Nishan Krikorian
Nishan Krikorian was a passenger on the Titanic.
Background[]
Nishan Krikorian was from Kiği, a village where he had his origin back in 1886, on Wednesday, May 12, born to Krekor and Dirifag Krikorian, in the provence of Erzurum in Turkish Armenia. The region experienced tough times in those days.
As a follower of the Christian faith, he was basically like game to a hunter in the eye of the Ottoman. There is a vague suggestion that he had a wife back in Kiği, but not much is known about her. Apparently her name was Dilbar Arokian and was killed by the Turks. Plenty of people who knew him said that he was not married, however.
Nishan Krikorian was barely in his 20s when his father urged him to emigrate from western Armenia and start a new life far away across the Atlantic Ocean. He did so with the destination of Brantford in Ontario, Canada in mind, where, in the years before the First World War, a small but vibrant Armenian community had formed.
Thousands of Armenians were doing the same, in a bid to escape rising violence and persecution at the hands of Ottoman-era Turks. Nishan had two younger brothers who stayed behind. Krikorian gathered at least four other compatriots from Kiği and one from Aghbonak. They were Orsen Sirayanian, Mampré Zakarian, Haroutioun Zakarian and Davit Vartanian. There were possibly 15 Armenians who walked for seven days to the Northern part of Trebizond on the Black Sea, with Nishan being one of them.
Titanic[]
Nishan, Mampré, Davit, Arsen and Haroutioun got to Marseilles in France, from where they traveled further to Cherbourg, to be played by fate to get on the Titanic. There was a rumour that Kirikorian had to buy off a travel agent to get his ticket for the Titanic.
The Titanic was the largest ship in the world and what a sight she was: laying at the bay of Cherbourg on April 10, her lights shining bright at the evening, to receive passengers from her two tenders. Krikorian was on the tender for steerage, or Third Class as it was now named, as the Titanic had very comfortable accomodation for even the lower class, although Krikorian noted that his quarters, which were on F-Deck, were cramped. He would be staying in cabin #58. This was his first time on a sea voyage.
Titanic set course for Queenstown first, to then make the large part of her voyage, across the Atlantic, planning to dock in New York within five days.
What looked and seemed like a quiet night for Titanic on the 14th of April, became a tragedy that people still talk about till this day. Krikorian was doing a card game with his compagnions and was back in his cabin around 11:00 P.M, to rest in his berth, but without undressing to sleep. He only took his shoes off to doze off.
At 11:40 P.M. he heard ‘a dull, shuddering sound, while the ship sort of felt like it was jerking to the side, throwing people off balance’. Then, the lights flickered. One of his cabin mates told him something had happened. Nishan looked through his porthole, which was somehow open and he saw floating ice, something he had never seen before. He went upstairs, to the highest Third Class deck, which might have been the Forward Well Deck. He was sent back down to grab his belongings and was told to prepare to go into a lifeboat.
Nishan and the other steerage passengers had no idea if something bad had happened, but little by little realisation came, that the ship was sinking. A miracle in itself was that he escaped the closed off parts of Third Class, where strict rules of seperation were enforced. Krikorian and a few other men broke a chain lock on one of the Bostwick gates to get up to the upper decks.
Nishan had witnessed an officer shooting one or two men when he was on one of the highest decks. It was very late when he made an optimisitic leap from A-Deck into a lifeboat, which payed off. He was fortunate, as it was lifeboat 10, from the aft part of port side, from where male passengers were not allowed into the boats. The strange thing is however, that Nishan’s own words described a small boat, as he said there were big and small ones being lowered. The only small boat launched that late in the night was one of the two emergancy cutters, number 2.
The other three Armenians died when Titanic went under at 2:20 A.M, with a lot of roar, as the ship had broken in two and her steel was twisted. The noise of the metal cracking later was replaced with the screams over hundreds of souls that had still been onboard until they no longer could. It would haunt Nishan for all of his life.
Later in the morning, lifeboat 10 was collected by a rescue ship that had been called by Titanic’s wireless. She was the RMS Carpathia and she took all those that were left after Titanic’s demise, with 13 of her boats hauled up as well. Nishan could call himself a survivor of one of the biggest maritime disasters. Nishan and Davit Vartanian were the only one of the 6 Armenians to live and see the day.
On arrival in New York on April 18, Nishan was hospitalised with lung problems. Nishan received enough money from the White Star Line and the Red Cross to pay for his journey to Canada. He and Mr. Vartanian, who also had been treated in New York, stuck together to get to Hamilton, Ontario. Nishan had to visit the hospital again for treatment of pneumatic sickness when he arrived in Brantford on the evening of April 25, 1912.
Later life[]
There was prejucide against foreigners such as Nishan following the disaster. Able Seaman Frank Evans felt it was a coward move from his side to jump in the boat, when he spoke to the US Senate during their Inquiry. There were also stories fabricated that Nishan had dressed himself as a woman, which was entirely unfounded. Even in his own, new hometown. A photo of him appeared in the Brantford Daily Expositor of April 27, where the false accusation was written below the picture.
A Brantford Expositor reporter had learned of his arrival and hurried to an Armenian boarding house for an exclusive interview. The reporter entered a large room set with tables. Four Armenian men sat at each table entertaining themselves with some type of “game peculiar to the country whence they came.” The interview was a convoluted affair, conducted with the help of two interpreters, Mr. Mosoian and Mr. Ouzounean. The latter, Ouzounean, did not speak English either and interpreted Krikorian’s words into French.
Then came the harrowing tale. Yet, the paper decided to not remain truthful and picked up another account about Krekorian being accused of dressing up as a woman, so they went with that story. Still, Krikorian remained in Brantford for several years before moving to St. Catharines in Ontario. Here, he started his own family with Persape Vartanian, who he wed on July 12, 1924. Interesting enough, Vartanian was also the last name of another Armenian Titanic passenger that was in Nishan’s company during the journey to France, named Davit. He survived too. Two girls and one boy sprung from the marriage between Nishan and Persape. The eldest was Alice, born in 1925. George Dennis followed her in 1926. Angeline was the last in 1930.
Car producer General Motors had Nishan work on one of their local Automobile Assembly lines in those days, his only job which he kept doing decades. He earned enough money to honor his father's wish to bring his other sons to Canada and also helped found the town's Armenian Church, the first of its kind in the country.
Having been a passenger on the Titanic back in 1912, that was his first and only time on a ship. The trauma that Titanic had bestowed upon him, left him with fear of water for all of his life. Krikorian rarely spoke of his experiences on the ill-fated Titanic and would not join in swims during picnics or set foot on a boat ever again.His daugher could tell that he became uncomfortable as soon as he stared at a large body of water and she knew for sure that it brought him back to the fateful night that had chanced his life forgood.
In St. Catharines, the premier of ‘A Night To Remember’ could be seen in the late 1950s. Nishan went to see it.
Nishan had reached the impressive age of 92 when he died on May 21, 1978. Persape lived on for 7 years.