Portrait of Kate Buss
Kate Buss was a Second Class passenger of the RMS Titanic who survived the sinking of the ocean liner.
She was born on December 28, 1875 in Sittingbourne, Kent, England. Kate was the daughter of James Buss and Elizabeth Hannah Brown, natives of Kent married in Sittingbourne on April 5, 1871. James, who was a shopkeeper, was born in Pluckley in 1845 as the illegitimate son of Mary Ann Buss. Kate had seven siblings. She was baptized on 5 March 1876.
Kate, who had dropped out of school, worked as an assistant postmaster and later as a drapery manager. Widely known in the town, the inhabitants witnessed how Kate prepared her trousseau and gathered all the wedding gifts in order to take them with her to America, where she planned to marry Samuel Willis, a native of Sittingbourne and son of a tailor. Samuel had emigrated to California between 1907 and 1908, where he worked as a carpenter and decorator.
On April 10, 1912, Kate boarded the RMS Titanic at Southampton as a Second Class passenger under ticket number 27849, being seen off at the dock by her brother Percy. Kate, who had a cabin on E Deck, met Dr. Ernest Moraweck that day at lunchtime in the Second Class Dining Room. Moraweck, whom Kate described as "very nice", brushed away some soot from her eye, later offering to show her New York as soon as they reached their destination, though Kate declined. Later that day, Kate met and shared a steam blanket on deck with whom she befriended, Marion Wright, also socializing with Susan Webber, Ethel Garside, Lucy Ridsdale and the Reverend Ernest Courtenay Carter and his wife Lillian.
In other letters Kate mentions how much she liked the orchestra, especially the cellist (probably John Wesley Woodward), declaring that every time she finished a piece he smiled at her.
April 14[]
Kate attended a church service in the Second Class Dining Room by Reverend Carter with approximately 100 people, stating that the hymns were sung with great emotion and that several of the attendees had tears in their eyes.
At 11:40 P.M. Kate was reading a newspaper in her cabin when the ship hit an iceberg, producing a sound she described as an ice skate. Listening as the engines reversed and finally stopped, Kate went out into the hallway, where she was met by Moraweck, who offered to investigate. Kate then went to Marion's cabin and woke her up, both later going up on deck, where there was little activity at the time, although they met Robert Douglas Norman, who informed them that the ship had hit an iceberg.
As they waited, they peered over the stern rail onto the deck, where several passengers were beginning to congregate, several of them carrying all their belongings with them, prompting taunts from one passenger who Kate chided, informing him that those belongings were probably all they needed.
Before an argument could break out, Robert ended the altercation and led the two women below decks in order to retrieve warm clothing. As the boats began to be lowered, Kate turned away because she couldn't bear to witness the evacuation. Marion, Robert and Kate assessed their chances of being saved, the latter boarding lifeboat 9 shortly after, Robert not being able to get on it despite Kate's protests due to the "women and children first" rule. When the boat arrived at the RMS Carpathia, Kate was the last to board due to her fear of heights and disliking the idea of having to climb a rope ladder to get to the ship's deck.
Further life[]
After disembarking from Carpathia in New York, Kate applied for relief from the American Red Cross. She was awarded $250 in financial compensation, which in modern money (adjusted for inflation) would be about $6,608.07. She wrote to her family in England and alerted them that she had, in fact, survived the sinking. She also warned them to ignore the media frenzy of the newspapers.
Kate moved to San Diego and married her fiancé Samuel Willis on May 11, 1912. Their only child, a girl, was born there on February 4, 1913, named Sybil Lillian after Lillian Carter. Kate initially had trouble adjusting to her new home, but her situation improved when her sister Annie moved to America
In her later years, Kate was unable to talk about the Titanic without being moved, preferring to talk about the people she met rather than focus on the tragedy of the sinking. Kate spent her last years of life in a nursing home located in Dallas, Polk (Oregon), dying on July 12, 1972 and being buried in Fircrest Cemetery in Monmouth, Oregon.