Eliina Honkanen was a passenger on Titanic.
Early life[]
Eliina Honkanen was born in Kuusela, Kanamäki, Saarijärvi, Finland on August 16, 1884. She was the first daughter of the Finnish couple Juho Matinpoika Honkonen en Eeva Sofia Iisakintytär Vähäkalmukoski. Her family line is really complicated as she’s had a lot of half-siblings as well as a sister born to Juho and Eeva. She was Josefiina Juhontytär, born in 1884.
Eeva had two children from an earlier marriage with Heikki Antinpoika Poikonen. They were two boys, born in 1871 and 1874 respectively: Tuomas Heikinpoika Saarinen en Juho Heikki Heikinpoika Poikonen
Father Juho was married to Anna Caisa Lund before taking the vow to Eeva. With Anna, he had 7 children, between 1842 and 1863. Father Juho was born in 1817, so now he was very old when he still had his last children with what is believed to be his second spouse who was 30 years younger than him. Eliina lost him when he passed away in 1890, reaching the age of 72.
Growing up, she worked as a maid and was the partner of an unknown man, whom she probably hadn’t married, but they had a child together. He came into the world in Helsinki on the 18th of February 1907. He was given the name Kauno Edvard Honkanen.
At some point, they broke apart. Eliina’s last residence in Finland was Helsinki, where her widowed mother Eeva now resided.
Eliina left Hanko aboard the Polaris on April 3, 1912. Apparently, she didn’t have her son with her. A possibility was that another maid who was emigrating from Finland, had been in her company on this journey. She was Laina Heikkinen. It is not confirmed however but their route was the same from Hanko onwards.. Eliina’s destination was Quincy, Massachusetts.
Titanic[]
It was April 10, when Titanic left the Southampton harbor for her Maiden Voyage. Eliina had come aboard the ship that day and was a Third Class passenge and 28 years old at the day of the departure.
On April 14, Titanic met trouble as an iceberg was right in front of her but very hard to spot so it was sighed at only the last minute. A collision was unavoidable and many passengers in the bow were awakened by a scraping noise as Titanic had struck the berg on starboard side, leaving small gashes in her hull. Water came in fast.
On April 15, shortly after midnight, inspection had been carried about by the Captain and he was now certain that the ship would sink. He ordered his men to to get the boats ready.
Eliina Honkonen survived the sinking of the Titanic after she boarded a lifeboat, which one is not certain. The Carpathia meanwhile had answered Titanic’s distress call and picked up the survivors that were left in the lifeboats after she had sunk. Carpathia arrived in New York on April 18.
After the sinking[]
Ellina continued her original journey to Quincy. From there, she made work of her bereavement and now demanded defrayals. The belongings that had gone down the ship were rated by her at $310, but she felt that she had endured a lot of misery during the disaster among which could be counted mental and pyschological damage as well as getting a cold. For that, she wanted no less than $5000.
Later life[]
She later came back to Finland, but returned to America yet again the same year. The following year she married Isak Lindqvist in Massachusetts on April 21. More details about her further life are missing.
Eliina passed away on January the first, 1973. She had reached the age of 90.