Sha'nīnah Shahin Wihbah was a passenger on Titanic.
Background[]
Born as Sha'nīnah Shahin Abī Sa'b, she was from a Lebanese family. Her father was Tannūs Jirjis Abī Sa'b and her mother was Katoole Deeb. Sha'nīnah was born to the married couple on March 29, 1874. She was named after that day, as it was Palm Sunday and Sha'nīnah was the Arabic translation for that speicial day for the christian religion. Her native town was Tuḥūm, a small village in Northern Lebanon, dotted with almond and fig trees and overlooking the Mediterranean. Their native land was under Ottoman rule and part of Syria back then.
She was the youngest child and had 7 siblings. One sister was named Dūna. As the youngest, she was worse off as the other children had already been given lots of land and jewels as that was a traditional Lebanese custom for daughters who went into marriage, as a dowry.
At the tender age of 15, Sha'nīnah married Jirjis Yūsuf Wihbah, a man twice her age from the neighboring village of Fghal. Jirjis was an olive and fig farmer. The couple shared a modest house with Sha'nīnah’s older sister Dūna who was conveniently married to Jirjis’ brother. They had 5 children together. At the age of 17, Sha'nīnah was blessed with her first child, a boy named Yūsuf. Tannūs was born four years later, followed by Wehbeh, Rose and Mary.
In 1906, Sha'nīnah dreamed of getting their own piece of land and build their own, larger house. They needed the space as through the years they had ever more children. For the betterment of her family’s life, she believed it was the right choice to emigrate to the USA. taking Tannous and Rose with her. Sha'nīnah became a resident of Youngstown, Ohio. Here, Sha'nīnah peddled for the dry goods store of family friend Lahhud Yazback and lived in the back part of his shop. This was similarly to what many of her compatriots did at the time.
Back home, Jirjis Yūsuf Wihbah, grappled with the loneliness engendered by his wife and children‘s departure, compounded perhaps by feelings of inadequacy, which is often felt by a man unable to sufficiently provide for his family. He became depressed and suffered from an asthma exacerbation, leading to his untimely death in 1907. After that, Sha’ninah managed to bring all her other children over to her new residence.
In 1910, it didn’t go well with her son Tannūs either. He was ill and was sent back with his brother Yūsuf to Fighal immediately, as the doctor’s orders were that the mountain air in Fghal could probably do him any good.
In 1911 however, Sha'nīnah had received word from her sister Dūna that the 17-year-old although having attended a wedding where he danced and celbrated, was now seriously ill with pneumonia. His health declined.
She now made preparations to go visit him, taking this opportunity as well as to go and see her dear mother, who was of considerable age, in Tuhūm. Time was of the essence, she had to go now. She entrusted the care of Rose and Mary to the Christ Mission Society. However, the trip still took 30 days and she hadn’t made it in time. Ten days before she would be back at her native town, her son was gone.
In the Spring of 1912, she was ready to depart. All family affairs were dealt with and she had the money to undertake this trip. To Yūsuf, she wrote that he had the duty to find himself a woman. He fullfilled this request. The journey, which went by donkey first, has as first destination Beirut. Sha'nīnah was not alone. With her were 3 cousins, John Thomas with his son Tannūs Mu'awwad, Gerios Yousseff and Tannūs Dāhir, who was John's brother-in-law and he planned to come to America to get a job in one of the steel mills in Youngstown, Ohio, while Gerios was on his return to the Unites States. Also, another girl was placed in her care: the 14 year old Bannūrah Ayyūb-Dāhir from Kafr 'Abaīdā. She was the teenage daughter of some relatives and she promised to keep an eye on her.
After leaving her native village in Northern Lebanon somewhere in March, she and the many relatives were traveling for a few days on the back of a donkey before reaching the port of Beirut. From there, they could sail to Marseille in France.
An inspection followed by the customs to check if the migrants were in good health. Being cleared, they could go on and were soon on a train ride to Gare St. Lazare in Paris before taking another six hour train ride to Cherbourg.
Titanic[]
Sha'nīnah and her party was aboard Titanic in the evening of April 10, when the ship had stopped to take on more passengers in Cherbourg. As an very small, 38 year old woman, she put her tickets forward and could now take passage on this ship with Third Class, along with the others. They had a very enjoyable experience on board as the accomodation was a huge step forward from what they had gotten on any other vessel.
On April 14, her night was disturbed by a sudden moment of trepidation as something had brushed against the ship. With the impact came the commotion and nervousness of the other passengers. As Sha'nīnah quickly got out of bed, she walked onto the hallways. They had no idea what to do and could not speak English. At first, the stewards who couldn’t answer the questions from the Syrians were trying to make it seem like it was a minor inconvienance. Then the tranquility was over in due time. Someone shouted orders for lifebelts and told everyone to get ready.
She checked the cabins of her cousins to find no one in there, then took the hand of Bannūrah. It took very long until the gates were finally released. According to Sha'nīnah, finely dressed gentlemen in dashing suits came down to help the steerage passengers to the upper decks.
Sha'nīnah stayed with Bannūrah. It was then Gerios Yousseff who stepped up to put the two women forward. Near her, a woman she knew, also a Syrian, had a young girl in her arms and was hysterically crying for her 5 year old boy, 'Tommy', as she named him, He had suddenly vanished when she lost sight of him. It was very late and the Titanic was already with her bow under water. The lifeboat she and her protege were rescued in, must have been Collapsible C. Shots were fired by nervous officers who tried to dissuade what was an uncontrollable crowd in their eyes. It was the last she saw of Gerios Yousseff. She believed he had jumped off the ship, not wanting to save his life, as he felt it would be cowardice as he would not consider himself above the other Syrians.
The four men that were once her traveling company, didn’t make it. They were victims of the Titanic disaster as the ship disappeared at 2:20 A.M. Jirjis’ body was later found. Sha'nīnah saw how the ship went down and shivered not only from the sight of the sinking vessel but also from the cold she had to endure, as she had not much over her nightgown.
After the sinking[]
Many hours later, her lifeboat was by extracted by the RMS Carpathia which had sped to the scene to come and help. From 4:00 A.M, when she was at Titanic’s coördinates, she was busy gathering all that was left of Titanic’s former denizens. Those who were too weak to climb, where given a row, children hoised up in small bags, nets or crates. When her crew was done, it was time for her to deliver the ex-Titanic passengers to New York. The inconsolable mother she met on deck and was acquainted to during the voyage, was also saved an on the Carpathia, still in dispair over the loss of her young boy. Sha'nīnah did a good deed and reunited them once she spotted the child in the hands of a nurse and recognized it immediately.
On April 18, Sha'nīnah could finally touch the mainland again as Carpathia was moored in New York harbor. Upon arrival in New York City, Bannūrah Ayyūb-Dāhir and Sha'nīnah were photographed in a large picture of a mix with other Third- and Second Class passengers. Soon, Sha'nīnah and her younger friend were cared for by a benevolent Jewish society. The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) provided the two shaken women with food, clothing and shelter in a large, specially outfitted department store. Sha'nīnah was also given 50$ to purchase her train ticket to Youngstown. At the station in Youngstown, young Rose was awaiting her mother’s arrival. The White Star Line later paid Sha'nīnah $150 for her lost belongings after she requested it. In addition, she received 200$ from the American Red Cross.
Later life[]
The vision of the events during the horrific night were still haunting her and she had many nightmares. She had aged faster in short time as could be judged by her hair color. She often spoke of her cousins who perished and in an effort to honor their memory, she wrote a letter to the Arabic newspaper Al-Huda on April 27, 1912, confirming their deaths and correcting their names, which helped clarify the reigning confusion.
Still doing her hard work through tough manual labor which was mostly laundry work, as she tried to provide for her children that way. Sha'nīnah had a further life full of sorrow as she kept losing family and relatives. Two brothers were lost during World War 1 and another one who lived in the United States like her, died young. While living in America, she dropped her ex-husband's surname Wihbah in favor of the more English sounding 'George'.
Sha'nīnah never imagined she would take another trip across the ocean after her harrowing experience, but she did. She returned to her native village of Tuḥūm in January 1923. Back in America, she later moved to Sharon, Pennsylvania where her family opened a grocery store. While she also had work at the steel mills, Mrs George helped in the grocery store.
Her children Rose and Wehbeh launched the Thomas Ice Cream Cone Company, which much later became renowned as the Joy Cone Company of Hermitage, Pennsylvania. Sha'nīnah was responsbile for making the cones in a factory. In 1937, 25 years after the sinking, she was interviewed by The Sharon Herald, where she gave lots of detail on how she had experienced the famous disaster.
In America she became known as 'Jennie George' to many of the locals. Jennie George died on April 20, 1947 in Sharon, Pennsylvania at the age of 73.
Today, the Joy Cone Company is the largest ice cream cone company in the world, baking over 1.5 billion cones a year.