Nūr Al-'Ayn Būlus was a child passenger on the RMS Titanic.
Background[]
Nūr Al-'Ayn Būlus was born in 1902. Her place of birth was in Sar’al. Sar’al was in a part of Syria, where the Ottomans laid down the law. After the liberation in 1920, a new land would be formed and named the Lebanon.
Back then, it still belonged to Syria where Nūr Al-'Ayn appeared as the daughter of Harry Būlus and Sultānah Rizq. She was a sister of the younger Akar Būlus, who came after her in 1905. Her father was a farmer, but he later changed profession along with his nation. He went to Canada on his own, to ensure there was food on the table for his family's table from there. He was an inhabitant of Kent, Ontario, where he got into the employment of the Rankin House Hotel. Harry drove their bus. Meanwhile, Sultānah could uphold the farm and do her bit. Inbetween 1905 and 1912, Harry was back in Sar’al for a couple of times, for short periods.
In 1912, the family had lived seperately for long enough. It was time Nūr would see her father again. In the middle of March, they departed from Sar’al to get to the other side of the Atlantic. Other locals, Kātrīn Yūsuf and her children Michael and Nabīhah were at their side. Katrīn was actually both a relative and neighbour of the Būlus family and was also underway to her husband like Sultānah. Another man was included in their travelling party: Bākhūs Rafūl-Būlus.
The first part of the trip went to Beirut. A freighter lay waiting to take on passengers. Nūr Al-'Ayn, with her family and relatives were on that ship, to get to Marseilles in Southern France. From there, they had to go further north.
Titanic[]
As a young girl, Nūr found herself at Cherbourg with her mother and brother, to set foot on Titanic via a special tender. It was the 10th of April in the evening, and the ship, ablaze with light, was a glamorous sight. She would soon leave after taking the extra passengers in France, to then have another stopover in Queenstown, after which New York would be the final destination, as planned. Nūr and the others were Third Class passengers.
On April 14, Titanic’s Maiden Voyage had been a pleasant one for most. This was soon to be changed by fate and Mother Nature working together. On that cold night, The helm was put to hard over starboard, to move Titanic to port while they ordered the engine room to reverse the engines. The Titanic turned sharply but it was too late. Her broadside still touched the iceberg and a large part of her starboard received dents and gashes underneath the waterline. Vast amounts of waters flowed in the ship, which was more than a ton by the end of the first minute since the rupture.
On April 15, 12:00 A.M, the captain was on the bridge talking to the ship’s architect Thomas Andrews. With his calculations, he poined out that the Titanic had to be kept afloat for 2 hours with the pumps. The captain had to act quick. He now ordered his men to release the lifeboat and prepare for launching.
Nūr, Sultānah and Akar were not among the list of saved passengers. The Titanic met her end at 2:20 A.M, as the sea had taken over completely, with her stern rising in the air, her lights dieing out and her huge body breaking in two parts, after which these split parts went down quickly.
It’s possible that the whole family ended up in the cold water to freeze, a bad way to go, as this is how many of her victims came to pass. It was a terrible ordeal for the young Nūr Al-‘Ayn. She, along with her brother and mother, lost their lives. Their bodies were lost forever too. The entire Yusuf family was more fortunate. They made it off the ship alive in a lifeboat.