Jamīlah Nīqūla Yārid was a child passenger on Titanic.
Background[]
Part of the family already lived in the United States while some of the siblings remained in Lebanon
Jamīlah Nīqūla Yārid was born in a mountain village approximately 85 miles north of Beirut in Syria, which was later an area that belonged to Lebanon but for now, the Turkish inquisition ruled it. The name of the village was Hakkūr. Jamilah’s father, a flour miller named Nīqūla Yarid, was married to Nūr Badr. From their conjunction, a couple of girls and boys were conceived. When Jamīlah was born she had two older sisters and one elder brother, Isaac. Jamīilah followed just before or in 1900. She had a younger brother in Ilyās two years after her. The family's religion was Greek Orthodox.
The situation in Hakkūr in those years was grim. The Turks caused much havoc and didn’t help the poor villagers who had no work. Rather, they robbed them and even assaulted the women. The Yārid family had quite enough of it and desired to find their luck elsewhere. Their plan was to go to America, but they could not afford to go as a whole family. For the better, Nūr and her two eldest daughters went first in 1904. They were soon resident in New York, awaiting Jamīlah’s elder brother Isaac. He got to Venezuela in 1906 first, before meeting up with his sisters and mother in New York. In 1907, they chose to live in Florida. Their new hometown became Jacksonville.
The time had come for Jamīilah, her father and younger brother Ilyas to depart from Hakkūr. They were now travelling to Jacksonville, Florida to meet their mother and siblings. The Yārid, who were fleeing religious persecution and mandatory military service for men in the Ottoman Empire, left after father Niqula had sold his beloved mill to acost the journey, meaning they would part ways with their old life forever. It was March 1912 when they left. They packed many belongings and aimed for the port of Beirut, a journey of 80 miles. From Beirut, they could be taken to the European mainland on a ship.
Each of them had to pass a physical examination before being allowed onto the ship and the father had to stay behind in Beirut since he had an eye infection. There were tight restrictions on diseases at Ellis Island in New York so he couldn't continue. The two young Yārid siblings spoke no English. It is possible that they met other Syrians to guide them on their way to Marseilles. Jamīilah’s father had given her $500 and she had to take responsiblity for her younger brother and themselves.
Titanic[]
The children made it to Cherbourg, where Titanic would come on the evening on April 10. They were to travel in Third Class. Jamīlah was 12 to 14 years old and her brother between 10 and 12. They were the ony ones of such a young age that had no adult to lead them.
On Sunday night, April 14, Amelia had just donned her nightgown and nightcap and climbed into her bed in the upper bunk above her pajama-clad brother when, at 11:40 P.M, something had gone astray with the ship, which she felt as a big bump, after which the lights went out for a short moment. She later said she jumped out of bed and went out of the cabin, where she encountered people screaming and a man running down the corridor shouting, “Everybody out!” So she grabbed Ilyās by the wrist, but he thought she was being overly dramatic and that it wasn’t anything serious.
Jamīlah was not satisfied with his reaction, because of the ship being stopped as well as the rumours and noises on the hallway from other passengers wandering around. Ilyās however had his own problems. He was seasick and was determined to stay in bed and was not willing to come out, He brushed it off as nothing, but Jamīlah persisted. An older gentleman came to tell them to leave and forget their belongings. He must have helped Jamīlah to convince her brother to listen.
After a tough struggle to get him ready, they got out of the cabin, but after they departed from the room, Amelia allegedly left her brother’s side and returned to the room to retrieve the $500 her father had entrusted to them before they left France, but water was already neck-deep in the corridor and was exerting so much pressure against the door to her cabin she was not able to open it. So she rejoined her brother and they began searching for a way to get to the highest deck, where the lifeboats were located. The only direct access to the higher decks was blocked, because the crew had locked down most of the steerage compartments in their part of the ship, to keep order. Jamīlah and Ilyas had to use their own initiative and courage to survive the disaster and bravely decided to climb an external iron ladder all the way from the lower decks to the Boat Deck, where they tried to board one of the few lifeboats. The girl, having to act mature at an early age, had one scary moment when she saw how Ilays attempted to jump from the ladder into the water and she quickly prevented that.
When they were standing near the boats, none other than the famous John Jacob Astor, who had just put his own wife on a boat, saw the children in the crowd and lifted them one at a time to help place them in the same lifeboat, which must have been lifeboat 4.
This makes Jamīlah and Ilyās’ survival story remarkable, in that they somehow survived the tragedy on their own and with no support from any adult family members. A lot of children in Third Class were not so fortunate. They lost their lives among more than 1400 others.
The Titanic went down at 2:20 A.M. It was a chilling sight for the young Jamīlah and especially Ilyās was deeply impressed by the scene unfolding in front of his eyes. A lot of people lost their lives that night and many occupants of the lifeboats could not bear the sight. The ship’s own demise was shocking enough for most, including Jamīlah and also Ilyās, who saw her go down paired with explosions and a loud, rumbling noise.
After the sinking[]
According to Jamīlah’s account, it was foggy as morning arrived, but she was still able to view the full magnitude of the disaster and waters that were filled with bodies, trunks, driftwood and assorted odds and ends. Help was on its way. Titanic had been sending out CQD and SOS signals and Carpathia had picked them up. She moved quickly to the sinking Titanic but couldn’t reach her cöordinates until after she was long gone. Several hours after her arrival, the lifeboat of Jamīlah and her brother was taken aboard. When all of the Titanic survivors were saved, Carpathia steamed westward, to dock in New York on the 18th of April.
Brother Isaac, who had hurried along from his honeymoon in Halifax, Nova Scotia, made it to New York to seek out his siblings. He had a nagging feeling that they could have perished as he hadn’t found them on the lists of survivors, due to the misspelling of foreign names. The drama was complete. Jamīlah was not doing well. She was in a bad state as the cold had beaten her down severly. The doctors even feared she wouldn’t make it. She had lost her voice in the process.Isaac meanwhile kept searching. After he had finally located them, Isaac telegraphed his family in Jacksonville to let them know they were safe. Jamīlah hung tough and was able to get out of her ill condition with her vocal cords recovered as well. Isaac now took care of them and brought them to his home in Halifax. Jamīlah was still weak and had to recuperate for a good few months
Father Nīqūla, shocked by hearing the ordeal his children had been put through, rejoiced that they had survived.As soon as his eye malady cleared up, he got after his children and in July he left the French mainland on another liner to complete the family. They were now all together in Jacksonville.
Later life[]
As part of the integration to their new country. The Yārids changed their last name to Garrett. Jamīlah became Amelia and Ilyās became Louis. Amelia later married Isaac Isaac, a grocer, four years later. The two siblings took it even further by making their birth dates into the sinking date of Titanic for Amelia and the 16th of April for Louis. For them, this was a symbolic way to rid themselves of the trauma and properly start their lives over. Their original birthday got lost in this process, which makes their exact age during the voyage onboard Titanic difficult to establish.
Louis changed address and went to work and live with Isaac in Fresno, California. Life quietted down for Amelia, who settled down with a man from Syria who had a grocey and who had migrated to America earlier. She was 16 years old when she got the ring from this man named Isaac Abraham Isaac. He was part of the former Saoud family, who changed their name to something biblical when they were naturalised. They were in Florida since 1905. The wedding date was December 13, 1914. She bore him 4 sons and 3 daughters. Their first three were boys: Albert, born in 1916, followed by Fred Isaac in 1917. They had a sister in 1921: Dorothy. Dorothy had several younger sisters that came after her: Margaret in 1922, Susan in 1925 and lastly Sophie in 1928.
Amelia had a funny and ironic quote whenever she was annoyed by her children. Whenever they riled her up, Amelia would express her frustration by exclaiming, “I should have died on the Titanic!” Most of her kids still resided in Jacksonville in the new millenium.
As far as occupation went, Mr. Isaac kept running his grocery business and produce market while also owning rental property. Isaac later went on to do bigger things in real estate and the oil industry. He died young, at the age of 46 on 20 September 1942, her husband left her behind with his businesses as he came to pass. Even in death, Amelia stayed loyal to him and never married again. After he passed away, his wife and the older children took over the management of his businesses.
For Amelia, unlike her brother, the Titanic disaster was more of an inspiration than a sad story. During her further life as a widow, she enjoyed the celebrity of being a Titanic survivor. She was still wildly impressed by the vessel and couldn't let the Titanic go out of her head. Amelia didn’t mind the media at all. She loved to talk about Titanic and did many interviews, was involved in many projects or lectures. She gained a lot of fame in her area. Every year on the anniversary of the disaster, she would usually be interviewed on TV and there would be a write-up about her in the paper. She even went to see the screening of the 1953 movie 'Titanic', starring Clifton Webb, playing a family man who boarded Titanic to reconcile with his wife and children. Louis, who had 4 marriages in his later life which were more or less all shipwrecked so to speak, was with Amelia, but he had a tough time watching this movie.
Yet it wasn’t all roses and perfume for Amelia either. The memory of the event did have consequences for her and took its toll on her in another way. She was afraid of the water and would never go swimming or sail aboard a ship again. Amelia’s oldest son Albert died young. Her second son Fred was still alive of 2011.
Amelia Nicholas Garrett came to pass in 1970, on the 8th of March. She was in her late sixties.
Louis lived longer and died on May 31, 1981.