Patrick O'Connor was a a passenger on Titanic.
Biography[]
Patrick O'Connor was born on May 28, 1888 in Tooreenavuscaun, Boherboy, Co Cork, Ireland. He was the son of James O'Connor and Arabella Fitzgerald. He was raised in a Roman Catholic household as the youngest child. They were farmers. He was the brother of Mary, who was the first child to be born in 1870, Catherine, who was born in 1872, Cornelius, who followed in 1874, Johanna, who came in 1876, William who arrived in 1878, Elizabeth who was next in 1880, and Ellen who was born in 1881, John, who was born in 1883 and lastly Julia, who was conceived in March 1886.
In 1912, O’Connor traveled with his cousin Hannah Riordan and other young acquiantences from Cork County: Bridget Bradley, Hanora Herlihy, Patrick Denis O'Connell, Daniel Buckley and Michael Linehan. The aim was to go to America.
Titanic[]
Patrick O'Connor and the people in his company were aboard the RMS Titanic from Queenstown on April 11. They were in Third Class. He was 23 years old and the eldest of the group. He destined for an unknown address in New York City. This is the city where his brother Cornelius had emigrated to at the turn of the century. His other brother William was also living in the USA. He shared a cabin with his fellow Cork men, of which one was Daniel Buckley.
On April 14, the Titanic ended up colliding with an iceberg late at night. The large mass was only spotted when Titanic was a minute away and she couldn’t sway clear entirely. Only Daniel Buckley was wakened by the collision. A while later, he got up and found water right at his feet creeping in the cabin slowly. Daniel was in a state of emergancy. He was telling the bunkmates about the water, but they thought he was half dreaming of his life in Ireland and they didn’t take the signs serious. They finally came out slowly.
Daniel put on clothes as fast as he could and went outside, waiting for the others. However, crewmembers had come down a while later to shout orders that everyone should head up to the deck.
O’Connor and the rest were still there and they never saw eachother again. They had put their clothes on, and went in search of lifebelts. Pat was able to make it to the Boat Deck. His cousin Hannah reached a lifeboat and as her boat was being lowered, he called out to her and the other women with her: "Goodbye, girls. I'll see you in New York." But he never got there, as Patrick ended up as a victim with the Titanic sinking at 2:20 A.M and his body, if recovered, was never identified. Of the Irish men, only Buckley made it off the ship alive with some clever thinking.