Abraham Mansoor Mishellany was part of the victualing crew on the Titanic. He was appointed as the printer.
Background[]
He was born as Ibrāhīm Mansūr Mish'alānī in Shemlan, a village in Syria over 10 miles southeast of the main capital of modern day Lebanon, Beirut. This was all part of the Ottoman Empire back then, but belonged to Lebanon from 1920 onwards. Ibrahim was there in 1860, growing up in a family that didn’t like the authoritarian Ottoman regime. The family soon left Syria behind and got away from the grasp of the Turks to live in Egypt, where Ibrāhīm’s brother worked for a newspaper.
A while later he emigrated to England where he naturalised and had his name changed to Abraham Mansoor Mishellany. Here, he met the love of his life in 1894 in Paddington, London. Unlike many Syrians, he was not migrated to America and also married a woman that wasn’t Syrian. She was an Englishwoman named Grace Sarah Holland, born in Dalton and five years younger than Abraham. She was a milliner’s daughter. They moved to Liverpool later.
On September 5, 1895, two sons were born to Abraham and Grace. Their children were twins. Their names were Victor and Albert. Abraham worked on his own printing business at that time. Two years later, he went to sea as he was in the employment of the White Star Line, doing stewarding jobs aboard several vessels like the Majestic, Cedric and Cymric. In 1911, he was the printer aboard the Titanic’s sistership, the RMS Olympic. The Mishellany family was living in London during that time.
Titanic[]
Abraham was on the Titanic in Belfast, from where he went along with the delivery trip to Southampton after her trials on April 4. In Southampton, he lodged for a few days as her Maiden Voyage would begin. She would take on many passengers and crew. Abraham was still assigned to the crew on April 10. He was 51 years old. He was the Chief Printer or printer steward. Another crew member, the much younger Ernest Theodore Corben, was Abraham’s assistent. Their job was to prepare the important papers and cards, in perticular the menus, tickets for special First Class features such as the Swimming Bath, Turkish baths and Squash Court and announcements. The full-colour printing was carried out onshore, while at sea, Abraham and Ernest carried out the duty of putting down the text. Abraham was the sole Lebanese or Syrian crew member on the Titanic. He was going to receive £6 a month while Ernest only would make £4.
With the use of an Arabian invention, the treadle press, they could do their compositions in a short time with great accuracy. They also had their own quarters for this specific activity. There’s still speculation on where that place was located on the large liner.
They could increase their income of a little bit by officering special services to the First Class passengers by creating visiting cards, private dinner menus, bagage labels and various other things for them.
On April 14, the calm crossing of the Titanic was rudely interrupted by an incident involving an iceberg, which had suddenly came out of what one of the lookouts described as a haze. They couldn’t see this mass in time for the ship to stop in time and turn away from it. At the final moment, the ship’s starboard side brushed against the iceberg under the waterline, which damaged her hull in such a way that the water could flow in freely, fast.
On April 15, the Captain had conversed with the ship builder, who declared that Titanic could not stay afloat despite the pumps and the watertight bulkheads. She would sink in two hours. Five minutes past midnight, the captain laid down the order to uncover the lifeboats and swing them out. They would evacuate.
What happened to Abraham and his colleague is still a mystery, but he wasn’t saved. At 2:18 A.M, the Titanic’s stern was high in the air and she broke in two, after which she sank beneath the waves in two minutes, which took the lives of both men who were responsible for the printing business. Many other passengers and crewmen died that night too as a lot of them couldn’t take being in the cold sea for long. There was no body left to identify from either of the two printers.
After his death[]
Both widows of the two printers received financial assistance from the Titanic Relief Fund, for the White Star Line stopped their wages at the moment the ship sank.
The loss of her husband wasn’t the only tragedy in Grace Mishellany’s life. Her son Victor was listed as a soldier in World War 1 and was killed during battle in 1918. Abraham’s widow never had another husband. She lived till 1943 and became 78 years old.