Nabīhah Yūsuf was a child passenger on the Titanic.
Background[]
Nabīhah Yūsuf was the second child of Kātrīn Yūsuf (neé Rizq) and Peter Joseph (originally named Buṭrus Yūsuf,) two Syrian natives who had migrated to Detroit and found eachother there and wed in 1904. Nabīhah was born on August 21, 1909 in Sar’al, Syria which was part of the Ottoman Empire and since 1920 it belongs to the Lebanon. Her mother Kātrīn was sent by her husband to Syria in 1909 because the family struggled financially when Peter had lost his job. They had become very poor and something needed to be done.
There were more reasons she went back. Kātrīn was pregnant now and the conditions were better in the arid climate, which could help her overcome her disease, or so they thought. She had tuberculosis. Furthermore, there was family they needed to visit. Kātrīn stayed with her mother Sada Rizq, who helped look after Michael Peter, Nabīhah’s brother who was born in 1907 in Detroit.
It was 1912 when Peter’s situation in America was financially stable again, having work and money saved, he communicated to Kātrīn that she could bring herself over to America with the children. Sultānah Būlus, a relative and neighbour of Kātrīn, also made plans to get back to her husband in America. She too had two children, named Nūr Al-'Ayn and Akar.
The Yūsuf and Būlus family were together on their journey to Beirut, from where a cargo ship went to the port of Marseilles in the South of France. Also in their group was Bākhūs Rafūl-Būlus from the same village. Having been through the inspection at the customs, they had to be in Cherbourg, where their next means of transportation would come.
Titanic[]
From Southampton, the Titanic came to Cherbourg to take more passengers. She was there on April 10 at 7:00 P.M with just an hour delay. Nabīhah, her brother and mother were on a tender to bring them to the grand liner which could not dock due to the shallow waters around the port. For Nabīhah and her family there was passage in Third Class. They had their cabin on F-Deck, number #69. Nabīhah was just 2 and a half years old.
On April 14, there was an upheaval in the effortless Maiden Voyage of the deemed unsinkable liner. Soon, this claim would be proved wrong by fate and Mother Nature. When it was late at night, Titanic had an obstacle in her way, but the commanding crew didn’t see it until it was right there. In front of the bow, the lookouts spotted an iceberg which got bigger by the second. The Titanic was turned to port with her engines being put backwards, but that didn’t have enough effect as moments later, she rubbed her hull against the large frozen wall underneath the water line on starboard side, over a great length, which caused a rumbling throughout the forward part of the ship, but even worse, there were now leaks through small crevices. Within a minute, tons of water got into the ship. The impact woke Kātrīn, but only slightly. The mother described hearing music at the same time from several decks higher.
On April 15, just after midnight, the captain evacuated the ship as he knew she would sink. Down at F-Deck, near cabin #69, there was a lot of commotion and stewards tried to talk to the passengers to settle down until they were instructed to tell them to grab lifevests and come up on deck. From the noise, Kātrīn got out after she got dressed and put clothes on her children too. Folllowing the instructions, she left the hallway via the stairs and told Michael to hold on to her while she carried Nabīhah. There was a big crowd and the Yūsuf couldn’t get up to the Boat Deck till it was very late and only few lifeboats were left.
Suddenly, Habibah’s mother got the shock of her life. Her brother Michael was suddenly not with them anymore. Michael was lost in the crowd but a nice man, of unknown identity noticed him and took him by the hand to, unbeknownst to his panicking mother. Habihah and Kātrīn were placed in Collapsible C, while Michael was put in Collapsible D.
Mother and son were later reunited on the Carpathia, where she was overcome with joy and relief and nearly strangled the missed boy with her hugs. The Carpathia went to New York bring the survivors to the mainland and got there on April 18. There, Kātrīn and the children needed a lot of care in the hopsital of Saint Vincent’s. Michael and Nabīhah were found to have measles. When they were all in good health, they went to Detroit.
Later life[]
Apart from the tragedy, everything went according to plan and they soon lived with Peter in Detroit. But the sinking of the Titanic was not the only vicissitude that would overcome them. In February 1913 the family had another child, Anthony. Regrettably for them, he didn’t live long. They lost him in July.
Times took for the worse for Nabīhah, who was now named Mary Ann. She was by herself on March 23, 1914. Peter, Catharina and Michael were gone to a church service and her parents thought it would be okay for her to sleep in her room, unattended. They left the stove on for her to enjoy the warmth as it was a very cold day. But this was mistake. As she was alone, a flame from the stove ignited her clothes while she was in her crib. The young girl had to experience heavy first-degree burns and screeched on the top of her longues. In the same building, below their appartment, the neighbour and grocer Michael Tony lived and his attention was instantly drawn to her frantic screams as she was in unimaginbale pain. He rushed upstairs to her bedroom and and kicked the door down and found her clothing in a mass of flames, then snatched her from the smothering smoke and leaping flames, while, without regard for his own life, swept the burning clothes away from her while trying to beat the flames out with his hands. He raced with her under his arm to his own room, where he called the ambulance.
The parents came back from church and Catharina passed out when police notified them of what had taken place moments ago. They were soon in the hospital were they kept by Mary's bed, where the child scuffled against her agony. The doctors couldn’t save her life. At 1:00 P.M, she took her last breath. Luckily for her she no longer had to suffer. She was buried on the next day but in a seperate section from Anthony as a family grave was unaffordable for them.
After her death[]
Having gone through a lot already, the poison cup for the Josephs wasn still not empty. In 1915, the family was blessed with another girl, Sadie, who arrived in March, but, on June 19, Catharina succumbed to her tuberculosis at the young age of 26, Catharina was buried at Mount Olive Cemery in Detroit. In November that year, Sadie died too, leaving Michael now as the only child. He lost his father in 1926 while he was only 42. But the young lad picked himself up after he was in the care of his aunt and uncle. He got a career in selling soda, married, had children and remained in Detroit. He lived a good life, not talking about Titanic much. He got old and passed away in 1991.