John Thomas was a passenger on the Titanic.
Background[]
John Thomas was the anglicized name of the Syrian-born Ḥannā Ṭannūs Mu'awwad. Ḥannā Ṭannūs Mu’awwad was conceived by Tannūs Mu'awwad and his wife Mariyam on July 2, 1877. The town where he was born was Tuḥūm, which later became part of the Lebanon after that country came in existence in 1920. In the earlier days, they were ruled by the Ottoman Empire. Ḥannā was the middle child. He had 2 brothers. One was older and born in 1872: Joseph. The younger one, Shaheen, followed much later after Ḥannā in 1886. The family had a succesful jewelry store but were undercut by the rules of the Turkish mongers: extra import and export taxes on gold and jewelry as well as higher bills for the citizens.
In 1985, Ḥannā found himself a wife whose last name was Dāhir. In the 1890s, they had a child which they named Tannūs. For Ḥannā, it was not long after the brith of his son, that he had made the crossing to America, where he had migrated to, to have a life for many years in Columbus, Ohio. His date of arrival in the USA was July 13, 1897. He got himself a house and a career.
In 1902, Ḥannā was given a new name: John Thomas. Having now fully integrated, he continued building his life and career in this part of Ohio. John had a talent and gift of making clothes. This is the profession he practiced in Columbus. Besides having a store, he also produced specific themed gowns, dresses and kimonos for the Princess Theatre, which gave him a lot of prosperity. The next step for him was investing in banks, but they crumbled later which reduced the fortune he had amassed considerably.
Later, the eldest of John’s siblings, Joseph, was in Columbus as well as Najib Wihbah, a cousin. The other brother had gone to Canada. In 1910, John was boarding in someone's household and still selling clothes.
In February 1911, John was no longer absent from his wife after he had acquired a passport to travel and had come to Tuhūm especially for his elder son, as he had the idea that education for Tannūs in America would be good and that he could later enroll in State University of Ohio. During his stay, another son was conceived, named Yūsuf.
In the Spring of 1912, he took Tannūs with him but left his wife and younger son. He met up with several cousins from Tuhūm. They were Jirjis Yūsuf Abī Sa’b, and Sha'nīnah Shahin Wihbah. Sha’ninah was given a 14 year old girl in her care from Kafr 'Abaīdā named Bannūrah Ayyūb-Dāhir. Both Ḥannā and Sha’ninah would look out for her. There was also Ṭannūs Dāhir, his brother-in-law, perhaps the brother of his own wife.
This party left their area on donkeys for a long journey to Beirut. In the port of Beirut, a ship was moored and ready to give them passage to the South of France. The destination of the ship was Marseilles, where the group received a health inspection and were cleared to go. By train, they move up north to Cherbourg, where another ship would bring them over across the Atlantic Ocean.
Titanic[]
John Thomas, his son and the other relatives were Third Class passengers on the RMS Titanic. She was there on the evening of April 10, laying idle before port as the Syrians with other steerage people were brought over on a tender. Titanic then continued her Maiden Voyage that had started back in Southampton, England. Once aboard, father and son shared a cabin, perhaps with Bannūrah.
On the night of April 14, John and Tannūs were asleep when the collision took place. Bannūrah was woken up as well and John dashed out and went up, to see what was going on. The language barrier proved to be a problem. Confusion ensued. Bannūrah also reported water in her cabin at some point, which could mean they were at the front part of the ship. John, Tannūs, Bannūrah were soon together with the other relatives. In their bid to get up to the Boat Deck, John had lost his son who had gone away from the cabin when Bannūrah continued to sleep.
Bannūrah tried her best to help out and to see to it that the son found his father. At one moment, when John was going down a stairs to look for him, Tannūs appeared on another staircase before Bannūrah, who then said where his father went so Tannūs got back down again. This meant the two were split from the rest of the party. Whether they found eachother, remains a mystery. But they must have lost time in the race for the lifeboats. The two didn’t get off the ship alive. The Titanic met her demise at 2:20 A.M, costing the lives of 1503 people.
Bannūrah was saved. They could later not find the bodies of John Thomas and his son, as White Star Line, some days after the disaster, had sent ships to the wrecksite to haul them in and identify them, but only 328 of the 1503 victims were salvaged.