Mr. Jirjis Yūsuf Abī Sa’b, also known as Gerios Yousseff, was a passenger on Titanic.
Early life[]
Mr. Jirjis Yūsuf Abī Sa’b was born in 1867 in Tuḥūm, Northern Governorate, Lebanon. Jirjis became a shoemaker and got married to Martā Fāris Antūn Khalīfah with who he had six children. Four sons, and two daughters were born between 1896 and 1911. In the 1890's, Jirjis spent years living in Youngstown, Ohio, United States, where he worked hard to build a better future for his family.
In 1911, he left to settle back in Tuḥūm along with his widowed cousin Sha'nīnah Wihbah, who had to take care of her ill son. Once they arrived, Sha'nīnah found that her son had died and she wanted to go back to Youngstown to fetch the rest of her children she had left behind. Jirjis also felt like he had more work to do back in America so, along with Bannūrah Ayyūb-Dāhir, a relative in the protection of Mrs. Wihbah, Ṭannūs Dāhir, a cousin, John Thomas and his son Ṭannūs Mu'awwad, he set back for a trip to America in March 1912.
The group said their goodbyes to their village and took off, traveling on donkeys for a few days before reaching the port of Beirut. From there, they took a ship that brought them to Marseille where they were examined for possible contagious illness, after which they were cleared. They took a train to Saint-Lazare Station in Paris before taking a another six hour train to Cherbourg.
Titanic[]
On Wednesday, April 10th, 1912, the group boarded the famous RMS Titanic as Third Class passengers. Jirjis had bought ticket 2685, which cost him £7, 4s, 6d. Along with all the single Third Class men, Jirjis and his relatives, including the women, were all lodged in the bow of the ship due to the language barrier.
On the night of April 14, Jirjis had already been asleep. Along with Ṭannūs, John, Bannūrah and Ṭannūs Dāhir, they were awoken by the impact of the iceberg. They got dressed, packed some stuff and followed the crowd to the Third Class communal areas, waiting for their female relatives to join them.
Sadly, young Ṭannūs had gone out of the cabin on his own and John was missing him. He went to search him only for Ṭannūs to appear from the next staircase when John was already downstairs. Bannūrah adviced Tannūs that his father had gone to fetch him and Ṭannūs went back down to find him. They would never be seen again. The small group eventually managed to get up on deck as the last lifeboats were being launched.
Jirjis managed to place Sha'nīnah and Bannūrah in Collapsible C before gunshots were fired and they had to step back into the crowd, never to be seen again. To the testimony of Sha'nīnah, Jirjis said his goodbyes and jumped off just before the final plunge, uttering the words that he couldn't think of saving himself before any other Syrian men as he felt he was 'no different'. Jirjis perished in the sinking and his body was later discovered by the C.S. Minia as the 312th body recovered, the 6th one by the Minia. He was buried at the Mount Olivet Cemetery, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on May 10th, 1912. His widow and children later benefited from the Titanic Relief Fund.