Betros Khalīl was a passenger on the Titanic.
Background[]
Betros Khalīl came from Hardīn in Syria, where he was born in 1894. He had one brother. The mountainous village of Hardīn saw many in poverty, wanting to escape. They were part of the Lebanon. The Lebanon was burdened with the imperial rule of the Ottomans at the time.
Betros, as a young man, was in love with a girl from his hometown called Zahiyya Elias. Both decided to travel to the United States to start a better life but Zahiyya’s parents refused for them to leave without getting married so they tied the knot just hours before leaving Hardīn. Betros had a brother, with the anglicized name of Jospeh Harry, living in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, USA and that’s where they wanted to go to.
Titanic[]
On Wednesday 10th April 1912, 7 P.M, their means of transport had arrived in the city of Cherbourg, where they stood waiting at port for a tender to bring them and many others to this large steamer. It was the RMS Titanic which had come from Southampton and now picked up more passengers. Betros and his wife were in Third Class when they set foot on the ship.
Aboard the Titanic, a wedding party was thrown for the newlywed on the night of April 14. Twenty minutes before midnight, Titanic hit the iceberg. Once the news of the collision reached them, they continued their wedding party as if nothing happened. Meanwhile, Captain Smith had analysed his ship's damage with the designer and they decided it was best to evacuate. The lifeboats were being made ready at 12:05 A.M.
Later, Betros and Zahiyya were on the Boat Deck. His wife had a chance to be saved, but Zahiyya refused to leave her husband’s side despite the officers begging her to. They held to eachother tight and bid farewell to their lives as the vessel settled into the ocean. There was no body left of either of them.