian schools to be rung commemorating the loss of the five Palestinian passengers. This is an important part of Palestinian history and this author’s hope is that someone can verify the names and towns of these young men.
As time goes by less and less information becomes available as the years pass by. This is why it is important that any stories that have been passed down by family members through oral tradition and even letters from that time period be preserved so that each and every one of the Arabic-speaking passengers be given their place in history and not fall into the abyss of not being acknowledged.
Many have asked what spurred my interest in this subject. When my children told me that in James Cameron’s movie the Titanic that a steerage passenger was yelling ‘yalla yalla’ to his family as they scrambled to escape the ship’s sinking, I needed to know more. Mentioning this as my next plan of research to my parents, my mother told me that my grandmother, my father’s mother, on mention of any ship sailing would whimper – ‘illī maatu saghīr bil cumar – ya waylī – calà haw illī in’awasū calà al-Taytānīk’
But that again is another topic for an upcoming article…. To be continued.
Leila Salloum Elias, is the author of The Dream and then the Nightmare: The Syrians Who Boarded the Titanic – the story of the Arabic-speaking passengers (Atlas for Publishing and Distribution. Beirut/Damascus. 2011)ab America’s blog here
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